$120 billion of goods will be returned following this 2021 holiday season.
And returns processing is 59% more expensive year over year due to increased shipping costs and labor challenges.
The cost of returns processing hurts the profitability of eCommerce.
By applying robotic automation to optimize reverse logistics processing, eCommerce retailers and 3PLs can change the equation for eCommerce returns.
“A great reverse logistics supply chain can be a valuable profit contributor to a retail company through its ability to optimize the resale of returned merchandise at full price.”
Tom Enright (Gartner) - “The Contemporary Guide to Retail Supply Chain Excellence: Part 3 – Returns and Recommerce”
Improve labor utilization, save on shipping costs, and accelerate delivery speeds by automating package sortation.
Online shopping is booming across every retail category, and consumers want their online purchases to arrive quickly without being expected to pay a premium for it. This means retailers and 3PLs need to ramp up fulfillment operations to process higher volumes of online orders while dealing with labor availability challenges and rising shipping costs.
Due to the increased labor required, eCommerce fulfillment operations typically do not sort and bag small parcels prior to carrier handoff. This results in human operators handling each individual item to then place on trucks, which requires a lot of labor and can lead to late deliveries, damaged goods, or lost packages.
Download the Reverse Logistics Solution Brief and 3 Ways Robotic Package Sortation Reduces Shipping Costs With Less Labor bonus.