Zalando, CEVA Logistics and Sereact put AI robots into live returns operations in Germany and Poland, where the robots sort clothing without item-specific training.
UPS-owned Happy Returns lifted its sorting efficiency by 50% with technology including Geekplus robots, while Amazon uses AI to catch damaged items before they ship.
PYMNTS Intelligence found 58% of merchants agree AI agents will automate returns, refunds and issue resolution.
Every returned item has to be picked up, identified and sorted before it can be sold again, and that work has long resisted automation.
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“If a system only works on articles it has seen before, it does not work in a returns operation at all,” Ralf Gulde, co-founder and CEO of German robotics software company Sereact, said in an Oct. 7 announcement of a new artificial intelligence-powered returns processing system.
Robots powered by Sereact’s AI are now sorting returned clothing for Berlin-based online fashion retailer Zalando, with 62 million active customers. CEVA Logistics, the Marseille-based logistics arm of French shipping group CMA CGM, runs the robots at fulfillment sites in Greven, Germany, and Świebodzin, Poland.
Sereact’s AI lets the robots handle objects they have never seen. The three companies called it the first phase of a plan to scale returns automation across Europe.
The dual-arm robots grasp, identify and sort returned fashion items without article-specific training or predetermined article sets, the companies said. They run on Cortex, Sereact’s AI platform.
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