Returns as a source of revenue: A guide for restoring profit margins.

Sai Teja Yerapothina, Walmart's senior director of last mile delivery, discusses the challenges retailers face with post-holiday returns, traditionally viewed as costly burdens. Instead, he argues that effective reverse logistics can turn these returns into valuable opportunities. By implementing a returns decision tree, retailers can optimize processing paths for returned items—such as resale, refurbishment, recycling, or liquidation—thus maximizing value recovery. Shifting focus from merely processing costs to metrics like cycle time and margin recovery can transform returns into a sustainable inventory source year-round.