A recent survey from parcelLab reveals a trend that warns cross-border sellers: 49% of American consumers admit to abusing return policies in the past year. Among them, 29% did so to avoid paying the full price, and more shockingly, about 30% of respondents admitted to returning the goods as "unused" after using them.

Among young consumers aged 18 to 34, this proportion is close to 50%, showing a clear tendency towards "return culture". Moreover, this behavior is not impulsive: 21% of consumers said they had deliberately bought more goods and returned them in order to reach the free shipping threshold.

More challenging is that due to factors such as inflation and rising living costs, 48% of American and British consumers prefer merchants with loose return policies when shopping, while 16% said they have stopped buying certain brands because the return policy is too strict.

Faced with this change, retailers and cross-border sellers did not sit idly by: 47% of sellers tightened their return policies, 41% prohibited returns for repeated violators, and 37% began to charge return fees. But even so, 52% of companies pointed out that "how to maintain a good customer experience" is their biggest challenge in managing return abuse.

How should sellers deal with the "return culture" in the United States?

For cross-border sellers who want to layout the US market for a long time, returns are not only a "cost issue", but also an "operation structure issue".

Cumbersome return operations, uncontrollable timeliness, and immature service systems are all realities faced by sellers. In the face of "abnormal returns" such as a large number of returns after use, false returns, and abuse of exchange, the lack of a complete return management mechanism will only make companies run between customer satisfaction and profits.

Pre-deployment of overseas return warehouses is the key to breaking the deadlock

The value of the return warehouse is far more than just "receiving goods". By building a stable overseas return link, sellers can not only improve return efficiency, but also do a good job of classification, quality inspection and screening, and inventory reuse at the source, greatly reducing the losses caused by returns.

This is why more and more sellers are beginning to choose third-party professional return service providers, such as U-Speed US return warehouse, to achieve refined management.

U-Speed US return warehouse: Efficient, compliant, and stable return processing solution

U-Speed has established a return processing network covering the east and west coasts in the United States. The warehouses are reasonably distributed, the processing capacity is strong, and the operation team is experienced, which can effectively help sellers to operate stably during the high-incidence period of returns.

US East Return Warehouse (New Jersey)

Two warehouses with a total area of 212,000 square feet

Daily processing capacity exceeds 20,000 orders

Excellent geographical location, radiating the entire core e-commerce area of the Northeast

US West Return Warehouse (Los Angeles)

Area expanded to 80,000 square feet

Daily processing capacity exceeds 10,000 orders

Close to ports and airports, convenient first-leg logistics connection

Miami Return Warehouse

Area 21,000 square feet

Daily processing capacity 2,500 orders

Service covers South American return transit and the southeastern United States

All warehouses are equipped with forklifts, light and heavy shelves, fire monitoring systems, and all-weather security and CCTV systems to ensure the safety of packages, truly realizing "stable returns, fast returns, and worthwhile returns".

Not just returns, but a complete set of service capabilities

U-Speed's US return service is led by the Chinese management team and executed by the local Chinese team in the United States. The operation team is stationed in the warehouse for a long time, understands the platform rules and product attributes, and can more efficiently judge the return status and quality inspection conditions.

At the same time, the services provided by U-Speed are not limited to returns, but also include:

First-leg logistics docking and management

Warehousing + drop shipping

Full-process data tracking

Such a service system helps sellers achieve a closed-loop logistics system in the United States, reduce multiple docking, reduce communication costs, and truly achieve "no worries about returns and worry-free operations".

From "passive returns" to "active management", cross-border sellers must grasp the rhythm

The role of returns in cross-border e-commerce has evolved from after-sales service to a core node of full-process optimization. Whoever establishes a stable return system first is more likely to gain a foothold in the fierce market competition.

If you already have stable sales in the United States, or are planning to expand into new markets, then it is time to consider how to "control returns" instead of "being controlled by returns". The return culture cannot be changed, but the return system can be built. U-Speed's US return warehouse is becoming the return center for more and more cross-border sellers.