As retailers slow down orders for foreign goods because of tariffs, companies that recirculate overstocked or returned items may help fill the gap.
On a recent afternoon, televisions and laptops, power tools and fishing rods, kitchen supplies and toys overflowed at the receiving docks of a 250,000-square-foot warehouse in Fort Worth.
The warehouse belonged to ReturnPro, and the goods passing through it, worth millions of dollars, had been returned by consumers to major retailers including Walmart, J.C. Penney and Bass Pro Shops. Those retailers then shipped the items to ReturnPro, which has a dozen warehouses globally. Workers there sort, clean and repackage the items, then post them for sale on an array of websites where consumers, wholesalers and off-price retailers hunt for discounts.
The cycle is part of the sprawling “reverse logistics” industry that recirculates overstock items and returned goods. And with President Trump’s tariff war on China, ReturnPro and other reverse logistics companies are bracing for a surge in demand for refurbished goods in the coming months.
With fewer goods crossing the Pacific, retailers and wholesalers are expected to draw down their inventories of electronics, toys, clothing and other goods. And as they do, they will have to either order more goods from China at higher prices or look for alternatives, like ReturnPro.
ReturnPro handles 259 categories of goods returned to retailers, which may have otherwise sold the products to liquidators for pennies on the dollar or sent them to a landfill at a loss. By sorting them, ReturnPro can generate 25 cents or more on the dollar for the retailers, and far more for products it refurbishes.