Black Friday in the US was as spectacular as ever. According to the latest data from Adobe Analytics, online spending in the US reached $11.8 billion on Black Friday, a year-on-year increase of approximately 9.1%, breaking historical records once again. Online sales on Saturday and Sunday are projected to reach $5.5 billion and $5.9 billion respectively, representing increases of 3.8% and 5.4%.
Besides record-breaking overall spending, the US Black Friday consumption structure also showed new characteristics. Salesforce's statistics on online sales during Black Friday show that overall online spending in the US reached approximately $18 billion, a year-on-year increase of 3%, with significant increases in luxury apparel and accessories.
While the amount increased, consumers didn't necessarily "buy more." Salesforce's analysis indicates that this year, US consumers purchased fewer items on average during Black Friday than last year, but the average price per item was higher, showing a trend of "buying more expensive items but buying less." Retail industry analysts believe this is closely related to factors such as inflationary pressures, higher price tags, and narrower discounts.
Consumption continues to grow, but consumers are becoming more rational, which means that the return structure after Black Friday this year may be more complex than in previous years.
Behind the high sales growth of Black Friday: Returns often surge simultaneously.
For cross-border sellers, Black Friday sales growth is not the only indicator. Historical data tells us that the busier the Black Friday sales, the greater the return pressure.
The return preferences of American consumers are nothing new in the industry. European and American users are always willing to return items for reasons such as "the size doesn't fit," "the color doesn't match expectations," or "changing their minds after receiving the item," especially for high-frequency return categories such as clothing, shoes, accessories, and seasonal home goods. During peak promotional periods like Black Friday and the Christmas season, many sellers' return rates can even more than double compared to normal days.
This year's Black Friday sales pattern, characterized by "high average order value and low number of items," also means:
More expensive goods → Stricter quality control expectations;
Fewer impulse purchases → Lower defective order rates, but the demand for exchanges/returns remains;
Increased high-priced categories → Increased processing difficulty and costs.
In other words: Returns won't decrease, but they will become more refined, requiring more professional warehousing capabilities.
Therefore, how to quickly complete return quality inspection, restocking, and resale preparation within the US has become a real need that more and more cross-border sellers have to face after the peak season.
It is against this industry backdrop that the importance of US return warehouse has been further highlighted.
Difficult US returns? U-Speed's localized return warehouses make processing more efficient and controllable.
U-Speed has two return warehouses in the US, located on the East and West coasts respectively, with strong service capabilities and complete facilities, helping cross-border sellers to improve return processing efficiency, inventory management, and customer satisfaction to a higher level.
• East Coast (New Jersey) Returns Warehouse: Total warehouse area 7250 square meters.
Daily processing capacity exceeds 20,000+ items.
• West Coast (Los Angeles) Returns Warehouse: Also 7250 square meters.
Daily processing capacity is 10,000+ items.
Both warehouses are equipped with forklifts, light and heavy-duty shelving, fire monitoring systems, and 24-hour security and CCTV systems. The comprehensive hardware and software facilities ensure the safe, standardized, and efficient flow of return packages even during peak periods.
Furthermore, U-Speed's team structure is highly advantageous: led by the headquarters' China returns business management team, with a local Chinese operations team and a professional customer service team handling on-the-ground execution. This meets the language and cultural requirements of cross-border sellers while ensuring stable and meticulous operational quality.
Core Advantages of U-Speed's US Returns Service
① Industry-leading Returns Inspection and Logistics Timeliness: Returns inspection time is 2 days, and returns logistics time is 3–5 days. For peak return periods like Black Friday, faster delivery and more timely inventory recovery minimize seller losses.
② Multi-scenario customized services covering the US production and sales chain. U-Speed not only handles returns but also provides: first-leg transportation, overseas warehousing, drop shipping, and return and restocking processing. Combining forward and reverse logistics forms a closed-loop service for US cross-border logistics, reducing seller integration costs and lowering the probability of errors.
Seize the Black Friday opportunity, but don't forget to maintain a stable return chain.
This year, US Black Friday online sales hit record highs, giving thousands of cross-border sellers the opportunity to boost sales. However, a more realistic issue is that as the sales structure shifts towards "high-priced + small-volume + carefully selected" products, return rates and volumes are likely to increase.
If you want to seize market share while also ensuring effective after-sales management, inventory clearance, and return processing, U-Speed's US return warehouse is a solution worth considering—it not only has hardware warehousing capabilities but also soft operational services and cross-border experience support.
For sellers who want to build a long-term and large-scale presence in the US market, such warehousing and return policies may determine whether they can actually realize their Black Friday profits this year.
