• Chicago Tribune, Tuesday, January 3, 2012 11 AM

With a Christmas season that has seen record e-commerce sales coming to a close, the United Parcel Service expects to handle more than 550,000 returns on Tuesday, a record, and up almost 8% from a year earlier. Several other days during the first week of 2012 will also top half a million returns, UPS said.

Explosive growth in e-commerce this Christmas season drives the trend: U.S. online sales were up 15% between Nov. 1 and Dec. 26, according to comScore. UPS expects returns to rise 7.7%, meaning returns as a percentage of total sales have actually dipped despite more customer-friendly return policies.

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