The UK’s e-commerce sector has become a streamlined and highly efficient process. Online shopping takes just a few clicks, and with fast, same-day or next-day delivery almost as standard, this part has been nailed. However, the ‘return item’ button has considerable ramifications, causing a multi-billion-pound headache for UK businesses.
Recent analysis from industry bodies shows that the average cost to process a single returned item can now reach upwards of £15, wiping out the entire profit margin and more. For 3PLs serving multiple fashion and electronics clients, the returns dock has become a bottleneck of inefficiency, consuming valuable space and labour with unpredictable, chaotic workflows.
As we move into the second half of 2025, and with the prospect of an onslaught of online shopping just around the corner, mainly due to Black Friday and Christmas, a tidal wave of product returns is fast approaching, posing a critical threat to overall profitability.
Addressing reverse logistics is an operational, financial and strategic challenge that must drive change from the traditional, manual approach. This is both failing and ultimately causing a cascade of negative impacts, such as significant labour costs across manual unboxing, inspection and re-stocking tasks, as well as poor space utilisation with disorganised returns processes using up valuable floorspace. Data is also a key concern, as manual processes provide little or no useful data on why items are returned, preventing retailers from fixing the root cause.
Faced with this reality, leading logistics operators are undergoing a fundamental mindset shift to address the question of ‘How quickly and efficiently can we recover the maximum value from every returned item?’.
The answer lies in treating reverse logistics with the same strategic importance as outbound fulfilment, requiring a dedicated, intelligent, and automated solution. This ‘value recovery engine’ is designed not just to handle products, but to make decisions, capture data, and accelerate items back into the commercial cycle.
Building a true value recovery system takes more than a single robot; the entire flow of goods within the business requires a holistic approach to orchestrate a sustainable, efficient and scalable solution to handle the journey of a returned parcel through a modern automated system. As leading experts in automation design and integration, your pathway to transformational returns processing using L-A-C’s portfolio of conveyor, automation and best-in-class technologies could look like this:
- Intelligent Inbound & Induction: A returned parcel is immediately placed onto a bespoke induction conveyor, designed to fit any space constraint, ensuring a seamless flow from the lorry door.
- Automated Triage & Identification: The parcel travels through an automated tunnel where high-speed scanners read barcodes while dimensioning-weighing-scanning systems capture the parcel’s vitals.
- Robotic Grading & Decision-Making: Based on the data captured, items are routed for inspection. Here, an AI-powered vision system or an operator can instantly grade the item: A-Grade (resale), B-Grade (repackaging), Repair, or Recycle.
- High-Speed, Intelligent Sortation: Once the decision is made, the item is returned to the automated flow. High-speed sortation systems accurately route each item to its correct destination. This seamless routing, controlled by our integrated software, eliminates manual handling errors and delays.
By shifting to an integrated, automated returns process, businesses are achieving phenomenal results, reducing per-item processing costs by as much as 60% and increasing the ‘speed-to-stock’ for A-Grade items from days to mere hours, dramatically increasing the chance of resale at full price.
By viewing returns as a strategic opportunity for value recovery and partnering with an integrator who can design, manufacture, and support a holistic automated solution, you can transform your greatest challenge into a powerful competitive advantage. The journey from cost centre to profit engine begins with a conversation about what’s possible. Make that call today and discover where automation from L-A-C can take you.
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