Nearshoring and refurbishment: 2025 logistics revolution

Strategic evolution of supply chains

European companies are fundamentally rethinking their logistics approach. After decades of offshoring to Asia, a nearshoring movement is accelerating, bringing production closer to consumer markets.

Meanwhile, the circular economy is transforming traditional business models. Refurbishment is no longer just an ecological alternative, but is becoming a strategic lever for competitiveness.

Converging challenges of 2025

These two trends converge toward common objectives:

• Resilience: Reduce dependence on distant supply chains
• Sustainability: Minimize carbon footprint and maximize reuse
• Agility: Respond faster to market fluctuations
• Profitability: Optimize costs while creating new revenue streams

Your roadmap to logistics excellence

This article reveals how these two revolutions are concretely transforming logistics operations. You will discover winning strategies, challenges to anticipate, and tools to succeed in this transition.

On the agenda:

• Economic drivers of nearshoring in 2025
• The refurbishment market explosion
• Operational synergies between these two approaches
• Technologies accelerating this transformation
• A concrete action plan for your company

Introduction

Global trade reaches historic heights with $35 trillion in exchanges in 2025, according to the latest UNCTAD projections. This exceptional 7% growth is mainly driven by East Asia, which consolidates its position as a global manufacturing and logistics hub.

But behind these record figures lies a silent revolution: nearshoring is completely redesigning global trade flows. Companies are massively relocating their production to reduce geopolitical risks and optimize their supply chains.

The logistics flow revolution in motion

This geographical transformation of trade flows is disrupting a still little-known but crucial sector: reverse logistics.

While "forward" flows are shortening with nearshoring, return flows are following new routes that challenge established models. These flows include:

• Defective products requiring refurbishment
• Unsold items to be revalued or recycled
• End-of-life equipment to be processed

Refurbishment, a market growing by 15% annually according to ResearchAndMarkets, is at the heart of this transformation.

Processing centers traditionally centralized in Asia see their relevance challenged by regional hubs closer to end consumers.

The economics of nearshoring

McKinsey reveals a key figure: nearshoring enables a 15% reduction in total logistics costs. This substantial saving comes mainly from several optimized factors:

Optimization factor	Gain achieved	Business impact
Transport delays	30 → 7 days	Increased customer responsiveness
Safety stock	-40%	Cash flow liberation
Return flows	Geographic proximity	Faster processing

However, this geographic proximity radically transforms the management of products at the end of their first life.

Companies must rethink their refurbishment and return valorization strategies in a context of shortened supply chains.

Central issue: toward a complete model overhaul

How are new trade routes from nearshoring fundamentally transforming return management and refurbishment?

This strategic question implies a complete overhaul of infrastructure, processes, and partnerships.

Companies must simultaneously optimize their direct flows while building reverse logistics capabilities adapted to these new circuits.

Four-axis strategic analysis plan

This article will analyze this transformation according to four key dimensions:

1. New flow mapping Nearshoring's impact on trade routes and regional logistics hubs

2. Refurbishment revolution Evolution of processing centers toward decentralized models and their impact on quality

3. Technological optimization Digital solutions and automation to manage the complexity of shortened reverse flows

4. Adaptation strategies Operational recommendations for companies facing this transformation of global exchanges

This analysis is based on exclusive industry data and experience feedback from pioneer companies in this major logistics transition.

Nearshoring challenges for reverse logistics

Nearshoring fundamentally redesigns product return flow architecture. With a 25% increase in e-commerce return volumes according to Statista 2024, companies face dual complexity.

They must manage growing volumes while adapting their infrastructure to more regionalized supply chains. This transformation requires a complete revision of traditional reverse logistics models, centered on unified global hubs.

Product return flow fragmentation

The transition from globalized logistics to regional ecosystems mechanically fragments return flows. Average return transport distances have decreased by 35% in Europe according to McKinsey.

But this geographic proximity hides increased operational complexity. Companies must now orchestrate multiple return flows instead of a single centralized pipeline.

This fragmentation generates unit processing costs 15 to 20% higher compared to centralized models, according to a Roland Berger 2024 study.

Channel diversification impact:

• Physical stores with specific return processes
• Relay points requiring dedicated logistics
• Home returns with collection constraints
• Variable return habits by region
• Specific logistics adaptations per market

Each region develops its own return habits, requiring specific logistics adaptations.

Refurbishment hub complexity

Nearshoring transforms refurbishment center architecture. The traditional model of centralized mega-hubs gives way to a network of intermediate-sized regional centers.

This evolution creates new major operational challenges for companies.

Criteria	Centralized Hubs	Regionalized Hubs
Critical volume	50K+ units/month	10-20K units/month
Technical expertise	Specialized	Versatile required
Unit cost	Optimized	+20% on average
Time to market	7-10 days	3-5 days
Flexibility	Limited	High
Initial investment	Very high	Moderate per site

This regionalization requires duplicating technical skills across each hub. Centers must master refurbishment of broader product ranges with lower volumes.

This constraint reduces traditional economies of scale and complicates specialized human resource management.

Technology investment challenges:

• Automated diagnostic equipment per site
• Integrated regional traceability systems
• Local technical staff training
• Distributed maintenance and technical support
• Infrastructure overhead of €2-3 million per site according to our analyses

New regional regulatory challenges

Nearshoring amplifies reverse logistics regulatory complexity. Each region develops its own requirements for traceability, refurbishment, and remarketing of returned products.

The application of AGEC law in France, the European Digital Product Passport, and country-specific regulations creates a complex regulatory patchwork.

