Return Manager is an AI worker that autonomously orchestrates cross-border reverse logistics. It transforms returns from a cost center into a recovery engine, automating RMA authorization, customs filings, and duty drawback claims.
Reduces drawback cycle from 121 days to 10 days while recovering up to 99% of import duties.
What is Return Manager?
- Reverse Logistics Orchestration. Solves the single most complex operational hurdle in global e-commerce: cross-border returns. While forward logistics is optimized for speed, reverse logistics is a fragmented mess of manual emails, confusing customs forms, and lost revenue. This agent replaces passive tracking with intelligent, always-on coordination that reasons through the financial and operational logic of every return request.
- Deep System Integration. Integrates with Order Management Systems (OMS), Warehouse Management Systems (WMS), and financial software. Validates requests against return policies, determines optimal disposition (ship back, liquidate locally, or destroy), and generates cross-border shipping labels and commercial invoices for re-entry with correct "Goods Returned" customs codes to prevent double taxation.
- Financial Recovery Engine. Over $10 billion is lost annually in unclaimed duty drawback because manual recovery processes are too cumbersome. This agent automates complex filing by tracing returned items to original import entries, reconciling data, and submitting claims to customs authorities.
- Carrier Orchestration. Selects optimal carriers based on cost, speed, and carbon footprint, ensuring return logistics do not erode remaining product value.
Replaces:
- Manual RMA Processing - eliminates staff reviewing requests, checking eligibility, issuing approval emails.
- Customs Re-Entry Filings - automates commercial invoices and "American Goods Returned" documentation.
- Spreadsheet-Based Duty Drawback - replaces Excel tracking with automated, audit-ready filings.
- Carrier Label Generation - stops manual portal logins to create and email international return labels.
- Disposition Decisioning - replaces subjective human decisions with algorithmic cost-benefit analysis.
Ready to see Return Manager in action?
Why Return Manager?
- Maximize Financial Recovery. Automates duty drawback recoupment by reconciling import and export records. Reduces the drawback recovery cycle from an average of 121 days to just 10 days. Recovers up to 99% of duties paid, turning operational loss into a significant revenue recovery stream.
- Slash Operational Costs. Traditional processing costs for trade documents range from $5 to $25 per interaction due to labor overhead. Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) handles these tasks for pennies, reducing operational costs by 80-90%. Removes the need for large coordinator teams, allowing businesses to scale without linear headcount growth.
- Enhance Customer Loyalty. Provides instant, self-service return experience with labels and instructions in seconds rather than days. Accelerates the timeline for receiving, inspecting, and refunding goods. Directly impacts Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV) by building trust and encouraging repeat cross-border purchasing.
- Ensure Compliance & Prevent Fraud. Enforces strict policy adherence in real-time. Validates return reasons against product data and ensures declared values match original transactions. Creates an immutable digital audit trail for full compliance with export controls and import regulations.
How It Works
Workflow Automation
How Return Manager integrates with your systems
Processes return requests, uses AI to assess eligibility, generates RMA numbers, creates return labels, and sends instructions to the customer.
- Intelligent Authorization & Disposition. Analyzes return requests against merchant policy, item value, and return shipping costs. Uses "total landed cost" reversal logic to determine optimal disposition: authorize return, offer partial refund to keep item, or direct to local liquidation hub. Decision made in milliseconds.
- Automated Documentation Generation. Creates Commercial Invoices for re-importation with correct HS codes signifying "returned goods" to avoid double duty. Interacts with carrier APIs to generate compliant shipping labels and emails directly to customers.
- Logistics Orchestration & Tracking. Monitors progress via carrier EDI feeds. Predicts delays and proactively manages exceptions - if a package is stuck in customs due to missing forms, autonomously regenerates and transmits documents. Automated customer updates reduce "Where is my refund?" tickets.
- Reconciliation & Duty Drawback Filing. Upon warehouse receipt and inspection, triggers financial workflow. Initiates customer refund while simultaneously opening duty drawback claim. Matches return export proof with original import entry and submits evidence package to customs authority.
Get Started
Stop letting international returns bleed your margins. Deploy Return Manager to automate reverse logistics, recover lost duties, and deliver a world-class post-purchase experience.
See how Return Manager works for your business
Core Capabilities
Automated Duty Drawback
Files complex duty refund claims autonomously by reconciling import and export data, reducing recovery time by over 90%.
Cross-Border Documentation
Generates accurate commercial invoices and re-import declarations instantly, preventing double taxation and customs delays on returned goods.
Intelligent Disposition Logic
Calculates the economic viability of returns in real-time to decide between return shipping, local liquidation, or refund-without-return.
Carrier Orchestration
Selects optimal return carriers and generates compliant shipping labels dynamically based on cost, speed, and region.
Who It's For
Cross-Border E-commerce Retailers
Deploy Return Manager to handle high volumes of international returns (apparel, electronics) without manual intervention. The agent ensures customers get instant labels while the business recovers duties paid on the original import, protecting thin e-commerce margins.
Third-Party Logistics (3PL) Providers
Use the worker to offer "Returns as a Service" to multiple clients. The agent manages distinct return policies and carrier accounts for each client, automating the complex billing and documentation required for multi-tenant reverse logistics.
Consumer Electronics Manufacturers
Implement the worker to manage high-value RMA flows. The agent verifies warranty status before authorization and manages the complex regulatory compliance for moving goods with lithium batteries back across borders.
Value Outcomes
Drawback Cycle Reduction
91% faster recovery
Accelerate cash recovery from customs authorities. Automated filing reduces the duty drawback cycle from an average of 121 days to just 10 days, significantly improving working capital.
Operational Cost Savings
85% cost reduction
Slash administrative overhead. By automating document creation and coordination, the cost per return transaction is reduced by approximately 80-90% compared to manual processing.
Customs Efficiency
70% fewer delays
Eliminate border delays for returned goods. Precise, automated documentation ensures re-imported items clear customs smoothly, reducing storage and demurrage fees by up to 70%.
Processing Speed
99% faster processing
Speed up the entire return lifecycle. AI agents process return authorizations and generate labels in seconds, compared to the 30-60 minutes required for manual review and entry.
Strategic Value for Decision Makers
For the CFO
**Cash Recovery & Margin Protection.** The Return Manager is a liquidity engine. It automates duty drawback recovery, unlocking millions in previously unclaimed tax refunds. Furthermore, it stops margin leakage by mathematically validating every return decision, ensuring we never spend more on logistics than an item's recoverable value.
For the COO
**Scalable Reverse Logistics.** Returns volume scales with sales, but our headcount doesn't have to. This AI worker handles the chaos of cross-border reverse logistics autonomously. It gives us the elasticity to handle post-holiday surges without hiring temp staff, maintaining operational velocity and accuracy year-round.
For the Owner
**Customer Experience & Brand Equity.** In global retail, the return experience *is* the brand experience. Return Manager ensures our international customers enjoy the same frictionless service as locals. It builds trust, drives repeat business, and differentiates us from competitors who struggle with cross-border complexity.
Why Export Arena
Return Manager is not a standalone tool - it's part of Export Arena's AI & Automation Department as a Service. Pre-trained on global trade nuances, from HS codes to geopolitical risk, it delivers strategic insights tailored to C-suite decision-making. We provide resilience as a service.
See how Return Manager works for your business
