Back in the day, I was selling bikinis. We shipped them from Hong Kong directly to US customers which cost a mindbogglingly low $9 for the DHL shipping fees a

Back in the day, I was selling bikinis. We shipped them from Hong Kong directly to US customers which cost a mindbogglingly low $9 for the DHL shipping fees and the warehouse, and packaging, and all manual labor. But to get a single return from somewhere in the US back to our centralized returns collection address (inside the US) would regularly cost $30+. Average rate was 1.7x bikinis more ordered than kept, so in the end, we sold them at 2x manufacturing price + 1x ads price + 2x stripe fees. In case you're wondering, the ads were our biggest cost factor...