Excess labor and re-handling from fragmented reverse logistics

Disputes and unclear handling lead to over-crediting, unnecessary re-handling, and sometimes double shipping (replacement plus original reallocation), driving cost well beyond the 20–40% baseline overhead for reverse paths on relatively high unit values. • Every re-touch of bulk workwear exchanges amplifies labor cost, and discrepancies become expensive to investigate; on large corporate orders, a few percent loss from shrink, misrouting, and unnecessary handling can equate to tens of thousands of dollars annually. • Every unclear or poorly tracked exchange path increases exposure to return fraud and shrink, on top of the 20–40% processing overhead; for high-return fashion, this can mean 1–3% of revenue lost to undetected fraud plus extra LP labor.

Alterations specialist keeps local logs of altered items and manually coordinates with store and central teams when those items are exchanged or returned, often negotiating exceptions to standard policies. • Associate juggles POS return, separate order, and manual follow-up notes to track where the exchanged item and replacement are in the network. • Buyer/merchandiser pulls ad-hoc return and exchange reports and then manually maps which locations should receive which recovered units, often emailing spreadsheets to logistics and store teams.