Main regulatory constraints:

• Variable refurbishment standards by country
• Specific regional quality certifications
• Differentiated traceability obligations
• Local environmental standards
• Adapted reporting requirements

Companies must adapt their refurbishment processes to local standards, multiplying required certifications.

This regulatory fragmentation requires modular information systems capable of adapting to local requirements. IT architecture must support process variability while maintaining global coherence.

"Nearshoring forces us to completely rethink our reverse logistics approach. It's an orchestration challenge more than a volume one." — ZIQY Expert, Operations Director

Success in this new paradigm requires a hybrid approach combining core process standardization and local operational adaptation.

South-South trade: new second-hand corridors

Emergence of regional refurbishment markets

South-South trade now represents 25% of global exchanges according to UNCTAD, creating new ecosystems for refurbished products. This dynamic disrupts traditional North-South flows by establishing autonomous regional corridors.

West Africa is developing its own refurbishment hubs, notably in Ghana and Nigeria, where the refurbished smartphone market grows by 35% annually.

These centers now process equipment collected in the region locally, reducing dependence on European infrastructure. This autonomization enables:

• 40% reduction in processing times
• 25% decrease in logistics costs
• Creation of skilled local jobs

In Latin America, the Mexico-Colombia-Peru corridor structures a $2.8 billion USD regional market for refurbished electronics.

This integration relies on harmonized quality standards via the Pacific Alliance, facilitating cross-border exchanges and mutual recognition of certifications.

Opportunities in emerging economies

Emerging economies show a second-hand adoption rate 3 times higher than developed markets. This appetite is explained by several key factors:

• Young demographics: 60% of population under 35
• High price sensitivity: seeking best value for money
• Growing environmental awareness among millennials

Region	Annual growth	Dominant segment	2025 potential	Key factor
Southeast Asia	+42%	Smartphones	$8.5B USD	Digitalization
Sub-Saharan Africa	+38%	Home appliances	$3.2B USD	Urbanization
Latin America	+31%	IT/Telecoms	$4.1B USD	Middle classes

Indonesia and Vietnam emerge as refurbishment platforms for ASEAN. These hubs process intra-regional flows without transit through Hong Kong or Singapore.

This relocalization generates significant operational benefits:

• 15-day average delay reduction
• 30% transport cost decrease
• Improved product traceability

Nigeria develops its local ecosystem with South-South technological partnerships. Collaboration with India for mobile refurbishment skill transfer illustrates this new dynamic of horizontal technical cooperation.

Cross-border quality standards and traceability

Quality standardization becomes the major challenge of these new corridors. Lack of harmonization creates market asymmetries penalizing regional operators.

This regulatory fragmentation generates several challenges:

• Multiplication of certification costs
• Export process complexity
• Slowing regional exchanges

Regional certifications gradually emerge to address these issues:

• ECOWAS Refurb Standard for West Africa
• MERCOSUR Digital Reuse Protocol for South America
• ASEAN Green Electronics Charter for Southeast Asia

"South-South standards are built on specific local needs, unlike Western standards often unsuited to emerging realities" — Dr. Amara Okafor, African Circular Economy Network

Blockchain traceability emerges as a unifying technical solution. This technology meets transparency and trust needs of emerging consumers.

Pioneer initiatives transform the sector:

• AfriTrace (Africa): distributed registry for 12 countries
• LatinChain (Latin America): cross-border certification
• AsiaRefurb (Southeast Asia): real-time traceability

These platforms create distributed registries to certify product origin and transformations, guaranteeing complete lifecycle traceability.

This regionalization requires adaptation of global strategies toward multi-local approaches. Companies must integrate regulatory and cultural specificities of each trade corridor to succeed in their expansion.

Success factors include:

• Strategic local partnerships
• Process adaptation to regional regulations
• Investment in local team training
• Development of adapted technological solutions

Refurbishment networks: from centralized to distributed

The transformation of global supply chains redefines refurbishment network architecture.

Facing new requirements for customer proximity and operational agility, companies are progressively abandoning their centralized models in favor of multi-node distributed ecosystems.

Evolution of traditional hub & spoke models

Traditional refurbishment models relied on centralized processing centers managing all return flows from a region.

This approach, inherited from the intensive globalization era, now reveals its structural limitations.

Centralized model weaknesses

The classic hub & spoke model generates average delays of 12-15 days between receiving a returned product and its market reintroduction.

These incompressible delays penalize inventory rotation and degrade customer experience in a context where 67% of consumers expect resolution within 7 days according to Accenture.

Vulnerability to disruptions

The rigidity of these centralized architectures amplifies supply chain disruption risks.

An incident on the main hub paralyzes the entire network, as demonstrated by:

• COVID-19 disruptions
• Suez Canal blockages
• European port strikes

Multi-node regional network advantages

The transition to distributed multi-node networks radically transforms refurbishment operational performance.

This decentralized approach repositions processing centers closest to consumption basins.

Performance comparison

Criteria	Centralized Model	Distributed Network	Improvement
Average delay	12-15 days	7-9 days	-40%
Transport cost	100% baseline	80%	-20%
Carbon footprint	High	Reduced	-35%
Flexibility	Limited	High adaptability	+60%
Availability rate	95%	99.2%	+4.2%

Measured benefits

Performance gains are measurable according to internal ZIQY data on a panel of 50 B2B clients:

• 40% reduction in processing times
• 20% savings on transport costs
• 35% decrease in carbon footprint

This optimization stems from geographic proximity between collection, processing, and redistribution points.