Consumer group Which? has looked at the returns policies of the 20 biggest online fashion retailers, finding that 12 do not offer free postal returns.
Which? also flagged that fees – which range from £1.99 to £3.99 – aren’t always made clear early on in the checkout journey. It found that Zara, River Island and New Look outline their fees on product listing pages, but other retailers don’t explicitly state that you have to pay for returns anywhere during the checkout process.
Supporting research by shipping platform Sendcloud found that 64% of UK firms that impose return fees fail to disclose them upfront.
MandM Direct told Which? it’s made the cost and returns procedure clearer on its product detail pages following the research.
The UK’s ‘consumer champion’ also highlighted that apart from Sports Direct – which only accepts online returns by post – all the retailers in the research that have physical stores offer free instore returns.
Why are more retailers charging?
Which? looked at why these retailers had started deducting the reverse logistics fees from customer refunds. It stressed the number of items being returned has risen in recent years, and some retailers are taking strong action to deter serial returners and ‘wardrobing’.
The recently published DeliveryX Returns 2024 report also highlights retailers concerns over serial returners and even fraudulent returns. For example, item-not-received false claims has seen a startling increase of 35%, while 32% of UK consumers admitted to filing false damaged claims in order to keep the item and receive a refund.
There are also multiple reports of the wrong item being returned purposely. Whether these are fake versions of luxury goods, or in some cases store cupboard staples – recently UK electronics retailer Maplin received a can of baked beans instead of a Playstation, as the weight of each item is similar enough to pass initial checks.
These return scams have retailers rightly worried; 41% of them reported that the biggest challenge they faced was lost revenue due to customer abuse, which included returns fraud.
Download the full DeliveryX Returns 2024 report, which uses ConsumerX research to present how charging for returns has impacted customer loyalty.
With the balance of green initiatives, cost saving strategies and winning customer loyalty, retailers are spinning a lot of plates – and returns are something else to be managed. This report looks to showcase how the top retailers aren’t leaving returns out of their operational equations, and by handling returns with care are being seen as reliable and sustainable.
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