$90 Billion In Returns Expected After Strong Holiday Sales

The holiday season was one of the best in recent memory for retailers but those increased sales figures are expected to produce an equal jump in returns, with more than $90 billion worth of product expected to be taken back.

That figure comes from an estimate produced by Optoro , a firm that specializes in return shipments. According to the firm, the $90 billion in returns that will head back to stores after the holidays accounts for nearly one-fourth of all returns each year.

The increase in returns is expected to keep FedEx and UPS busy in the wake of the holidays. Both companies are primarily responsible for helping to facilitate returns, especially for online purchases. Instead of returning products to a brick and mortar store, the returns are shipped back to e-commerce retailers.

Those returns are increasingly convenient for consumers, who simply have to put an item in a box, print a label for it and leave it out for delivery services companies to send the package back to the retailer. They are also increasingly costly for ecommerce companies to process as buyers continue to look for friendly return policies—especially those that offer free returns and exchanges.

Trevor Outman, the co-founder and president of consulting firm Shipware, told CNBC that return costs are one of the top concerns of e-commerce vendors and recommended making simple fixes like using boxes that are the proper size for an item in order to save space.

Driving the expected increase in returns is a big uptick in sales during the holiday season. According to a report from USA Today , year-end holiday retail sale increased by 4.9 percent compared to the same period last year. That jump made 2017 the best holiday sales season since 2011.

While sales figures were up across the board, online retailers especially benefited from the rising consumer confidence. E-commerce sellers saw an increase in sales by 18.1 percent over the same period last year The 2017 holiday season also set a new record for dollars spent according to a report from Mastercard SpendingPulse .

Those numbers seem to match up well with figures from Amazon, which claimed the holiday season produced a record-breaking season for small businesses and entrepreneurs selling products on the ecommerce company’s marketplace.

Amazon reported more than one billion items were ordered from small businesses and entrepreneurs worldwide during the season, including 140 million items orders over the five day period from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday.

Mastercard reported similar figures, noting that the first three weeks of November drove significant sales increases. The company said that Black Friday was the single biggest spending day over the holiday season. The second-biggest day for spending was Dec. 23.

Driving the holiday sales were consumer electronics, which proved to be popular gifts in 2017. Mastercard reported electronics and appliances sales were up 7.5 percent, the strongest growth in the category of the last 10 years.