Online returns are increasingas more and more people are shopping online. According to a reportfrom CBRE, holiday shopping returns totaled $41billion this season, and online purchases are returned between 15%and 30% more than in-store purchases. The high rate of returns isexpensive for ecommerce companies, and will only continue toincrease until a viable solution is found.

"Returns are increasing on a relative basis," KurtStrasmann, executive managing director at CBRE, tellsGlobeSt.com. "Returns are increasing as ecommerce sales and onlinepurchases are increasing. It will continue to increase. The returnsand the reverse logistics has been a very puzzling issue for alle-tailers to understand because it is a very expensive issue."

The problem is multi-faceted, but the core of the issues issimply that the warehouses that store and ship goods are notequipped to take them back again. "When items come back to the 3PL,it is not an efficient storage process for the return sales," saysStrasmann. "The same thing on the disposition of the item. It alsotakes time and labor to sort and store items. There isn't anefficient way to handle it right now."