As consumption in the back-to-school season in the United States starts ahead of schedule, apparel products are once again experiencing a sales peak. This year, jeans, denim jackets and other denim apparel have become one of the most popular categories during the back-to-school season, and many cross-border sellers have also experienced a new round of order growth.
Public data shows that as of early July 2026, 62% of American households have begun purchasing back-to-school supplies, up from 55% in the same period last year. In order to seize consumer demand, American retail brands such as Pacsun, Kohl's, and Hollister have launched back-to-school season promotions in advance, and the sales of denim clothing have significantly increased. At the same time, the Y2K retro trend continues to be popular, and the continuous launch of celebrity co-branded products has further boosted the growth of clothing consumption.
However, for cross-border sellers, sales growth is only one aspect of the peak season, and the high return rate of apparel products also deserves special attention. If returns processing efficiency cannot keep up, it will not only increase logistics and warehousing costs, but may also affect inventory turnover and even miss the sales window during the back-to-school season. Therefore, establishing a complete overseas returns management system in advance before the peak season has become a common choice for more and more sellers.
Why does the return rate of clothing products remain high?
Compared with electronic products, home furnishings and other categories, clothing has always been a product category with a higher return rate for cross-border e-commerce. When consumers purchase clothing online, they cannot actually try it on. Therefore, the size is inappropriate, the pattern is not as expected, the color is different, and the wearing effect is inconsistent with the picture, etc., which may be the reasons for returns.
In fact, many returned goods do not have quality problems themselves, but consumers choose to return them due to personal reasons. If these goods can be inspected and sorted out in time, they still have value for resale.
According to the "2025 Retail Returns Landscape" jointly released by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Happy Returns, the amount of merchandise returns in the U.S. retail industry is expected to reach $849.9 billion in 2025, accounting for 15.8% of annual retail sales; the average online shopping return rate will reach 19.3%.
For popular products such as denim, T-shirts, and sweatshirts during the back-to-school season, the number of returns usually increases with the growth of orders. If the seller does not have a mature returns processing system, the returns accumulated during the peak season can easily turn into inventory pressure.
Why do many sellers start to choose overseas to handle returns locally?
In the past, many cross-border sellers would uniformly return goods returned by American consumers back to China for processing. Although this method is convenient for centralized management, the international logistics cycle is long and the transportation cost is high. Moreover, many products have missed the best sales time during transportation.
In recent years, more and more sellers have begun to process returned goods locally in the United States. There are three main reasons.
First, international logistics costs can be reduced. For apparel products with relatively low unit prices, local processing usually has a cost advantage over returning them to the country.
Secondly, it can improve the efficiency of product resale. After completing quality inspection and repackaging, qualified products can re-enter the sales process faster.
In addition, the local return warehouse can uniformly manage returned goods from different platforms, improve inventory management efficiency, and reduce product backlog.
Through standardized processing procedures, sellers can maximize the value of returned goods and reduce inventory losses during peak seasons.
U-Speed’s US returns warehouse helps sellers efficiently cope with the return peak during the back-to-school season
In response to the return management needs of cross-border sellers during the peak season, U-Speed provides a one-stop U.S. return service covering return receipt, product quality inspection, photo feedback, classification, secondary sales processing and overseas warehousing.
Currently, U-Speed has established a comprehensive return warehouse network on the east and west coasts of the United States. Among them, the total area of the return warehouse in the East US (New Jersey) reaches 212,000 square feet, with an average daily processing capacity of more than 20,000 items; the area of the West US (Los Angeles) return warehouse reaches 80,000 square feet, with an average daily processing capacity of more than 10,000 items.
The warehouse has complete software and hardware facilities, including forklifts, light and heavy shelves, fire monitoring equipment, as well as 24-hour security systems and CCTV monitoring systems to provide a safe and standardized storage environment for returned goods.
At the same time, U-Speed accepts returns regardless of platform or category. Even if the goods are not sent from the U-Speed warehouse, they can still receive them normally and provide follow-up processing services. Regardless of whether the products come from Amazon, TikTok Shop, Shopify independent station, eBay, or other cross-border e-commerce platforms, they can all be managed by U-Speed.
Customized return plan to increase the resale rate of apparel products
Different products require different return processing plans. U-Speed can develop customized return processing procedures based on customer product characteristics.
For clothing products such as jeans, denim jackets, and T-shirts, the warehouse can focus on checking the integrity of the tags, packaging conditions, stains, wear and traces of wear, and provide photo feedback and classification and sorting services based on customer requirements.
For goods that meet the conditions for resale, we can further provide repackaging, labeling and replacement, secondary sales processing and overseas warehousing services; for goods that need to be returned to the country or destroyed, we can also flexibly arrange them according to the needs of the seller.
At present, U-Speed's U.S. return warehouse can complete product quality inspection in the fastest 2 working days, and the return logistics processing time is about 3-5 working days, helping sellers quickly grasp the status of goods, shorten the return processing cycle, and improve inventory turnover efficiency.
In addition, U-Speed also provides U.S. warehousing, dropshipping and other cross-border logistics services to achieve coordinated management of warehousing, fulfillment and returns, helping sellers reduce supply chain management costs and improve operational efficiency during peak seasons.
The back-to-school season is an important sales node in the U.S. apparel market and an important opportunity for cross-border sellers to improve their performance. However, as orders increase, the number of returns will also increase. Especially for high-demand categories such as denim clothing, it is even more necessary to plan returns management in advance.
Compared with returning returned goods to the country, completing the receipt, quality inspection, photo feedback, classification and secondary sales processing through the local return warehouse in the United States can not only reduce logistics costs, but also help sellers restore inventory faster and increase the resale rate of goods.
Relying on the return warehouse network on the east and west coasts of the United States, professional local operations teams and standardized returns processing procedures, U-Speed can help cross-border sellers efficiently cope with the return peak during the back-to-school season, achieve refined management of overseas inventory, and provide more stable and efficient supply chain guarantees for peak season sales.
