That gift you returned may have landed in North Las Vegas

Ever been curious about where the snow globe you received for Christmas and returned actually ended up?

It's a lot closer than you think.

Hundreds of thousands of returned items have been flowing into the Liquidity Services warehouse on East Alexander Road in North Las Vegas where they're sorted and tested before being resold on one of the company's three reselling channels.

"We do see volume pickup significantly this time of year," said Vice President of Operations Preston Mosier. "We make updates to our staffing, increase our storage capacity and make updates to our equipment so we're able to handle everything that's coming in."

According to the National Retail Federation's Annual Return Survey, about $63 billion worth of holiday merchandise was returned in 2015 or roughly 10 percent of total holiday sales.

The most commonly returned items are clothing and fragrances because of sizing issues and personal preferences, a RetailMeNot report revealed.

In addition, the report said one in three Americans return 20 percent of the gifts they receive during the winter holiday season.

Liquidity Services' 108,000-square-foot Las Vegas warehouse has experienced a 45 percent increase in an influx of return merchandise last month compared to December 2014.

"Returns start coming in right away and we see an increase in early December before the holiday even starts," Mosier said. "Over the last several years retailers have gotten more efficient in their returns process so the products flow back to us very quickly."

Liquidity Services, which also has a second Las Vegas warehouse at 4390 Flossmoor St., receives a wide variety of merchandise including apparel, toys and electronics from manufacturers as well as more than half of the top 20 retailers including Home Depot and Sony.

According to Mosier, though each retailer has different criteria regarding processing returns, if a product has been opened or the packaging or product itself is damaged, the retailer is not able to put the item back on the shelf and sell it as new so it will be sent to Liquidity Services.

"If the product is returned brand new and never opened, it will likely be put back on the shelf," he said.

Once Liquidity Services receives an item, it goes through an inspection process to determine its condition and value. Electronics are put through a functional test to ensure they're working properly and all data has been removed.

The company sells individual products on its website, Secondipity.com, while larger quantities of products are sold on Liquidation.com. Truckloads of products are sold via direct negotiations with the company, Mosier said.

"When companies have customer returns or overstock we take that product in and help them resell it and pass that savings onto consumers," he said. "Savings can be quite substantial — somewhere between 40-70 percent by purchasing return merchandise."

General Manager of Operations Alan Noble said Liquidity Services serves a diverse customer base.

"We have quite a few customers who make a living off of picking our products up," he said.

Henderson resident Nicole Andersen is one of those customers as she purchases everything from high-end baby gear to electronics from Liquidity Services before reselling them online or locally.

"I participate in online auctions as well as buy truckloads of items so it's great to not have to pay shipping and just go and pick it up from their warehouse," she said. "I'm only paying a fraction of the total retail price."

Mosier said once holiday returns slow down, televisions will flood the warehouse after the Super Bowl in February.

"We'll see a lot of television returns in February before things begin to stabilize in late February into March," he said. "We'll see a lot of overflow of lawn furniture and seasonal items during the summer so we're always able to capitalize on the seasons."

Mosier said he doesn't anticipate ever seeing the amount of returns coming to a screeching halt.

"There's so much growth in online shopping so online retailers need to be competitive with their returns," he said. "We're definitely not seeing returns decline."

Liquidity Services is hosting an open house on Feb. 27 from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. at their facility, 3010 E. Alexander Road, Ste. 1001, North Las Vegas.

Contact reporter Ann Friedman at afriedman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4588. Find @AnnFriedmanRJ on Twitter.