Restocking

Restocking is the work of turning a returned parcel back into saleable stock: receiving, inspecting, repacking, relabelling and putting away. It is a real per-return cost, and whether the unit can go back at full price decides whether the return also carries a write-down on top.

The condition of the return is what splits the two costs. An unopened unit costs only the handling; an opened or worn one costs the handling plus the difference between full price and whatever it now fetches, and stores that assume everything is resellable understate returns by exactly that difference.

Whether a return restocks at all is also what separates it from other refund types. A goodwill refund or a cancelled order never generates a physical return, so charging return processing to them would invent a cost, which is why the engine gates that charge on the restock type.

The cost is small per unit and concentrated by product. A product returning at three times the catalogue average is paying three times the bench cost, which is invisible in a store-level return rate and obvious the moment returns are counted per SKU.