Stores Are Beating Supply Chain Woes by Restocking Shelves with Returned Items

To offset supply-chain delays, retailers are working hard to quickly get returned items back on shelves for sale, particularly like-new items that were originally purchased online.

The Wall Street Journal reports that this year retailers are working harder to get returned items back on shelves for sale when they come back in new or unused condition. As supply chain issues make it harder to restock shelves with fresh items quickly and limit the availability of certain products, stores are beginning to invest in automation, software, and new systems to get returned products available for sale as soon as possible. Returns often are driven by online orders because people cannot see and feel products as they would in a retail store.

Shopping waiting to enter a store (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Retailers like Walmart and American Eagle Outfitters have been investing heavily in new systems that streamline the process of getting returned items back on shelves. Shekar Natarajan, the chief supply-chain officer for the Pittsburgh-based apparel chain, said that the strategy of focusing on optimizing returns as coronavirus lockdowns shut retail stores has paid off.

“We have used the pandemic to try to maximize the value of the inventory,” said Natarajan. American Eagle Outfitters set up more warehouses to receive, clean, and repackage returned items. Natarajan stated that the company used new technology to determine the demand for certain products and decide which warehouses should process a return and which items to fast-track back to stores.

American Eagle Outfitters found that leggings should be prioritized as they were harder to import due to manufacturing delays in Vietnam. Previously, returning a product to shelves took around 14 days, but thanks to new systems it now takes American Eagle six days or less.

But while many stores are working to get returns back on shelves, processing these returns is becoming more expensive. A recent study by the returns processor Optoro found that returning a $50 item costs an average of $33, an increase of 59 percent from 2020. Because of this increase in costs, some online retailers are moving to a model of granting a refund without requiring the return of the product.

Read more at the Wall Street Journal here.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address [email protected]