On the big business of returning gifts...
[Advertisement] November 24, 2023 [View Online]( | [Sign Up]( | [Shop]( [Morning Brew]( PRESENTED BY [Bose]( Good morning and Happy Black Friday, a day we used to celebrate by waking up at 7am and swarming a Best Buy or a Victoriaâs Secret. But now, most of the cart-stuffing happens from the comfort of the couch weâve been horizontal on since our second round of pumpkin pie. Todayâs newsletter is a special Black Friday edition about the big business of returns. Americans send back hundreds of billions of dollars worth of items they donât want every holiday season, forcing retailers to adjust their loose return policies and sparking the creation of a new industry: âReverse logistics.â Weâll get into all that and reveal the most bizarre things youâve ever seen returned. Itâs not pretty. âMolly Liebergall, Cassandra Cassidy, Matty Merritt, Dave Lozo, Abby Rubenstein, Neal Freyman ECOMMERCE [Returning holiday gifts may be harder this year](
[An Amazon returns desk at Whole Foods]( Lindsey Nicholson/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Itâs turkey-cranberry-sandwich-for-lunch day, which means two things are about to pop off: hometown bars and holiday shopping. But you may want to read the fine print before hitting âAdd to cartâ with the reckless abandon of anyone going out tonightâthe [golden age]( of free returns is ending. Retailers are [rolling back]( the loose return policies that helped propel online shoppingâs upheaval of in-person buying. An estimated 44% of retailers now charge customers a fee to ship something back, up from 33% in 2021, according to post-purchase-logistics company Narvar. Retailers that now charge customers in some areas to send back their online purchases include American Eagle, J.Crew, Saks Fifth Avenue, H&M, Zara, and [many more](. Why? Processing returns costs companies ~$165 million for every $1 billion of merchandise they sell, according to the National Retail Federation. The pandemic prompted people to shop remotely, with folks often buying more than they meant to keep, causing retail return rates to jump 14% from 2019 to 2022, according to Narvar. Even Amazon is feeling it The e-commerce giant, which led the free returns movement, brought in nearly $514 billion in revenue last year and paid $84.3 billion to process returns, more than [twice as much]( as it did in 2019 when the company made $280 billion, according to Statista and The Information. Amazon now charges $1 for returns made at a UPS store when there is a closer Whole Foods, Amazon Fresh, Amazon Go, Staples, or Kohlâsâwhich are all free return locations. - Incentivizing these in-store returns saves Amazon money on costly UPS shipping, but the new logistics strategy also aims to boost foot traffic and impulse purchases at partner stores.
- Thatâs one reason why Staples decided to start widely accepting the e-commerce giantâs returns this summer: Amazonâs returns partnership with Kohlâs netted the department store 2 million new customers in a year. Bottom line: Check the return policy before ordering your Black Friday/Cyber Monday haul, and for your favorite retailerâs sake, pray theyâre not too strictâ[bad return experiences]( could jeopardize 21% of online sales this season, Forbes estimates.âML Â Â PRESENTED BY BOSE [Music to your gift-giving ears](
[Bose]( Hear that? Itâs not just the sound of sleigh bells jingling. Itâs also the high-quality, immersive sound coming from Boseâs premium audio products. Whether youâre listening to a podcast, an orchestra, or your fave playlist, treat your ears to silky sound that situates you right in your listening happy place. And hereâs some music to your budgetâs ears. [This Black Friday]( you can get the best deals on Boseâs latest premium audio products, including the new QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds and QuietComfort Ultra Headphones. Go aheadâelevate your gift-giving status to legendary. PS: While youâre at it, snag a Bose Smart Ultra Soundbar for a more cinematic TV-watching experience. Press play on the perf gift. [Boseâs selection (and deals) await](. LOGISTICS [The âreverse logisticsâ industry is booming](
[Photo of rack for returns in a distribution warehouse]( Rainer Puster/Getty Images As retailers crack down on returns to avoid hearing another âit was broken when I got itâ excuse, some companies are counting on you to send your holiday gifts back. A âreverse logisticsâ industry has sprung up in recent years to take advantage of the more than $300 billion in returns Americans make every holiday season. Reverse what? Reverse logisticsâor the supply-chain processes of returnsâis a little-known but rapidly growing sector of the economy thatâs booming alongside the rise in online shopping that started during the pandemic. - Venture capital firms pumped nearly $200 million into reverse logistics startups last yearâover 2.5x as much as in 2021, according to [Bloomberg](.
- [Loop Returns]( which sells software to companies looking to streamline the return process on the customer side, raised $115 million at the end of 2022. Established companies see potential in reverse logistics as well. Last month, Uber launched a feature enabling drivers to [pick up]( your packages and bring them to a returns center. Meanwhile, UPS, whose returns business has grown 25% since 2020, [recently acquired]( the startup Happy Returns. Zoom out: Historically, returns would head straight to a landfill, but today the reverse logistics industry focuses on repairing, reselling, and recycling the stuff you donât wantâso you can feel less guilty about making use of that gift receipt.âCC Â Â CONSUMER [The psychology of sending back jeans](
[Jerry trying to take Kramerâs jeans off in Seinfeld]( Seinfeld/NBC Returning a pair of jeans might feel like the most mind-numbing activity since learning a new board game. But what goes through a personâs mind as they retape the shredded mailer plays a huge role in the more than $620 billion worth of returns retailers are expecting to sort through this year. The money is already spent. TikTok calls it âGirl Math,â Nordstrom calls it store credit, but a Harvard Business Review study published this year says itâs really just the [Refund Effect](. Consumers are more likely to spend refunded money than a bonus or unexpected cash they found because most people see the money they receive from a return as already lost. - The researchers recommend that if retailers want to keep that cash in their ecosystem, they have to act fast during the return process to either offer store credit or exchange the item for something else.
