2025 saw TikTok Shop experience its largest-ever global Black Friday. According to public information, the US region delivered outstanding results in the first week of Black Friday – content-driven sales continued to surge, with over 300 live streams exceeding $10,000 in sales, and the highest single-day sales surpassing $2 million. Festive supplies, autumn/winter apparel, home goods, and trendy toys were the most prominent categories in the first week, bringing sellers a massive influx of traffic in a short period.
However, the greater the traffic, the greater the subsequent pressure of returns. Black Friday sales are concentrated in a short period, and while the surge in orders is exciting, handling returns is equally crucial to securing profits. Therefore, efficiently handling overseas returns after the Black Friday sale has become the most pressing issue for independent website and TikTok Shop sellers.
Why are the return rates higher for high-volume Black Friday categories?
The best-selling categories during Black Friday, such as festive supplies, autumn/winter apparel, home goods, and trendy toys, generally have higher return rates. In the US e-commerce market, return rates for apparel-related products have consistently remained between 20% and 30%, with returns for holiday and seasonal items typically concentrated within two to three weeks after the promotion.
For content-driven e-commerce platforms like TikTok Shop, impulse buying is high, and live-streaming sales emphasize immediate decision-making. Therefore, return volumes are usually more concentrated and volatile than through traditional e-commerce channels. Especially after mega-sales like Black Friday, a return peak is almost inevitable.
Sellers who haven't pre-positioned overseas return warehouses are not only easily bogged down in time and costs by a large volume of returns, but may also negatively impact their store's fulfillment rating and repeat purchase rate.
Therefore, during the Black Friday period, the timeliness, quality control capabilities, and logistics efficiency of return warehouses almost directly determine whether a seller can maintain their profits.
Why do TikTok Shop sellers need local US return warehouses even more after Black Friday?
Due to the long and costly cross-border logistics chain, and the relatively demanding return experience of American consumers, sellers relying on overseas users to directly return goods to China face multiple challenges, including weeks-long processing times, customs duties, reverse clearance, and high damage rates.
Furthermore, post-Black Friday returns are often complex in variety and concentrated in quantity, requiring sellers to have extensive capabilities for unpacking, inspection, verification, relisting, resale, or local forwarding. Especially for TikTok Shop orders, many have low unit prices; returning them to China would often result in costs exceeding the value of the goods.
Therefore, a professional, stable, and efficient local US returns warehouse has become almost an essential feature for cross-border sellers.
Against this backdrop, U-Speed's US returns warehouse service, with its strong hardware capabilities, mature operations team, and outstanding delivery speed, is increasingly becoming the preferred return solution for more and more sellers after Black Friday.
U-Speed's US returns warehouse network: An Efficient Network Covering the East and West Coasts
With the continued growth of TikTok Shop's US business, U-Speed has established a returns warehouse network on both the East and West coasts of the United States, helping sellers complete returns, quality inspection, and subsequent processing in the shortest possible time.
East Coast (New Jersey) Returns Warehouse
Warehouse area: 7250 square meters Daily processing capacity: 20,000+ orders Located near the core consumer area of the East Coast, capable of quickly handling large volumes of returns after Black Friday.
West Coast (Los Angeles) Returns Warehouse
Warehouse area: 7250 square meters Daily processing capacity: 10,000+ orders Adjacent to one of the largest ports of entry in the United States, suitable for the return needs of users in the West Coast and Midwest.
Both warehouses are equipped with forklifts, light and heavy-duty shelving, fire monitoring, 24-hour security systems, and CCTV systems, using professional hardware to ensure the safety and efficient turnover of returned goods. This hardware foundation allows sellers to have stable processing capacity even when facing a surge in returns during the Black Friday and Christmas peak seasons.
U-Speed US returns warehouse service advantages: Stable End-to-End Delivery, From Timeliness to Team
Post-Black Friday returns on TikTok Shop are characterized by concentration, peak periods, and complex product categories. Therefore, a stable service team and rapid processing capabilities are crucial. U-Speed's performance in multiple aspects reflects the core capabilities most valued by sellers.
① Experienced Warehousing Staff
U-Speed employs a combination of a Chinese management team leading the effort and a local Chinese-American team handling operations. This ensures smooth cross-border communication while guaranteeing professional local operations in the US. A dedicated customer service team is also available to ensure stable service even during the post-Black Friday peak period.
② Leading Returns Inspection and Logistics Timeliness
Returns inspection timeliness: 2 days; Returns logistics timeliness: 3–5 days. This speed is significant for TikTok Shop sellers. The faster the quality inspection, listing, or resale is completed, the less inventory backlog and cash flow pressure can be. Every day after Black Friday is a race against time; high efficiency means more profit remains in the seller's hands.
③ Building a Closed-Loop US Cross-Border Logistics Service
U-Speed in the US not only provides return services but also covers: first-leg transportation, overseas warehousing, drop shipping, and return processing. This means sellers don't need to deal with multiple service providers in different segments; instead, they can entrust the entire US local logistics chain, from "shipping to after-sales service," to a single team, significantly reducing organizational costs during Black Friday.
Black Friday order surge is just the beginning; return processing capability is the long-term key to success.
TikTok Shop's impressive data from the first week of Black Friday in the US demonstrates the enormous potential of content-driven cross-border e-commerce in 2025, but it also reminds sellers that high traffic means high returns, and the efficiency of return processing directly determines profit margins.
During the continuous order surge periods of Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the Christmas season, a stable, professional, and highly efficient US local return warehouse is an essential infrastructure for sellers to cope with the "return wave." U-Speed, through its East and West Coast warehousing network, highly skilled operations team, and leading timeliness performance, provides TikTok Shop sellers with a more efficient and reliable return solution.
