James Wilson

Inside the reverse logistics education gap and the economic blind spot keeping it invisible Special Guest Blog Post written by Deborah Dull   Tony Sciarrotta has been asking the same question at industry conferences for years. As the Senior Director of Circularity and Reverse Logistics at the National Retail Federation, he knows what answer he’s going to get. But he keeps asking anyway. “Anybody in here go to school for returns management, reverse logistics, circularity? Any degrees in those fields the room?” It’s rare that anyone raises their hand. “That’s what’s wrong with our industry,” Sciarrotta told me at NRF Rev this January, the first conference under NRF’s new reverse logistics banner. “We still need to fix it.”   The Numbers That Should Make Headlines Here’s what makes reverse logistics so fascinating: the scale is staggering, but the infrastructure to support it needs to be stronger. According to the National Retail Federation, American retailers processed approximately $890 billion in returns in 2024 which is roughly 17% of all retail sales – and it’s higher for ecommerce. But that number almost certainly understates reality. “We have a fragmented industry,” Sciarrotta explained. “Where are all those returns going? It has to be…

It’s been an exciting week here at Supply Chain Now! Get ready to hear all the latest episodes, interviews, conversations, and livestreams from this week right here. On Monday, we released 3 new episodes! In this episode of Supply Chain Now, we introduced the relaunch of our Supply Chain Real Estate series, in partnership with Prologis. Special host Ward Richmond of Colliers International joined our Supply Chain Now host Scott Luton to welcome Melinda McLaughlin and Megan Creecy-Herman of Prologis to the show. On This Week in Business History, Scott Luton shares 9 Things you Didn’t Know About Tina Fey. On Supply Chain Now en Espanol, host Enrique Alvarez welcomed José Luis Silva Vázquez with Dux Capital to hear stories from his childhood and how self-motivation and taking risks have gotten him where he is today. On Tuesday, we released 2 new episodes! On this episode of TEKTOK, Kelly Barner and Enrique Alvarez joined Karin Bursa and Scott Luton to discuss how the industry has bounced back since the pandemic began and how far we’ve come on a few important themes around digital supply chain and procurement. On TECHquila Sunrise, host Greg White continued his conversation with stealthy startup co-founder…