When I first started selling clothing on TikTok in the US, I was mentally prepared for returns. Clothing is inherently expensive; size, fit, color, and how it looks on you—any of these could be grounds for a return. But at the time, I didn't really take it to heart because the front-end was running so smoothly. Product selection was generating feedback, influencer videos were gaining traction, and orders were increasing daily. I subconsciously assumed that as long as the overall profit was there, returns would naturally be covered.
The problem was that all my systems, resources, and energy were built around "how to sell more." The overseas warehouse was for shipping, not for returns. Once the goods were shipped out smoothly, the warehouse's job was done. I had no plan or strategy for what to do with returns.
The real problem started when I realized the money was slipping away unnoticed.
For a while, I clearly felt something was wrong. Orders weren't dropping; they were even increasing, but at the end of the month, profits were getting thinner and thinner. At first, I thought it was a problem with the traffic generation, but later I realized that what was really eating up profits were the returns I couldn't handle.
Most of the overseas warehouses I used only handled shipping; they either didn't accept returns or only accepted orders shipped from their own warehouses. Since I operated with multiple warehouses and channels, a batch of returns simply couldn't be processed. The communication and time costs of returning clothes to a specific address accumulated little by little, ultimately making it more cost-effective to simply refund the customer.
What frustrated me most was that I knew these clothes weren't all unsellable. Many had just been tried on, were slightly wrinkled, had some lint, or still had a slight packaging smell. But without the capacity to process them, I had to choose the "easy" way of dealing with them as sunk costs. During that period, I was even hesitant to increase volume, because I knew that any increase in volume would amplify these losses.
Once returns were handled, the business logic changed.
Later, I started proactively seeking solutions instead of stubbornly enduring the situation. It was during this process that I learned about U-Speed's US return warehouse. What truly impressed me wasn't the phrase "can handle returns," but rather the very specific problems it solved: no restrictions on the origin of its shipping warehouses, the ability to accept returns from various channels within the US, and, specifically for clothing, basic services like cleaning, lint removal, odor removal, and ironing.
My initial approach to this collaboration was cautious; I only tested it with a small number of returns. But this experience allowed me to truly streamline the returns process for the first time. Packages were received, there was clear quality control feedback, and it was clear which items could be resold, which could only be discounted or scrapped. Even clothes I had initially decided to discard sold after basic sorting and relisting.
Of course, processing returns incurs costs, but after calculating the entire process, I found it not only worthwhile but also gave me a renewed sense of security. U-Speed has return warehouses in the East Coast (New Jersey) and West Coast (Los Angeles) of the US, ensuring a stable processing pace. With a Chinese returns management team leading the process and a local US team handling the implementation, the entire returns process was finally no longer a black box.
Looking back now, I realize that the real problem wasn't the high return rate of clothing, but rather that I never gave returns a proper place in the first place. When returns are received and processed, they are no longer just a loss, but a manageable link in the supply chain. For me, this was a crucial turning point from "getting the business going" to "making the business run smoothly."
