In the first three quarters of 2020, third-party logistics companies leased 27% of warehouse space at properties sized 100,000 sq. ft. or more. They’ve been ramping up to handle the billions of returns sure to deluge retailers that will be processing more than 30% of their sales online this holiday season.
Last Christmas, online product sales tallied $168 billion. This year that tally will vault to $234 billion, more than $70 billion of which will be returned, according to a new report from CBRE that says retailers will rely on the 3PL’s to handle complex reverse logistics.