Walmart has bumped up return shipping rates for seller-fulfilled orders as businesses try to strike the right balance between consumer-friendly returns policies and minimizing reverse logistics costs. Some are charging returns fees or toughening up their policies in other ways.
Crafting an effective returns strategy is a particularly pressing challenge for online sellers. The National Retail Federation and Appriss Retail projected in December that online returns in the U.S. retail industry would reach $247 billion worth of merchandise in 2023, or 17.6% of total online sales. That’s a larger share than what was projected for brick-and-mortar shopping, with in-store returns worth 13.3% of total in-store sales.
