Remember the bad old days when you ordered something online from a department store chain and then found you couldn't return it to the brick-and-mortar outlet? Retailers quickly learned that the customer doesn't want to be inconvenienced by whatever the internal fulfillment and returns processes are. So now, you can return a dress you ordered online to a physical retail store. But the truth is that, behind the scenes, there's often a highly inefficient process still going on, as e-tail and retail try to inhabit the same universe and work seamlessly together. It's not at all uncommon for retailers to have completely separate supply chains, fulfillment centers and returns protocols for in-person versus online purchases.
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