How On-Demand Labor Helps You Keep Up With Early Season Returns While Protecting Outbound

For logistics and distribution companies, the holiday season creates a dual reality. Outbound fulfillment dominates attention leading into Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the peak weeks that follow. But just behind that outbound wave sits a second challenge that is just as important: returns.

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And the challenge doesn’t come all at once.

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Holiday returns occur in two very different phases:

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Phase 1: Early-season returns (late November through mid-December)
These returns are small in volume but highly unpredictable, driven by impulse buying, bracketing, price adjustments, and buyer’s remorse immediately after Cyber Week. These returns must be processed quickly to preserve satisfaction, but outbound fulfillment is still at full speed during this time, so every moment your core team shifts into returns creates operational drag.

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Phase 2: The main surge (after Christmas through January)
Once gifts are opened on Christmas Day, return volume accelerates dramatically and the real flood begins. These volumes are so high that even companies with seasonal help often find themselves totally overwhelmed, creating inventory backlogs, congestion, and delayed refunds that impact customer satisfaction.

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Fixed labor approaches simply can’t absorb these two waves without sacrificing either outbound throughput or accuracy in returns.

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On-demand labor solves this by giving you flexible capacity at your fingertips, so you can handle early-season returns without pulling your core team off outbound work, and then handle the January surge without breaking a sweat.

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Why Fixed Labor Breaks Down During the Returns Cycle

1. Early-season returns are sporadic and unpredictable
   Returns spike on some days and trickle in on others. Historical averages don’t always help because the patterns vary every year based on promotions, buying behavior, and inventory mix.
2. Returns require different levels of labor intensity
   Some items need only basic sorting and relabeling. Others require inspection, cleaning, testing, or repackaging.
3. Pulling core employees away from outbound creates bottlenecks
   In late November and early December, outbound is still running hot. When supervisors shift core team members to returns, throughput and accuracy slip.
4. Backlogs compound quickly
   A few pallets become multiple staging areas of tied-up inventory, delayed refunds, and customer frustration.
5. Customer expectations are higher than ever
   A UPS study found that 81% of shoppers expect a refund within one week of returning an item. The bottom line: slow processing erodes trust and future sales.

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And after Christmas, when outbound volume drops sharply, the main surge begins.

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How On-Demand Labor Helps You Stay Ahead of Both Returns Waves

On-demand labor gives you the flexibility to scale capacity as returns arrive, whether they trickle in after Cyber Monday or surge in January.

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Key advantages:

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Just-in-time labor capacity
Operators can be deployed in hours to handle sorting, inspection, testing, cleaning, relabeling, repackaging, or restocking.

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Protect outbound fulfillment when it matters most
During late November and early December, your core team stays focused on outbound while on-demand operators absorbs returns work.

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Daily workforce alignment with real volume
You scale up returns processing on high-volume days and scale down on slow days, paying only for the work performed.

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You build your bench ahead of January
Using on-demand labor during Cyber Week and early December gives you visibility into operator performance. You rate the top performers 4 or 5 stars and build your labor pool, a ready-made bench you can call back for January’s surge or whenever else needed.

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Reduced overtime and burnout
Instead of forcing your core team into extended hours to handle returns, you add capacity only when needed.

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Customer satisfaction improves
Fast refunds and exchanges lead to higher retention and better brand loyalty.

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Inventory value is recovered faster
The quicker you inspect, sort, and restock product, the faster it can be resold and turned back into revenue.

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This flexibility is the difference between seamlessly absorbing returns volume and being overwhelmed by it.

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Build Your On-Demand Labor Pool Now, Before the Real Returns Surge Hits

Companies that prepare now enter the returns season strong.

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Here’s the process step-by-step:

1. Create your Veryable Business Portal
   Setup only takes minutes, and you can post your first op immediately.
2. Bring in operators now to support outbound during Cyber Week and other holiday promotions
   This lets you handle surges and callouts and start identifying high-performing operators.
3. Favorite your top performers to build your labor pool
   These operators become your trained bench for January returns processing.
4. Cross-train repeat operators on returns workflows
   Deploy operations across inspection, testing, cleaning, warranty checks, repackaging, etc to ensure they'e familiar with your processes.
5. Develop multiple layers of capability
   Newer or less experienced operators handle sorting, labeling, and staging, while the highest performers handle product-specific or quality-sensitive workflows.
6. Post opportunities early in the day for best results
   Ops posted in the morning achieve the highest quantity and quality of bids, and in many markets can fill same-day.
7. Hit January with a ready-made returns team
   When the main surge arrives, you activate your labor pool instead of scrambling or burning out your core team.

This proactive approach separates high-performing operations from those constantly playing catch-up.

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Real-World Example: How One Distributor Controlled the Returns Surge

One consumer products distributor used Veryable to supplement its seasonal workforce during the Cyber Week surge. Their existing seasonal hires could handle baseline demand, but not the sharp spikes that hit in the days following Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Instead of relying on overtime, they brought in on-demand operators to absorb the overflow. As those operators proved themselves on outbound tasks, supervisors added the top performers to a dedicated labor pool, giving the company a reliable bench of workers familiar with their layout, processes, and pace.

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By December, when early returns began arriving in unpredictable fashion, they didn’t have to pull trained pickers or packers off the floor. They posted returns-specific ops directly to their labor pool and had capable operators on-site the next morning. This kept outbound performance steady while ensuring returns were inspected, sorted, and restocked quickly enough to maintain customer satisfaction during the tight holiday window.

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When the major post-Christmas returns surge arrived in January, that early preparation paid off. The distributor was able to handle the entire spike without overtime, backlogs, or operational disruption. As a result, returns were cleared faster than any previous year, and the company avoided the typical January congestion that used to delay refunds and tie up inventory.

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The Bottom Line

You don’t need a bigger workforce to win the returns season. You need a more flexible one. With on-demand labor, you stay ahead of both the early trickle and the January surge, keep outbound running strong, and prevent returns from ever becoming a backlog problem. The operations that embrace this flexibility don’t just survive peak season, they dominate it.

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