A muted holiday season is expected as the National Retail Federation (NRF) forecasts retail sales to grow between six and eight percent over 2021 to between $942.6 billion and $960.4 billion... View More
What's old is new nowadays, as retailers resell returned items online and in stores. According to data analytics and consulting firm, GlobalData, the market for secondhand goods is estimated... View More
Higher transportation, labor, and warehousing costs are driving up returns costs. According to the latest Returns Index Survey from the Reverse Logistics Association (RLA), 55% of survey respondents n
The cost of returns is rising faster than volumes according to the Reverse Logistics Association’s (RLA) surveys. In each of the quarterly surveys since they began last October, costs have b... View More
The cost of returns is rising faster than volumes according to the Reverse Logistics Association’s (RLA) surveys. In each of the quarterly surveys since they began last October, costs have b... View More
Sorry, folks. The last mile is not necessarily the end of a supply chain. Instead, we at the Reverse Logistics Association view the supply chain as circular, encompassing reverse logistics pra... View More
In the early days of e-commerce, returns flew under operation’s and finance’s radar, and perhaps rightly so. The volume of e-commerce purchases was low, and returns were minimal and simple.... View More
With lockdowns, shuttered stores, and health concerns, shoppers turned on their computers and to online shopping as their new go-to for everything they needed, from clothing and makeup to household cl
If you ever find yourself frustrated by dealing with returns, you’re not alone – over 75% of consumers feel returns are the most painful part of buying online. Of course, we know... View More
The holiday season of 2020 is going to be different than any that have come before it. The pandemic has changed the way that customers shop. E-commerce sales have increased significantly, with... View More
In 2017, Americans gave retailers their best holiday season in over five years. According to a sales report issued by Mastercard SpendingPulse, US year-end holiday retail sales rose 4.9% compare... View More
There is zero doubt that the e-commerce market will continue to grow for the foreseeable future. According to Mastercard’s SpendingPulse report, retail sales grew 5.1% year-over-year to $850 b... View More
The next time you think about returning an item to Amazon, be forewarned: Return too many items in a year, and you might just be exiled for good. Retail returns have become such a night... View More
The 2018 holiday season is upon us. According to the National Retail Federation, these two months alone — November and December — represent 16 to 30% of a retailer’s total sales for... View More
Earlier this year, I had a “discovery” experience when I was introduced to an entire world of which I was not very familiar. I’ve worked in the mailing/shipping industry for over 30... View More
Part one of this series looked at how managing inbound parcels has become a growing challenge for organizations of all sizes. This challenge comes from the dramatic increase in the volume of inbo... View More
Not so long ago, businesses saw no great need to put much effort into managing inbound parcels and mail pieces. However, in the last few years the inbound parcel receiving landscape has changed... View More
Inbound package volumes are growing in all types of organizations—from law firms and educational institutions to e-commerce, manufacturing, healthcare and financial businesses. Managing incomi... View More
As the e-commerce world continues to erode market share from the brick and mortar retailers, I believe there will be a saturation point. I recently had a personal experience of how these two wor... View More
The trend of shifting inbound from the procurement department to transportation managers in order to blend inbound and outbound into your contract can inherently create savings. But we cann... View More
