TikTok Shop US has announced its "Holiday Haul" year-end sale, running from December 2, 2025 to January 1, 2026. According to the platform's latest notification, cross-border merchants must complete their product, flash sale, and affiliate marketing registrations by December 1st. This sale covers four major product events and five content formats, with a focus on supporting seasonal bestsellers, stock-up sets, and gift sets—categories with high holiday demand. Exclusive exposure tags will be added to products "deliverable before Christmas" to encourage sellers to stock up in advance.

For fully managed merchants, the platform will provide increased shelf traffic and phased marketing strategies: prior to Christmas, gift items will be promoted, while the post-Christmas period will focus on clearance sales. In addition, TikTok Shop is simultaneously launching a Brand Amplification Program—merchants achieving GMV targets can receive up to $100,000 in incentives. The platform has also established 200 slots across three tiers of partnerships: Brand Captain, Selected, and Friends, to further attract high-quality brands to participate in the year-end sale.

TikTok Shop's "Holiday Haul" signifies another crucial growth window for US cross-border sellers this year, following Black Friday. However, the other side of this major sale is the annual post-sale peak – a surge in returns.

The more popular the sale, the higher the returns in the US: TikTok Shop in the US is no exception.

● US e-commerce already has a high return rate.

According to the "2023 US Returns Report" released by the National Retail Federation (NRF), the overall return rate in the US retail industry is approximately 14.5%; the return rate for online sales is even higher, averaging 17.6%.

TikTok Shop operates on a typical e-commerce + content-driven consumption model, therefore, user return behavior is not significantly different from other platforms, falling within the high return rate range.

● TikTok Shop's user base is young, making returns due to "impulse buying" more common.

According to data from Insider Intelligence, over 60% of TikTok's US users are young people aged 18-34, the consumer group most easily triggered by video recommendations and live stream stimulation to make immediate purchases.

One characteristic of young users' shopping behavior is "buy now, decide later." NRF's 2023 return review pointed out that young users are more likely to return items due to "not meeting expectations" or "changing their minds."

This is particularly evident in TikTok Shop's content environment: short videos and live streams strongly stimulate → high order rates → discrepancies between received and actual products → naturally increasing return rates.

● Apparel, cosmetics, and small appliances are high-return categories on TikTok Shop.

According to Shopify and Statista's analysis of US e-commerce return categories:

Apparel return rates can be as high as 25-30%. Cosmetics return rates due to "color mismatch" are around 20%. Small appliances and household goods return rates are around 12-18%.

TikTok Shop's GMV composition highly overlaps with these categories, and the year-end promotions focusing on "festive gifts," "sets," and "stockpiling packages" mean that—return volumes will further surge after the promotions.

In other words, the popularity of Holiday Haul is expected to drive high GMV growth, but sellers must prepare in advance for the anticipated return pressure after the promotion.

This naturally raises a key question: how to handle US returns after the promotion without dragging down profits?

While sales are high during the promotion, handling returns is the real challenge.

US return costs are often higher than sellers imagine. According to Pitney Bowes' 2024 Parcel Shipping Index report, local warehousing and labor costs in the US continue to rise. Handling returns locally in the US is not only costly but also involves communication, regulatory, and manpower management issues.

The short and intensive promotional period of TikTok Shop means that returns often arrive within a few days.If sellers cannot process these quickly in the US, it can lead to many problems such as: a backlog of returns causing delays in relisting; products not being inspected in time, affecting after-sales ratings; and decreased inventory turnover, missing out on resale opportunities during the return period.Therefore, more and more cross-border sellers are choosing to rely on professional US return warehouse, entrusting the complex, costly, and inefficient local operations to more experienced teams.

U-Speed return warehouses provide sellers with a stable solution for completing return processing locally in the US.

During peak return periods such as major sales events, sellers are most concerned about whether their warehouses can handle the pressure. U-Speed's East Coast and West Coast return warehouses are specifically designed for peak periods.

▶ East Coast (New Jersey) Return Warehouse: Total area 7250㎡, Daily processing capacity 20,000+ items

▶ West Coast (Los Angeles) Return Warehouse: Total area 7250㎡, Daily processing capacity 10,000+ items

Both warehouses are equipped with forklifts, light and heavy-duty shelving, fire protection systems, 24-hour security, and CCTV. The mature warehouse processes ensure stable processing efficiency during peak sales periods, preventing return backlogs.

U-Speed's Three Core Advantages of US Returns Service:

① Smooth and stable communication and execution through dual-team collaboration between China and the US. The Chinese management team coordinates the overall process, while the local Chinese team in the US handles the actual operations, working in conjunction with the customer service team to ensure professional and efficient returns processing.

② High volume of returns after major sales events; faster processing is more beneficial for inventory recovery. U-Speed can complete quality inspection within 2 days and return logistics within 3-5 days, helping sellers quickly restore their inventory to a sellable state.

③ Complete US cross-border logistics loop. In addition to returns, U-Speed also provides: first-leg shipping, warehousing, drop shipping, and forward logistics. This reduces the difficulty of integration for cross-border sellers, improves efficiency, and accelerates the overall operational pace on TikTok Shop in the US.

Holiday Haul is an opportunity, but also a test of return processing capabilities.

TikTok Shop's year-end sales in the US will once again amplify the growth potential for cross-border sellers in the US market.However, after the GMV surges, returns become the key factor in testing a seller's operational capabilities.Setting up local US return warehouses in advance can help sellers maintain a stable pace, reduce losses, and improve inventory turnover efficiency, truly converting the surge in traffic during major sales events into profits.If you're planning to focus on Holiday Haul, then "how to handle US returns" is something you must plan ahead for now.