Returns are inventory, QA and money. Not just a refund.
Most returns tools stop at authorising the return. AIMS360 carries it through: the unit is inspected and graded, sellable stock goes back to the shelf, damaged stock is held where nobody can sell it by accident, and the credit is raised from the same record. That is where the 80% reduction in manual work comes from.
Book a demo Talk to a specialistWhat does AIMS360 returns management do?
It handles the return inside the ERP rather than beside it. A return is authorised against the original order, shipment and invoice, received and inspected with a condition grade, routed by disposition to restock, repair, a secondary channel or write off, and credited or refunded from the same record.
Sellable units go back to available inventory across every channel at once. Damaged units are held separately so they cannot be sold again by mistake. It works the same way whether the return came from a Shopify customer, a retailer sending cartons back against an invoice, a dropship order, or a third party logistics warehouse.
Where the 80% reduction in manual work actually comes from
A returns portal automates one step: telling the customer the return is approved. That is roughly a fifth of the work. The other four fifths happen after the box arrives, and in most brands they are done by hand. These are the four.
The unit has to become sellable stock again
In the right location, visible to every channel. Done manually that is a count, a spreadsheet and a delay during which the unit is either invisible or double counted.
Every returned unit needs inspecting and grading
Sellable, repairable, or scrap. Without that step recorded on the return itself, the decision lives in someone's head and the next person has to make it again.
Non-sellable units are still inventory
They have a value, a location and a destination. Held apart automatically, they stay off the sellable pool. Held by hand, they get sold to a customer who returns them again.
The money has to close itself
The refund or credit memo carries the original order, invoice, customer and terms into accounting. Rekeyed, it is slow and it is where reconciliation errors start. Raised from the return, it is a by-product.
This is why a returns app on its own does not get you there. It handles the customer conversation well, and it should. What it cannot do is put the unit back into allocatable inventory, decide whether it is sellable, keep the damaged one out of the next order, and close the money. Those four are the work.
One return, from request to closed credit
Every step is automatic, and every step writes back to the same record. Nobody rekeys a packing list and nobody reconciles a credit against an invoice by eye.
Against the original order
Raised against the order, shipment and invoice it came from, so price, terms, customer and units are already known. A return not tied to an original document is a return nobody can credit accurately.
At your warehouse or the 3PL
Booked in where it physically landed, your own building on the AIMS360 WMS or a third party logistics warehouse. That is what keeps the count in the ERP equal to the count on the dock.
Grade the condition
Sellable, repairable, or scrap, with a reason code, recorded against the unit. This is the step most systems skip, and skipping it is what makes returns inventory untrustworthy.
By disposition
Sellable stock restocks to available inventory. Damaged stock is held in a separate location or status. Repairable stock routes to repair. The rest routes to a secondary or outlet channel, or to write off with the value recorded.
Raised from the return
The credit memo or refund carries the original order, invoice, customer and terms straight into accounting. Receivables and margin update without a second entry.
Reason codes, next to margin
Rolled up by style, colour, size, customer and channel, sitting next to the sales and margin data they belong with rather than in a separate tool.
Why damaged stock has to be its own inventory
The most common returns failure in a growing brand is not a slow refund. It is a damaged unit going back on the shelf, being allocated to the next order, shipping to a customer or a retailer, and coming straight back. You pay the freight twice, you pay the handling twice, and on a retailer shipment you may pay a chargeback on top.
The decision is made once
Every unit gets a condition when it is booked in, not later. The grade travels with the unit, so it is decided by the person actually holding it: sellable, repairable, non-sellable, with a reason code.
Still counted, still valued
Damaged goods are not written out of existence. They sit in a separate location or status with their value intact, so the balance sheet is right and the sellable pool is clean. They cannot be allocated to an order.
A recovery problem, not just a loss
Route it to repair and back to stock, to an outlet or jobber channel, or to write off at real cost with that cost landing against the right style rather than disappearing into overhead.
One question to ask any system you are evaluating. When a damaged return is received, what stops it being allocated to the next order? If the answer is that somebody moves it, the answer is that somebody forgets.
A wholesale return is not an ecommerce return
Brands that sell more than one way end up with more than one kind of return, and the differences are not cosmetic. Handling them in one system is what keeps inventory and receivables honest.
| Channel | What comes back | What has to happen |
|---|---|---|
| DTC and ecommerce | One customer, one parcel, one or two units | Fast refund or exchange, restock to the pool Shopify sells from, reason code captured for the style |
| Wholesale | A retailer returning cartons against an invoice already raised | Credit memo against the original invoice and terms, units graded and restocked, receivable corrected |
| Retailer EDI | Returns arriving alongside deductions and chargebacks | Credit issued as an EDI 812 credit and debit adjustment so the deduction and the credit reconcile against each other |
| Dropship | A single parcel returning to a returns centre, often not yours | Posted against the original dropship order, with the retailer's own returns address respected |
| Retail stores | In-store returns and cross-channel returns of online orders | Restock to store stock and stay visible to the same inventory pool the warehouse draws on |
| 3PL | Returns received in a building you do not own | Condition and disposition post back to the ERP, so returns stop being the largest source of inventory drift |
The retailer case is the one brands underestimate. A wholesale return and an unexplained retailer deduction look identical on an aged receivables report until somebody opens both. Handling the credit as an 812 against the original invoice is what separates them. See chargeback management and the retailer EDI list.
Keep the customer portal. Fix what happens after it.
