黑色星期五过后，美国迎来退货高潮

What U.S. city is believed to be the source of the retail term Black Friday?

美国哪个城市被认为是零售业术语黑色星期五的来源？

Chicago, Illinois, Indianapolis, Indiana, New York, New York? Philadelphia or Pennsylvania?

芝加哥、伊利诺伊、印第安纳波利斯、印第安纳、纽约、纽约州? 宾夕法尼亚还是费城?

In the 1960s' police in Philadelphia reportedly used the term to describe the shopping and sports mayhem that hit the city after Thanksgiving.

据报道，在20世纪60年代，费城警方用这个词来描述感恩节后危害该市的购物和运动混乱。

Traditionally, the day after Thanksgiving is one of the busiest days on the U.S. shopping calendar.

传统上，感恩节后的第一天是美国购物日程表上最繁忙的日子之一。

So, the term Black Friday has also been used to describe when retail stores move into the black, meaning they show a profit for the year.

因此，Black Friday这个词也被用来描述零售店“move into the black”，意思是他们这一年盈利。

It makes sense that store traffic, the number of people shopping in person, increased more than 47 percent this year over last year when more stayed home because of COVID concerns.

今年商店客流量，即亲自购物的人数比去年增加了47%以上，去年更多的人因为担心新冠肺炎而留在家里，这是说的通的。

But according to Sensormatic Solutions, a retail analytics and operations company, this year's Black Friday's store traffic was still 28 percent lower than it was in 2019 before the pandemic.

但根据零售分析和运营公司Sensormal Solutions的数据，今年黑色星期五的门店客流量仍比疫情前的2019年下降了28%。

Observers believe it's because people started shopping sooner this year and spread out their buying instead of concentrating it on just one day.

观察人士认为，这是因为人们今年开始更早地购物，并分散购买，而不是集中在一天购买。

Returns are inevitably part of this process.

退货是这个过程不可避免的一部分。

Free returns.They're customer's insurance policy for shopping online, but what happens to those returns after you give them back might surprise you.

免费退货。它们是顾客网上购物的保险单，但当你退回货物后，这些退货情况可能会让你大吃一惊。

For customers really believe the product just goes into the black hole or ends up being resold to another customer.

因为客户真的认为产品只是消失得无影无踪，或者最终被转售给了另一位客户。

In many instances, that's not the case.

在许多情况下，情况并非如此。

In reality, many of these products never return anywhere.

在现实中，许多这样的产品都不会退回到任何地方。

Instead, they may end up here, or even here.

取而代之的是，他们可能最终会来到这里，甚至是这里。

You know easily 25 percent of all these returns get destroyed.

你知道，很容易这些退货中就有25%被销毁。

In fact, returns have become such a headache for retailers that in some cases they're just refunding customers, letting them keep or donate the unwanted items.

事实上，退货已经成为零售商非常头疼的问题，在某些情况下，他们只是退还顾客金额，让他们保留货物或捐赠不需要的货物。

The cost of getting the product back from the customer is much higher than traditionally just getting the product to the customer.

从客户那里拿回产品的成本比传统上只把产品送到客户手中的成本要高得多。

Turns out, free returns are far from it.

事实证明，免费退货远非如此。

There's a very large disparity between the amount of returns that happen from consumers that buy products online versus in the store.

网上购买产品的消费者和商店购买产品的消费者在退货数量之间存在着非常大的差距。

In a brick-and-mortar store, we typically get somewhere between five and 10 percent returns, but online we get north of 30 percent returns.

在实体店，通常会有5%到10%的退货，但在网上，会有30%以上的退货。

In 2020, the coronavirus pandemic pushed online shopping and returns to record highs.

2020年，新冠疫情推动网购和退货创下历史新高。

CVRE, a commercial real estate service, estimates that Americans will end up returning up $70 billion worth of online purchases post-holiday season.

商业房地产服务公司CVRE估计，假期结束后，美国人最终将退掉价值700亿美元的在线购物。

That's a staggering 73 percent growth from the previous five-year average.

这比前五年的平均水平增长了73%，令人震惊。

Here's why that's a problem.

这就是为什么这是一个问题。

The entire returns business in and of itself is just extremely complex.

整个退货业务本身就是极其复杂的。

Big retailers already use data to improve the shopping experience on the front end.

大型零售商已经在使用数据来改善前端的购物体验。

Walmart believes data should play a bigger role in the returns process too.

沃尔玛认为，数据也应该在退货过程中发挥更大的作用。

We're constantly digging into the data to understand why customers are bringing stuff back.

我们不断地挖掘数据，以了解客户为什么要退回这些货物。

And we actually can solve a bigger portion of the end of the life cycle of the product by stopping the return from ever occurring.

我们实际上可以通过从生产开始就杜绝掉退货来解决产品生命周期末期的更大一部分的问题 。

So, if I know I have an item that is low quality, we work with the manufacturer to fix it or we quit selling it.

所以，如果我知道我有一件质量不好的东西，我们就和制造商合作修理它，否则我们就停止销售它。

That's because accepting a return isn't always easy either.

这是因为接受退货也不总是那么容易。

A warehouse optimized for fulfilling orders is now asked to receive a product and inspect it.

为完成订单而优化的仓库现在被要求接收产品并对其进行检查。

Then someone needs to decide whether it can be resold or not.

那么需要有人来决定是否可以转售。

In the end, an online return can require up to 20 percent more space and labor than one made in store.

最终，在线退货可能比商店退货需要高达20%的场所和劳动力。

Those costs are part of why Opturo, a return solution company, estimates that returning a $50 item can cost a retailer 59 percent of its sale price.

退货解决方案公司Opturo估计，退货一件50美元的商品，零售商的成本可能是其售价的59%，而这些成本正是原因之一。