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Holiday shopping may be a distant memory, but consumers are still busy. Return season started earlier than ever this year and is just hitting its stride.
Consumers spent more than $850 billion this holiday season — the strongest year in six years — according to Mastercard, but 13% of purchases (or $90 billion worth) will be returned, according to liquidation company B-Stock. And for the first time since United Parcel Service started tracking returns, the shipping company saw a surge in returns before Christmas: UPS expected a record 1.5 million returns on Dec. 19, and anticipated another 1.3 million on Jan. 3 (in addition to another million every day of December).
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…