US retailers expected customers to return $849.9 billion in merchandise in 2025, according to the National Retail Federation and Happy Returns. Getting that stock back starts another operation: checking its condition, deciding where it can be sold and recovering enough money to cover the extra work.
Their October 2025 report estimated that 19.3% of online sales would be returned. The merchandise value is not the industry’s loss: retailers can recover money by selling returned goods again.
The research included 358 ecommerce professionals at US merchants with more than $500 million in revenue, alongside a separate consumer survey. Its findings should not be treated as the experience of every small online shop.
The first decision is whether the item can be sold again
Reverse logistics is the movement and processing of goods back through the supply chain after a sale. A customer may see only a return label and refund, while the retailer must arrange collection, transport, inspection and a destination for the product.
Amazon describes checking returned products before deciding whether they meet its standards for sale as new. Items that do not qualify can follow other routes, including sale as used, return to a selling partner, liquidation or donation.
Liquidation means selling inventory through another channel, often to a specialist buyer that takes batches of goods for resale. The original retailer may recover less per item but avoid the work of finding an individual customer for each one.
Amazon says products offered through Amazon Resale receive a second inspection and a condition description. For electronics, its evaluation includes powering on, testing and a factory reset. That work addresses questions a sealed outbound parcel did not present: does the device function, and what condition will the next buyer receive?
Where resale and other recovery routes are unavailable, Amazon says it pursues recycling where possible. Its account describes company procedures; it does not establish the destination of every returned product across retail.
Open-box and refurbished describe different routes
Best Buy’s Outlet buying guide separates open-box, refurbished, pre-owned and clearance stock. The labels describe different histories, even when the products appear together on a discount page.
Open-box goods include customer returns and some display items. Best Buy says they are tested or inspected and assigned a condition. Refurbished products have been repaired or restored, while clearance goods can be new, sealed items that are discontinued or reaching the end of stock.
A missing accessory or damaged packaging can affect how an item is described and priced without making the product unusable. Repairing a fault creates another calculation: parts, labor and testing must be weighed against the price the restored item is likely to fetch.
Our coverage of Best Buy’s computing-led sales growth looks at the sales side of the business. Outlet operations handle a different task, finding buyers for stock that cannot all be presented as untouched new merchandise.
Time and handling determine what the retailer recovers
Every additional journey, inspection and repackaging step consumes resources. A returned item also occupies storage space while it waits for a decision. Seasonal goods and electronics can lose resale value if processing takes too long.
UPS’s guidance on returns emphasizes managing transport costs, processing and restocking. Outsourcing those tasks can give a retailer access to specialist facilities, but the service still has a price.
The outgoing journey attracts attention because speed can win customers, as we explained in our reporting on fast delivery and competition. The return journey affects how much of the sale’s value the business ultimately keeps.
Cash timing matters too. Once a refund has been paid, money is back with the customer while the retailer may still be holding an unsold item. That is another version of the timing problem in our explanation of business cash shortages.
Return records can also expose recurring product faults, confusing descriptions or poor packaging. Fixing the cause can prevent another shipment from making the same expensive round trip.