Returns platforms are good at the customer experience: the portal, the label, the exchange offer, the retention flow. AIMS360 does not replace that. It picks up where the parcel arrives, which is the part those tools were never built to do.
What it does well
Customer facing portal and branded experience. Return labels and carrier handoff. Exchange and store credit offers that retain revenue. Policy rules, windows and eligibility. AIMS360 connects to Loop Returns, ReturnGO, Redo and Swap Commerce.
What happens next
Ties the return to the original order, shipment and invoice. Records inspection and condition grade. Restocks sellable units and quarantines damaged ones. Raises the credit into accounting with terms intact. Reports reason codes against style, size and margin. And handles the wholesale and retailer returns the portal never sees.
The return rate is a product signal, not just a cost
Returns data is only useful sitting next to the sales, cost and margin data it relates to. That is the argument for holding it in the ERP rather than in a separate tool that knows the return but not the style's margin.
A size returning at 3x its neighbours
That is a fit problem in the pattern, not a customer problem. It is a production correction for next season, and it is only visible if the reason code sits against the size.
One retailer well above your average
Either they are merchandising the product wrong or they have a receiving problem. Either way it is a conversation worth having with numbers in hand.
Strong gross margin, high return rate
Can be the least profitable thing you sell once freight both ways, handling and damage write-off are counted. Gross margin alone hides it.
What a return has to carry changes by category
| Industry | What the return has to handle |
|---|---|
| Fashion and Apparel | Fit and sizing reason codes at size level, wholesale carton returns against an invoice, and seasonal markdown routing for non-sellable stock. |
| Footwear | Box condition matters as much as the shoe. Size and width reason codes, and high return rates concentrated in half sizes and widths. |
| Jewelry, Bags and Accessories | High value per unit, so shrinkage control and inspection matter more than throughput. Serialised and certificated pieces need verification on receipt. |
| Cosmetics, Beauty and Personal Care | Opened product is almost never resellable. Lot and expiry have to survive the return so a recall stays traceable, and disposal has its own rules. |
| Wellness and Supplements | Returned consumables generally cannot restock. Lot traceability, expiry and documented disposal, plus subscription returns hitting the same stock as wholesale. |
| Outdoor and Sporting Goods | Technical hardgoods returned used, bulky freight both ways, and warranty repair as a real disposition rather than an exception. |
Returns management questions
Because it removes the manual step from four separate jobs, not one. Inventory management, because an accepted return restocks itself to the right location instead of being counted back in by hand. Damage QA, because inspection and condition grading are recorded on the return rather than on a clipboard. Damaged inventory, because non-sellable units are held apart from sellable stock automatically rather than reconciled later. And refunding, because the credit memo or refund is raised from the return record instead of being rekeyed into accounting. Most systems automate the authorisation and leave the other four fifths of the work to people.
Both, and they are different jobs. An ecommerce return is one customer, one parcel and a refund. A wholesale return is a retailer sending back cartons against an invoice you have already raised, often alongside a deduction. AIMS360 authorises both against the original order, and on the retailer side the credit can be issued as an EDI 812 credit and debit adjustment so the deduction and the credit reconcile instead of sitting in a spreadsheet.
They are graded on inspection and routed by disposition. Sellable units restock to sellable inventory. Damaged or non-sellable units are held in a separate location or status so they cannot be allocated to a customer order by mistake, then routed to repair, to a secondary or outlet channel, or to write off. The point is that damaged goods stop being invisible: they are inventory with a condition, a value and a destination rather than a box nobody has counted.
AIMS360 connects to ecommerce returns platforms including Loop Returns, ReturnGO, Redo and Swap Commerce, so the customer facing return portal stays where your customers already use it while the inventory, disposition and credit consequences land in the ERP. Returns received at a third party logistics warehouse flow back the same way.
Sellable returns restock automatically to the location that received them, whether that is your own warehouse or a 3PL, and become available to every channel at once through omnichannel order management. Units graded as damaged or non-sellable do not restock to sellable inventory. That distinction is what stops a returned item being resold to a customer who then returns it again.
Yes. Reason codes are captured on the return and reported by style, colour, size, customer and channel. A size that returns at three times the rate of its neighbours is a fit problem in the pattern, not a customer problem, and it is visible long before the season ends. Returns data is only useful if it sits next to the sales and margin data, which is the argument for holding it in the ERP.
Yes. The credit memo or refund is raised from the return, carrying the original order, invoice, customer and terms, so accounts receivable and margin update without anyone rekeying a number. On wholesale this matters most, because an uncredited return and an unexplained retailer deduction look identical on an aged receivables report until someone opens both.
Yes. Returns received at a third party logistics warehouse post back against the original order with condition and disposition, so the count in the ERP matches the count on the dock. Without that, returns at a 3PL become the single largest source of inventory drift, because the goods physically exist somewhere nobody is counting them. See the 3PL warehousing and fulfillment guide.
Keep exploring
- Inventory and WMSWhere a returned unit lands, and how it gets counted
- EDI 812 credit and debitThe document behind a retailer credit
- Chargeback managementDeductions traced to the order that caused them
- 3PL integrationsReturns received in a building you do not own
- 3PL fulfillment guideReturns recovery, costs and compliance
- Shopify and Shopify PlusWhere most DTC returns start
- Omnichannel OMSOne inventory pool, every channel
- All integrationsEvery system AIMS360 connects to
Bring us your worst returns week.
Show us what happens today between the box arriving and the credit closing. In thirty minutes we will show you which of those steps stop being somebody's job, and which ones honestly do not.
Book a demo See pricing
