Navigating Returns Season: How Reverse Logistics Shapes the Customer Experience

Holiday shopping sales are expected to top $1 trillion for the first time ever this year, bringing with it an unprecedented wave of returns moving through the reverse logistics supply chain. All told, the National Retail Federation (NRF) estimates that total returns will approach $850 million, creating what is sure to be a hefty Returnuary—as the start of the year has come to be known in the industry.

For modern shippers, though, reverse logistics is as much a loyalty opportunity (and risk) as it is an operational challenge. Returns have quietly become one of the most defining moments in the buyer journey—especially for first-time customers. At the same time, rising ecommerce behaviors like BORIS (buy online, return in-store) and bracketing are driving more volume, more complexity, and more pressure on systems that weren’t designed to handle returns at this scale.

Add in the growing risk of returns fraud—and competing customer expectations for flexible returns polices—and it’s clear that returns management can no longer be treated as an afterthought.

To unpack what’s changing and what it takes to manage returns effectively in today’s omnichannel environment, we sat down with ITS Logistics experts across distribution and fulfillment solutions who are designing resilient returns processes that are driving customer loyalty in peak and beyond:

Why does reverse logistics have such a bad rep, and why do so many brands do it poorly?

Reverse logistics has a bad reputation because it removes the structure most supply chains rely on. Outbound fulfillment is planned and optimized; returns are unpredictable, exception-driven, and cut across multiple functions at once. When those functions are not aligned, weaknesses surface quickly.

Returns also expose gaps where customer promises cannot be executed operationally. And because they sit at the intersection of customer experience, inventory integrity, finance, and operations, they rarely have a single owner—so decisions stall and inventory lingers in limbo.

- Kasia Wenker, Vice President - Solutions Engineering

How do different sales channels—DTC, retail, marketplace, wholesale—complicate returns, and what does it take to manage them properly?

When you’re managing any channel beyond D2C, you’re adding in new rules engines with different policies, data quality, and financial ownership, especially around who absorbs the cost and how quickly refunds are issued. Retailers and marketplaces often control the customer-facing return experience, which creates variability in how product comes back, how it’s labeled, and what data arrives with it. All of it requires a centralized reverse logistics backbone that directs all channel operations, including a unified returns engine that tells fulfillment workers how to inspect, grade, and route inventory consistently across channels, even when the customer-facing experience differs.

- Ryan Martin – President, Distribution & Fulfillment

How does the return experience influence customer perception—especially for gift recipients or first-time buyers?

Returns are the brand’s credibility check. For first time buyers or gift recipients, the return experience often matters more than the delivery. When it is easy and transparent, trust goes up even if the product was not a fit. When it is not, customers remember. In a competitive market, a good return will not just fix the transaction. It quietly earns the next one.

- Jen Gumusata, Vice President, Solution Sales

What actually happens to a return once it arrives at a processing facility—and where do brands most often lose time or visibility in that process?

Once a return arrives, it enters a sequence of steps that are far more complex than outbound fulfillment: receipt, inspection, grading, decisioning, and routing. Each step requires accurate data, clear rules, and timely execution to determine whether the item can be resold, refurbished, redirected, or written off.

Brands most often lose time and visibility at two points. The first is intake, where returns arrive inconsistently labeled, poorly documented, or disconnected from the original order or channel. The second is disposition, where unclear rules or delayed decisions cause inventory to sit unproductive, tying up space, labor, and capital.

Without a standardized playbook, brands lose the ability to act quickly. That delay turns recoverable inventory into aged inventory—and recoverable value into margin loss.

- Kasia Wenker, Vice President - Solutions Engineering

How do rising ecommerce shopping trends like BORIS (buy online, return in-store) and bracketing impact the returns process, and what should shippers do to adapt?

BORIS and bracketing have turned returns into a volume business. More items come back, faster, and through more channels—often ones that weren’t designed for it. The smartest shippers aren’t fighting the trend; they’re engineering for it. Faster processing, smarter placement of inventory, and returns handled closer to the customer keep costs in check and inventory moving instead of sitting in limbo.

- Jen Gumusata, Vice President, Solution Sales

Customers prioritize flexible return policies when shopping online. How can shippers balance that expectation with the risk of returns fraud?

The key is to be selectively strict. Flexible return policies help drive conversion and loyalty, but applying the same rules to every customer and channel increases fraud exposure and operational cost.

The more effective approach is risk-based: using shared customer and transaction data to differentiate low-risk behavior from repeat abuse. That allows shippers to issue fast refunds and frictionless returns for the majority of customers, while adding guardrails—such as delayed refunds, additional inspection, or policy limits—for higher-risk patterns. When those rules are applied consistently across online and in-store returns, you reduce fraud without creating a poor experience for legitimate customers or overburdening fulfillment teams.

- Ryan Martin – President, Distribution & Fulfillment

Add Better Returns Management to Your Cart Today

Returns may start the conversation, but how you manage them determines how it ends.

As volumes rise and customer expectations tighten, reverse logistics is no longer just about getting product back—it’s about speed, visibility, compliance, and protecting the experience when it matters most. ITS Logistics helps brands navigate returns season with integrated reverse logistics designed to keep inventory moving, refunds flowing, and customer trust intact.

If you’re rethinking how returns fit into your supply chain strategy, reach out to our distribution and fulfillment team today.

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