By Martina Kao    Photo：CANVA

"Forward logistics" is easy to understand. In the traditional sales process, goods travel from the sales end to the consumer end, that is, the goods are shipped from the retailer to the consumer. This may be in-store sales or online sales. In recent years, e-commerce sales for cross-border transactions have become very popular, so well-known e-commerce retail sales platforms have widely swept the consumer market. As a result, many e-commerce platforms have made returns the norm for consumers' convenience in order to have better service competitiveness. The relatively high level of competition among platforms has exploited store profits from cross-border shipping. At this time, "reverse logistics" has emerged. "Enterprise" to help stores on cross-border shipping platforms handle returned goods.

Taiwan's well-known reverse logistics company "Return Helper" is a service provider that helps stores handle returns on e-commerce platforms. They have more than 14 overseas warehouses around the world, and have dedicated personnel to handle the collection and processing of overseas returns. Their services also include: taking photos of returned goods, relabeling, overseas return address collection, warehouse collection, product testing, FBA re- Warehousing, FBA clearance, product disposal, environmentally friendly product recycling, and more customized services. This helps sellers effectively reduce overseas return costs. This one-stop management solution is provided not only to sellers on the Amazon platform, but also to sellers on eBay, Walmart, Shopify, Onbuy.com, Rakuten, etc., making it easier for many sellers to connect to the platform and handle cross-border transactions. Logistics for e-commerce returns.

This kind of reverse logistics operator is a bit like a return nanny, carefully assisting sellers in inspecting returned goods, screening and related follow-up processing processes. "Reverse logistics operators" are not "waste disposal operators". The two concepts are very different. The waste disposal method is to recycle used items or reuse waste, changing the traditional linear economy and finding ways to achieve the mission of a circular economy; however, there is a high probability that the goods that were originally intended to be returned will not become discarded. For goods, the mission of reverse logistics is to minimize the occurrence of waste or reduce the seller's loss, find a way to move upstream, and return the goods to the retailer or return them to the manufacturer.

Reverse logistics and waste disposal have the same concept of sustainable living to protect the earth. Therefore, there are still some identical or similar practical practices. For example: Reverse logistics operators usually organize returned items and put them on the shelves for second-hand sales. , donation, environmental recycling, reuse of important parts, and consolidated return. Waste disposal companies will also sell discarded items second-hand, donate them, recycle them in an environmentally friendly manner and dismantle their parts for reuse.

Reverse logistics is not just about taking back items returned by consumers. It has been closely tied to logistics services. It is the reverse of forward logistics services. They are closer to consumers and serve more sellers. Most of the services they provide are also closely linked to overseas warehouses. The services they are providing include cross-border warehouse logistics, recycling, returns, connecting online stores, and order delivery; however, waste disposal usually does not provide services, and in Taiwan Some types must be declared and subject to inspection and control in order to handle them properly and avoid illegal environmental pollution.

The author has investigated the reuse and recycling industry in Japan and visited waste recycling factories near the suburbs of Tokyo, Japan. Compared with those reverse logistics warehouses, the environment of waste recycling factories usually has an odor and is messy and messy. Inside the factory, The actual implementation includes collection, classification, processing, packaging, handling, and storage. Usually, these items are not in a clean state, and workers may even come into contact with metals that are harmful to the human body in the parts that need to be dismantled. The working environment is not ideal, and they face more environmental pressures and risks.

There are too many places that need to be optimized. However, reverse logistics aims to reduce the loss and waste of returns; the waste factory handles items that cannot be processed after reverse logistics repairs and renovations and items that no longer need to be discarded directly, for recycling and reuse. The same thing is that both are to avoid the final fate of the product being sent directly to the garbage cemetery.

Finally, the rise of reverse logistics provides an effective logistics solution for cross-border e-commerce and also promotes the development of the circular economy. Through a deeper understanding of reverse logistics and waste processing, we can better understand the interrelationship between these two areas and contribute to the achievement of sustainable development goals.

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