Amazon’s Hidden Product Page Returns

E-commerce can make shopping easier, but it also has a dim side that most consumers never see.

Let’s say you take advantage of a sale and order an electric toothbrush and two T-shirts from Amazon. You unpack your order and discover that the electric toothbrush won’t charge and only one of the two T-shirts fits. So you decide to return the wrong size T-shirt and the electric toothbrush.

These types of returns may seem elementary and are often free to the consumer. However, they can be so pricey for retailers to manage that many returned products are simply thrown away.

In 2022, the returns represented 743 billion euros lost sales to retailers in the United States alone. That’s almost as much assilver public earmarked for public schools and universities and almost twice cost of returns in 2020. The returns process along with transport and packagingalso generated around 2022 24 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions heating up the atmosphere even further.

These costs and emissions create a sustainability issue for retailers and the planet.

Since supply chain management researcherI’ve been following the developments in retail logistics closely. Here’s what you’ll find when you open the Pandora’s box of product returns.

Returns start from shipping miles

So you repacked the shirt and electric toothbrush you no longer need and are returning them for free thanks to Amazon’s agreements with carriers (UPS in the US). Now?

Your products have been delivered to Amazon warehouses designed to handle returns. This single step in the process costs the seller money – According to one estimate, this is 66% of the cost of a $50 item. – and emits carbon dioxide as trucks and planes carry items hundreds of miles. The plastic, paper, or cardboard from returnable packaging also becomes waste.

Refund processing is ongoing two, three times longer than the original shipment of the item, because it must then be unpacked, inspected, repacked, and re-shipped. These operations further augment Amazon’s costs, especially in a tight labor market. Employees must manually open packages, review them, and, depending on the reason for the return, decide what to do next.

If a warehouse employee determines that a shirt that is too gigantic can be resold, it will be repackaged and sent to another warehouse.

When another consumer orders the T-shirt, it will be ready to be packaged and shipped.

Renovation if the repair costs less than the product

If the item is defective, as with the electric toothbrush in our example, the retailer can return it to the manufacturer for repair and refurbishment. The product is then repackaged and loaded onto a truck or even a plane and sent back to the manufacturer, leading to more carbon emissions.

If an electric toothbrush can be repaired, the refurbished product will be ready to be sold again on the consumer market, often at a lower price

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Refurbishing returned products enables a closed-loop supply chain where products are reused rather than disposed of as waste, making the process more sustainable than purchasing a single fresh item.

However, sometimes the repair costs more than the resale value of the product. If it is more pricey to restock or refurbish the product, it may be more economical for the seller to throw the product away.

Landfills: a common destination for returns

If a company can’t resell a shirt or refurbish an electric toothbrush at a profit, the chances of buying those items are slim. Some are sold body to discount stores. Often, returned products simply end up in landfills, sometimes abroad.

In 2019, more than two billion kilograms of returns waste was going to landfill, according to returns technology platform Optoro. The estimated amount of waste would almost double in 2022 reach about 4 billion kilograms.

The end of the era of free returns?

A few years ago, customers who wanted to return items by mail often had to do so at their own expense. That changed when Amazon began offering free returns and easy-to-use drop-off locations at UPS or Kohl’s stores. Other retailers then followed suit and took on the competition, seeing these free returns as a way to retain customers. Putting the customer on their own to return the package by going to a brick-and-mortar store certainly reduces transportation and storage costs, but this option is not always considered practical for the consumer. For this reason, only about a quarter online purchases are returned in person to the store.

But that time may pass to solvewith the percentage of retailers charging shipping fees for returns increasing from 33% to 41% in 2022.

Retailers are trying several other techniques to reduce the rate of returns, losses and losses that ultimately pass on to consumers in the form of higher prices.

Some retailers have shortened their returns period, restricted regular returns or stopped offering free returns. Other strategies include virtual fitting rooms and clearer fit instructions can assist reduce clothing returns, as can high-quality photos and videos that accurately reflect size and color. If consumers utilize these tools and pay attention to size, they can assist reduce retail’s growing climate impact.