Brace yourself. Returns are coming. Now that we've gone through the busiest shopping season of the year we can expect a considerable portion of goods to be returned. It's a segment of the supply chain called "reverse logistics" and is essentially the processes involved when a customer returns an item. As e-commerce rises, so does reverse logistics, with a recent article in the WSJ suggesting it's becoming a "trillion dollar problem". Here are a few noteworthy points from the article: ✅ Americans are estimated to buy more than $5 trillion of goods this year ✅ Shoppers returned 16.5% of items they purchased last year, valued at nearly $817 billion and double the percentage of goods returned in 2019 ✅It costs merchants about $27 to handle a return for a $100 online order Here are one of the potential outcomes when an item is returned: 🛒 Item is re-shelved and re-sold (re-manufactured if needed) 🛒 Item sold at liquidation or discount centers 🛒Item is donated 🛒 Item thrown in the garbage Reverse logistics is becoming a massive industry in itself and requires a considerable amount of warehouse space to accommodate.