Apparel fulfillment, with returns planned in
A returned garment is stock you may be able to sell again. The longer it waits for inspection, the less of the season remains. Plan outbound fulfillment and returns together so your team knows what is available and what still needs a decision.
What changes here
Sizes and colours multiply the SKU count. Returns add another inventory task: inspecting the item, recording its condition and restocking only when it meets your resale rules.
- A returned garment is a sequence, not a pile
- Received against the order it came from, inspected, graded, and either repacked to sellable condition or set aside. Each step is recorded against the unit, so the answer to what happened to a specific return is a lookup rather than a search of the floor.
- Turnaround is the number that matters
- Not the return rate, which you cannot control, but how long a unit spends between the door and the shelf. Every day in that gap is a day the garment cannot be sold, and at the end of a season the gap stops being days and becomes the whole markdown.
- Size and colour is a counting problem
- One style in six sizes and four colours creates twenty-four SKUs. Receiving, bin locations and pick checks need to distinguish each variant, so a similar-looking unit does not become the wrong customer order.
- What cannot be resold still has to be decided
- Grading is the point where somebody decides. Sellable, second quality, or out. That decision is yours, we execute it consistently, and the counts on each route are visible rather than absorbed into shrinkage.
Where the season is actually lost
Return rate tells you how much stock is coming back. Turnaround tells you how long that stock stays unavailable. Review both, particularly for seasonal lines where a delay can leave less time to resell at full price.
- Returns are booked against the original order, so a refund is not waiting on somebody matching a parcel to a customer.
- Inspection, grading and repack happen on the same floor as outbound, not in a separate building on a separate schedule.
- The graded result is a stock movement with a reason on it, which is what makes the pattern readable later.
Four questions worth asking any provider
Use these questions to compare providers, including Ecom. Ask for the process and documentation that apply to your products.
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01
How long does a return take from arriving at your door to being sellable again, and is that measured or estimated?
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02
Is a return received against the original order, or received as an anonymous parcel?
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03
Who decides the grade, and what happens to the units that fail it?
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04
How is a size and colour matrix received so my storefront count is right on day one?
Where this goes next
Other sectors
Send us a season.
Your SKU count once size and colour multiply out, your return rate, and how fast a unit has to be back on the shelf. We will come back with how we would run it.