- Because once the money was back on a consumerâs credit card, the stores werenât likely to see it again (and the customer wouldnât spend it differently from other money). Sometimes itâs better to sit back and wait it out: A 2016 [paper]( from the University of Texas at Arlington and Dallas found that the more lenient a retailerâs return policy, the more likely consumers are to buy something and not return it. Companies like Zappos, REI, and Amazon locked in customer loyalty with their âweâll take whatever, wheneverâ return approaches. But now, as you just read, these companies are quietly closing their once vast return windows. With the explosion of online ordering during the pandemic, return rates skyrocketed and still havenât returned to pre-Covid levels.âMM Â Â TOGETHER WITH WAYFAIR
[Wayfair]( You have until midnight. No, your chariot wonât turn back into a pumpkinâbut [Wayfairâs Black Friday]( deals end tonight. The sand in the hourglass is flowing on the lowest prices of the year, including 60% off tableware, 65% off living room seating, and more. [Shop now before theyâre gone](. POLICIES [Returns can be easier than you think sometimes](
[A suit with a sign saying the store gives refunds if you lose your job]( Scott Olson/Getty Images Returning a gift can be more fun than receiving a gift. Maybe itâs the wrong color or maybe you already have it or maybe thereâs nothing you find more exhilarating than the best one-size-fits-all option: store credit. It can be a little nerve-wracking to step up to the return counter, but some stores are extremely lenient. Here are some of the more generous return policies we could find: - Petco refunds dead fish. There are some caveatsâthe fish has to have died within seven days of its being delivered to you, and you must email a photo of the deceased fish. âPlease do not mail any specimens back to Petco,â [the website pleads](.
- [Home Depot]( has a relaxed plant policy. Perennials, trees, roses, and shrubs have a one-year guarantee and can be returned for store credit (other plants have a 90-day return window).
- Ikea will buy back your old furniture. Moving to a new place and not sure what to do with the bookshelf that took you forever to build? [Sell it back to Ikea]( and theyâll give you a voucher.
- Costco will let you return almost anything, any time. [The exceptions]( include electronics, cigarettes (where prohibited by law), and gold bullion, the three staples of any trip to Costco.
- Trader Joeâs looks out for the average Joe: Virtually all items [can be returned]( for a full refund, even if you donât have a receipt and even if youâve eaten most of the chocolate covered pretzels already.
- Zappos gives you a [full year](. Just make sure the shoes are unworn and in the original packaging.
- Athleta offers [a 60-day tryout](. Buy some workout clothes and, if you donât like them after two months, send them back. Thatâs a real no-sweat return policy.âDL Â Â COMMUNITY [Your most bizarre returns stories](
[Customers demanding a refund from Mr. Krabs]( SpongeBob SquarePants/Paramount Global via Giphy We asked Morning Brew readers who worked in retail to share the most bizarre customer returns you witnessed, and the main takeaway: Humans have chutzpah. The winning responses âOur grocery store had a âno questions askedâ return policy, and every week a woman would bring in a carton of eggs containing one egg left and say they were no good. Every week she got a brand new carton, no questions asked.ââDave from Connecticut âShamefully, I was the one doing the returning. I bought a fake mustache and super-glued it to my face to go as Tom Hanks from The Polar Express for a costume contest. While I won the contest, a friend had to rip off the mustache later that night. It hurt. The next day I took that used mustache with dried super glue and some of my own mustache hairs and returned it for $6.50. Tom Hanksâplease donât judge me.ââColin from Bentonville, AR âWhile working a returns desk at Home Depot, a customer brought in a block of bright pink paper to return. I explained that I cannot return it because they didnât buy it from us and I have no sku for it. The customer kept insisting that Home Depot and Office Depot were the same company and he should be able to return it. Enter the manager, who invented a sku, gave the customer money for the item, and handed the paper to me to use for our printers. We had bright pink reports for a week.ââMelissa from Texas âWorked in a grocery store and a woman returned the fat from a roast beef. The manager weighed it and refunded her some money.ââAnna from Raritan Township, NJ âOpen box of condoms...claimed they didnât fit lolââShelly from New Jersey âMy FIL once returned a roast, cooked and half-eaten. When the store employee challenged him, he said, âDo you want to tell my wife sheâs a bad cook?â He got a full refund.ââAnonymous   RECS
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[morningbrew.com/daily/r/?kid=4904f90a]( ANSWER 1. live, evil 2. part, trap 3. reward, drawer 4. straw, warts 5. plug, gulp 6. tool, loot Written by [Neal Freyman]( [Molly Liebergall]( Dave Lozo, [Cassandra Cassidy]( [Matty Merritt]( and [Abigail Rubenstein]( Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up [here](. Take The Brew to work - Marketers: [Marketing Brew](
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