Taking Unwanted Holiday Gifts Back To The Store

As the economic downturn lingers into 2009, many people have been taking back those unwanted holiday gifts and settled for a little cash instead. This is bad news for retailers who had to deal with billions of dollars of returns in 2007 and have undoubtedly seen equally depressing amounts in 2008. The issue for retailers is that their supply chains are often not well equipped to manage returns.

Retailers not only lose money while returned items are not on the shelf, but there is a cost of getting that item back in a saleable condition which can exceed the cost of the original outbound shipment of the item. The returns process is often overlooked by the retailer and as such can eat into profits, if there are any. As US retailers post depressing downturns in business for December, any improvements in the return process should enable firms to fair better while consumers continue to reduce their purchases.