NEWPORT BEACH, CA—Reverselogistics is a rising concern as the percentage ofonline returns grows with the percentage of online shopping, andwhoever solves this problem is a genius, CBREsenior managing director Kurt Strasmann tellsGlobeSt.com. According to a recent report from the firm, as e-commerce claims anincreasingly larger portion of holiday retail sales, retailers' efficiency inlimiting and handling returns of merchandise bought online—whichcould amount to as much as $32 billion this year—will make or breakthe holiday season for many.

Historically, returns of store-bought merchandise have amountedto 8% of total retail sales; however, for e-commerce, that shareranges from 15% to 30%, depending on the product category. Assumingthat those percentages hold true, the value of returns this seasonwill increase by the same 13.8% that AdobeAnalytics predicts for the increase in online sales thisseason. Adobe foresees online sales this season reaching $107.4billion, up from approximately $93 billion last year. By extension,CBRE calculates that the projected ceiling for returns is $32billion, up from roughly $28 billion last year, putting anever-greater emphasis on reverse logistics!