The National Retail Federation says that customer returns are increasing across the industry, driven primarily by online returns that have more than doubled in the last few years. Contrary to what many consumers may think, these products don’t simply boomerang back onto store shelves. As the video below shows, returned items take a complicated journey from warehouse to warehouse that frequently ends either at a secondary resale center or a landfill.
Questions:
- Why do many returned products end up in secondary resale centers or landfills?
- Do you think consumers would be less willing to frequently return online items if they knew about the complicated process behind returns? Why or why not?