Many sellers only count "what it costs to ship out," not "what it costs when it comes back."
Why returns are expensive
A parcel returned to an overseas warehouse goes through: sign-in, inspection, classification (sellable / needs repair / scrap), re-labeling and re-shelving, and sometimes transshipment or local disposal. Every step is labor and space cost.
Three easily-overlooked losses
- Inspection is not timely, so sellable items become slow-moving
- No grading standard, so good goods get cleared out cheaply together
- Return data does not flow back, so selection problems keep repeating
Manage reverse logistics
A return is not the end of an order, but the start of the next sale.
Build a standard "return — inspect — grade — re-shelve" routine, and feed return reasons back to the selection team, so the black hole becomes a controllable cost. For high-return categories, this step is especially worth the investment.