Taming the tsunami of post-holiday e-commerce returns

With each year and each holiday shopping season that passes, global retail ecommerce sales attain a new record. According to forecasts released in February 2019 by Statista, ecommerce sales in the United States have grown from about $468 billion in 2017 to about $550 billion in 2019, and will grow to more than $740 billion in 2023.

In Retailers Brace for Returns This Holiday Season, published by eMarketer on December 12, 2018, the author states: “According to data from B-Stock Solutions, a liquidation platform founded in 2008 by the team that built eBay’s private marketplace business, around 11% to 13% of holiday purchases are returned with closer to 30% of online purchases being sent back. By their estimates, between $90 billion to $95 billion in holiday gifts will be returned this year.” Before you get tempted to think that is a temporary blip, B-Stock Solutions estimates that “77% of shoppers are anticipating returning some of their gifts this season [2019], and nearly 20% expect to return more than half. In total, that will equate to more than $90 billion in returns this holiday season.”

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