The Christmas gifts have been delivered, and Secret Santa is done.
Now, the work begins for Optoro, a startup company that aims to reduce the financial and environmental costs of another great holiday tradition: returns.
耶誕禮物已經遞送出去，神祕的耶誕老人（交換禮物）也已完成。
Optoro的工作現在開始了，這家新創公司成立宗旨為減少另一偉大節日傳統─退貨的財務與環境成本。
Americans returned $260 billion in merchandise last year, up more than 66 percent from five years ago, according to the National Retail Federation. And a quarter of that was during the holiday season.
As e-commerce sales surge and free return shipping becomes the norm, shoppers are set to return even more this year — a cycle that started in earnest on Monday, the first weekday after Christmas.
美國全國零售聯盟指出，美國人去年退回商品價值達2600億美元，較5年前上升超過66%，且1/4發生在假期季節。
隨著電子商務銷售激增且退貨免運費成為常態，今年購物者料將退回更多貨品，而此周期在耶誕節過後首個工作日的星期一便熱烈展開。
Little known to shoppers, however, is that a majority of returned items never make it back to retailers' shelves. Instead, the items wind their way through liquidators, wholesalers and resellers, many of the purchases ending up in landfills. According to some estimates, as much as two million tons of returned items — most of it undamaged merchandise — are thrown away each year, enough to fill over 200,000 garbage trucks.
Returns, in short, are not just a big loss for retailers. They are a big and growing environmental burden.
然而，購物者幾乎不知道的是，多數退回的貨永遠不會回到零售商的貨架上。相反地，這些貨品在清算人、批發商及轉售商中流轉，許多最終進了垃圾掩埋場。根據一些估計，每年至多有200萬噸退貨被扔掉，可裝滿20萬輛垃圾車，而且大多完好無損。
簡言之，退貨不僅是零售商不小的損失，同時也是個很大，而且越來越大的環境負擔。
"The way we consume right now isn't sustainable," said Tobin Moore, chief executive of Optoro, which offers retailers alternative ways to resell, recycle or donate returned merchandise. "We can't keep throwing stuff away," he said. "There's a better way."
Optoro is becoming a player in the "reverse logistics" industry handling returns in the United States, one that is growing together with the rise of online sales.
Optoro執行長托賓．摩爾說：「我們現在的消費方式是非永續的。我們不能不斷仍掉東西，有更好的辦法。」Optoro向零售商提供轉售、回收或捐贈退回貨品的替代方式。
Optoro正成為美國國內處理退貨的「逆向物流」產業玩家，隨著網路銷售興起而成長。
And the space is attracting investors' attention. Last December, Genco, one of the biggest operators, processing about 600 million returned items a year and, raking in about $1.6 billion in sales, was acquired by FedEx.
Optoro declined to disclose sales, but said it processed about 10 million returned items a year and has raised $80 million in funding from Silicon Valley investors.
這個領域正吸引著投資者的目光。去年12月，最大營運商之一Genco被聯邦快遞收購。Genco一年約處理6億件退貨，營業額約16億美元。
Optoro拒絕透露業績，但表示一年約處理1000萬件退貨，並已向矽谷投資者募到8000萬美元資金。
To get shoppers used to buying without touching, Web retailers have offered generous return policies. Almost half of e-commerce sellers surveyed by the retail federation — including Amazon-owned Zappos, Macy's, Target, Saks and Gap — now offer free return shipping in many categories.
為讓購物者習慣在未實際觸摸到的情形下購物，網路零售商提供大方的退貨條款。在接受零售聯盟調查的電子商務賣家裡，目前將近一半在許多類別提供退貨免運費服務，包括亞馬遜旗下的Zappos、梅西百貨、Target、Saks以及Gap。
（Hiroko Tabuchi,紐約時報,陳韋廷譯）
說文解字看新聞
民眾在耶誕節前忙著線上瘋狂購買禮物，電子商務（e-commerce）業者也樂得喜迎年終購物旺季的買氣，但耶誕節一過，他們卻必須面對退貨季（season of returning）中洶湧而至的退貨商品，而這種情形年年上演已成常態（norm）。
報導指出，這些沒人要的耶誕禮品不會再回到零售商的銷售平台，而是流通到像Optoro、Genco這類負責逆向物流（reverse logistics）業務的公司，進行清算（liquidate）、轉售（resell）、回收（recycle）或捐贈（donate）等處理流程。
逆向物流包括退貨、回收再利用（recycle and reuse）、廢棄處理（waste disposal）、維修（maintenance and repair）與召回（recall）等流程。廣義上來說，它屬於售後服務（after-sales service）的一環。
上述公司雖因逆向物流產業賺進大把鈔票，但電子商務業者因退貨而產生的損失（loss）也很可觀。文中片語rake in意指earn large sums of money（海撈一票），例句：Star Wars: The Force Awakens set to rake in $47m on Christmas Day.（「星際大戰七部曲：原力覺醒」耶誕節當天票房料將大賺4700萬美元。）
（陳韋廷）
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