A UK return shipped back to China can cost more than the original sale.
We process returns locally in the UK so brands shipping in from overseas stop paying twice.
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We process returns locally in the UK so brands shipping in from overseas stop paying twice.
WHEN A RETURN COSTS MORE THAN THE SALE
Take a £25 apparel item. The combined cost of getting it back to origin and ready to resell often exceeds the price of the shirt itself.
Industry rule of thumb: once processing cost passes 60% of resale value, the return stops making commercial sense.
Most returned stock gets written off, dumped at markdown, or stranded in a UK warehouse with no next step.
Sources: Branch8 cross-border returns analysis; Optoro 2024 Impact Report
NO MORE DOUBLE FREIGHT
For brands shipping into the UK from China or elsewhere overseas, a UK hub takes the return at source. Stock is received, graded, and routed to the right next step in the UK, not on a slow leg back to origin.
You decide what happens to each unit. Resell into the active stock pool. Refurbish and re-list. Consolidate and ship back in bulk only if the commercial case stands up. Most of the time, it won't.
The result: faster decisions, recovered margin, and an operation that scales without you absorbing the cost of every cross-border return.
Cut international freight on items that should never have crossed a border twice.
Decisions on every return in days. Items go back into sellable stock or out of the system fast.
Apparel and accessories lose value the longer they sit. Local processing keeps stock sellable at full price.
UK shoppers expect resolution in days. Local processing delivers it without the cross-border lag.
HOW IT WORKS
Returns booked in against your portal data, logged, and sorted by SKU, condition, and required action.
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Each item checked against your grading rules and assessed for resale suitability. Full audit trail.
Where it's needed and economic: cleaning, repair, repackaging, relabelling, or compliant disposal.
Resaleable stock back into pickable inventory. Non-restockable goods stored or processed as you instruct
THE COST OF DOING NOTHING
The cost isn't just shipping. Cashflow gets tied up in stranded UK inventory waiting weeks for an inbound flight. Seasonal stock arrives back as markdown because the selling window has already closed. Customer reviews about six-week refund waits sit on your product page indefinitely.
The maths from earlier compounds. £30-50 of unrecovered value per return, multiplied by a quarter's returns volume, is a margin leak that doesn't show up on any P&L line by name. It shows up as the gap between your gross margin and the number you expected to hit.
* Per-return unrecovered value (£30-50, derived from Branch8 and Optoro figures) × monthly volume × 3 months
QUESTIONS WORTH ASKING
The questions brands usually have before they switch from shipping returns back to origin.
Work with us
Tell us what you're shipping in, what comes back, and where it goes next. We'll walk through the maths on your actual SKUs and show you where margin is leaking.
