eCommerce is badly in need of a green makeover. Online retailers have long been searching for ways to decrease waste and reduce carbon emissions in their operations, and COVID-19 has only made the situation worse. From the burden of product returns to demand miscalculations and manufacturing surpluses, eCommerce churns out far too much waste, and retailers need to do something about it.

Last December, we made a commitment to help decrease product returns and challenged online retailers to take serious steps toward reducing their carbon emissions. Back in January, return rates were spiking and were predicted to increase throughout 2020. But then, everything changed in light of the pandemic. Returnly, whose platform managed returns for DTC brands, a 21 percent drop in e-commerce return rates in the weeks following mandated shutdowns across the country.

As a young company, we're always looking for innovative, differentiating ways to help our customers improve their product experiences. But it's not every day that we spy an opportunity to improve the world at large. That's why, when we started to read up on the growing epidemic of product returns and their negative impact on the environment, we felt compelled to get involved. Not because product returns are always "bad," but because, based on data, many of them are preventable.

Returns are a serious problem in eCommerce. They cost retailers about 10 percent of their overall sales, and they’re increasingly something customers want to be free and easy. But the real cost of returns goes far beyond how they affect eCommerce retailers’ bottom lines.