Retail Store Returns: How Earlier Disposition Can Reduce Costs And Maximize Recovery Value

By GENCO Distribution Systems, Inc.

Every day, retailers ship thousands of truckloads of returns back to product vendors — the original manufacturer or distributor — for final disposition. This return trip incurs significant costs to ship, store, and handle the product until it is returned for credit, refurbished, resold, or recycled. As time and costs are added, the value of the product erodes, reducing potential cash recovery.

Solutions exist to manage disposition of returns directly at the retail returns center to avoid these costs and speed the cash recovery cycle. But most product vendors manage the entire disposition process. They might wish to reconsider an in-house disposition strategy, since processing costs often exceed any added recovery value they might achieve.