Home Delivery World, a conference in Nashville last week focused on the middle and last miles of supply chains, featured several reverse logistics sessions that were well received by attendees eager to learn more about this often-overlooked part of supply chains.
“Returns are a gold mine of information,” industry consultant Antonio Colicchio, aka “The Returns Guy,” told the audience. Indeed, most of the conference sessions focused on how to extract return information to learn why an item was returned, identify the best method of disposal, and recover as much cost as possible from returned items.
Analysis from technology tools is also being used to identify “bad actors,” those that habitually return items, according to wholesale liquidator B-Stock’s Robert Iaria. Iaria also shared how B-Stock uses analysis to determine the right recommerce platform for its customers by building buyer personas for different types of returned items.
Technology, specifically artificial intelligence (AI), is also playing a major role in uncovering returns information and standardizing reverse processes. “Startups are bringing technology for data insights, standardization, and helping to streamline and ensure reverse logistics processes run more efficiently,” Roman Pennell, CEO of LoopDeco, said during a session about the importance of reverse logistics startups. LoopDeco is a furniture sustainability platform that converts furniture “waste” into inventory and new revenue streams for resellers and non-profits nationally.
Founder and CEO of the agentic AI platform GreenMile AI, Satpreet Singh Aulakh, further expanded on the importance of startups in the reverse logistics space, noting that reverse logistics often runs on gut reactions but that, thanks to AI, processes can now be streamlined.
The importance of connecting supply chains, such as inventory and customer service, was also discussed throughout the sessions. “Reverse logistics is no longer just a cost center sitting at the end of the supply chain. The companies winning today are designing returns into the network from day one, improving inventory flow, reducing operational friction and creating a better customer experience,” said Maersk’s head of e-commerce, Prashant Shah. For example, Shah described that one of its biggest challenges is that the longer returns stay out of a brand’s hands, the more they lose value, so Maersk is tasked with returning them to the brand quickly through its last-mile delivery network.
Getting a returned item back to a brand quickly is important to brands, as many will either resell the item into the secondary retail market, donate it for a tax write-off, or resell the item themselves on such platforms as Trove, Real Real or utilize online tools from such companies as Vendidit.
According to its latest annual report on the recommerce market, ThredUp, a recommerce platform, found that the US secondhand market grew nearly 4X faster than the broader retail clothing market. Through 2030, 71% of all market growth will come from Gen Z and Millennials.
Bob Marino of Vendidit discussed the growth of recommerce, particularly among younger buyers. “My wife owns a particular brand item, new, and my daughter owns the same brand item, used,” Marino told the audience.
In many ways, the discussions at Home Delivery World showcased a shift in how companies view reverse logistics. No longer treated as a necessary cost center, returns are now being recognized as a strategic function that influences profitability, inventory management and customer loyalty. In addition, technology tools, including AI, are giving organizations more visibility into returned products and consumer behavior, while helping streamline traditionally fragmented processes.
