Returns

A return from Belgium or Germany goes through exactly the same steps in the warehouse as a return from the Netherlands: receipt, inspection, assessment, and either restocking or setting aside. The difference lies in the process leading up to the package arriving at the warehouse—and in the cost to you afterward. The return address determines the convenience. If you’re sending an international […]

Not every return is put back on the market. You decide in advance who determines whether a return is resalable. What happens next isn’t a logistical decision but an agreement you make in advance. There are roughly three options, and it’s wise to choose which one you want for each product group. Back to you […]

Returns can disrupt your inventory if they aren’t traceable or if they sit around. You can solve most of that problem up front, in your own returns process, rather than during warehouse processing. Make every return traceable. A box without a label, packing slip, or order number must first be sorted out before anything can be done with it […]

The assessment takes place in the warehouse, but you set the criteria. You decide when an item is ready for resale and when it isn’t; the warehouse follows those instructions for every return, in the same way. Why you make that decision: What’s acceptable varies greatly depending on the product line. A book with a dog-ear can often simply […]

Returns are processed within the same logistics environment as outbound orders, so that inventory and order status are brought back into alignment more quickly.