Private label products give retailers more control over sourcing, manufacturing, and pricing, which they can use to offer items for lower costs, encouraging consumers to try new products, leading to lifelong brand ambassadors who will swear by your brand. Here’s how Target, Walmart, and Costco are labeling up.

This year, furniture and home furnishings will make up a $179.75 billion ecommerce market in the US, according to our forecast, and growth is accelerating. With challenges coming from big names like Amazon and Walmart and resale platforms like Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist, Ikea has no choice but to innovate to keep up.

Target offers a year-long return policy for its private labels: That’s a very different approach from most retailers, which have made steps to clamp down on returns.

While retail as a whole is looking for ways to deploy generative AI to support operations and enhance customer experience, fashion ecommerce is likely to see some of the biggest impacts.

Total US retail return volume will reach $627.34 billion this year, a 2.2% increase YoY, according to our forecast. Some retailers are turning to return fees to make up for increased costs, but that’s a risky move that may end up alienating customers. Here are three alternatives to return fees, ranging from the short term (building out product descriptions and customer reviews) to the long term (creating a returns as a service offering).

“Everybody’s talking about generative AI,” said our analyst Suzy Davidkhanian. “The underlying question is, will it last? Or will it be the next metaverse?” (Spoiler alert: She thinks it’s here to stay.) Davidkhanian shares her thoughts on some of the overarching trends from this week’s event.

After two years of outsized growth, ecommerce returns dipped by 2.5% year over year per our estimates, and we now expect ecommerce return rates to approach pre-pandemic levels by 2026

At least 10% of US ecommerce orders were returned each week from last November through mid-January, according to Salesforce. The return rate was as high as 16% in some weeks, a significant increase over the previous holiday season.

Deal-seeking by consumers, heavy discounting from retailers, and a longer holiday shopping season drove an uptick in returns during the 2022 holiday season. Retailers will need to plan their promotional calendars carefully to manage returns in 2023.

As Gen Zers’ buying power grows, retailers need to understand the best ways to connect and engage with them, whether that’s through leaning into product discovery or creating a more seamless payment process. We take a look at some of Gen Z’s shopping habits and what they mean for retailers.

Online purchases will account for a growing share of total US retail returns.

Generous returns policies have encouraged shoppers to buy online, but an unsustainable wave of returned goods is forcing retailers to rethink their strategies.

Returns have always been expensive for retailers, but right now they’re at an all-time high. “We’re seeing a lot of the fast-fashion retailers like Zara and others like J.Crew, and Abercrombie & Fitch starting to charge return shipping for online orders,” said our analyst Sky Canaves. But there’s more to it than charging. Here are six strategies for reducing returns.

This year, US retail returns volume will reach $627.34 billion, representing 8.5% of all retail sales, according to our forecast. After surging in 2020 and 2021 (due to the pandemic ecommerce boom and stimulus-driven boost in consumer spending), growth normalized last year and will continue to slow through 2024.

Retailers struggle under the weight of holiday returns: Global returns grew 63% YoY as economic concerns drove shoppers to rethink purchases.

“We used to talk about ‘omnichannel’ and we should just be talking about ‘commerce.’” That’s according to our analyst Suzy Davidkhanian, speaking on our “Behind the Numbers: Reimagining Retail” podcast.

The leading reason consumers in the UK and US return online purchases is due to fit, size, or color, according to Coveo. Damage, defects, and poor quality are other top reasons. Some 18% of UK and US consumers make returns because they order multiple sizes with the intent of keeping only those that fit.

Retailers’ return rates are rising: That’s a significant challenge to merchants’ bottom lines, but it also presents an opportunity for those that offer a straightforward process.

What does 2023 have in store for retailers? The answer is a bit of a mixed bag.

Economic conditions will have a huge effect on the retail, media, and marketing industries in 2023. For companies to succeed, the cost-conscious consumer must be front and center.