Amazon is launching two new programs for returned and overstock merchandise in an effort to cut down on its waste.
Last month, the company came under fire when ITV News published footage exposing the “destruction zone” in Amazon’s Dunfermline warehouse in Scotland, where millions of unsold items are destroyed yearly. The video showed products that were either unsold or returned by a customer — including Smart TVs, laptops, drones and even COVID face masks — being dumped into bins and transferred to recycling centers and landfills.
Currently available in the United Kingdom, with plans to rollout in the United States later this year and elsewhere in early 2022, the “FBA Grade and Resell” will allow third party sellers to sell returned products on Amazon as used items, labeled with conditions ranging from “Like New” to “Acceptable.”
Meanwhile, “FBA Liquidations” will now let sellers use company’s wholesale resale channel as a means of recovering some of the costs associated with returned and overstocked inventory, whereas a seller would previously have the customer mail the item back to them directly. This service is live nationwide, as well as in Germany, France, Italy and Spain and will come to the United Kingdom this August.
“Customer returns are a fact of life for all retailers, and what to do with those products is an industry-wide challenge,” said Libby Johnson McKee, director of Amazon WW Returns, ReCommerce and Sustainability. “These new programs are examples of the steps we’re taking to ensure that products sold on Amazon—whether by us or our small business partners—go to good use and don’t become waste.”
The announcement of the programs stated that Amazon plans to “net zero carbon by 2040 and 100 percent renewable energy by 2025.”
In other tech news, Virgin Galactic reopened seats on its upcoming spaceflights for $450,000 USD.
