“Returns were just the bane of our existence,” the director of operations and chief of staff at retailer Tuckernuck says. “They plagued us. But there’s no way to avoid them if you’re in this business.”
For Tuckernuck, returns were particularly complicated and time-consuming. The women’s apparel brand operates a single brick-and-mortar store in Washington, D.C., but 99% of its sales come from online. Back in 2020, all returns moved through a single facility in Maryland that Tuckernuck had a contract with for fulfillment services. Shipments to shoppers were smooth; returns were not.
“They were having such a challenge keeping up with the labor market, and returns always seemed to be de-prioritized by them or they just couldn’t staff in that area,” Grayson says. “So it was an average three to four weeks to get an item restocked and money issued back to the consumer. And that was a huge problem for us. Nothing, nothing aggravates a customer more than telling them, ‘Oh, we’re hanging on to your money for a little bit longer.’”
Grayson isn’t alone. Returns have become a major headache in ecommerce, cutting into profit and straining resources. The sheer volume of returns also puts additional pressure on an already overloaded supply chain pushing prices higher for shipping, warehousing and labor. Retailers are working hard to reduce the number of returns they receive. And they’re taking multiple approaches to doing so.
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