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The Wall Street Journal‘s Stephanie Yang reported recently on the phenomenon of “mattress-flipping,” in which people take advantage of the 100-day free trial offers that many online mattress startups have adopted.
The Journal frames this as a generational story. In fact, it does seem that everybody is returning everything all the time now.
During the 2019 holiday shopping season, for example, shoppers are expected to buy and then return about $90 billion worth of gifts (up 28 percent since 2016).
Today’s consumer purchases happen more rapidly than ever, making returns an unavoidable aspect of the shopping experience. Every year, billions of dollars worth of returned goods make their way back to retailers, often resulting in excess inventory. Many of these…