Fashion e-commerce pushes back on excessive returns
Following the likes of ASOS and Zara in taking action against serial returners, Swedish online fashion retailer Boozt AB has blocked 42,000 customers for returning too many items, arguing that their actions are “too costly for the company and the environment”.
Ask Kirkeskov Riis, a spokesman for the e-commerce platform, said that customers customers “repeatedly exploit the high service levels of free shipping and returns at the expense of our business, other customers and the environment”.
The now-blocked customers sent back items either because they don’t fit or because they regretted the purchase. The group represented less than 2% of the more than 3 million customers on Boozt, but approximately 25% of the total return volume.
Riss told The Associated Press: "By pausing these accounts and reducing unnecessary returns, Boozt saved approximately 791 tons of CO2 in 2022 which has eliminated the need for approximately 600 delivery trucks during one year."
Boozt AB follows Zara, which introduced a returns fee last May to tackle the costly and wasteful amount of returns. The protocol meant that customers who purchased Zara items online will have to pay a £1.95 fee that will be deducted from their refund. If they return to store however, no charge is levied.
Zara further specified that customers have 30 days to return items and that they cannot return separate orders in the same box. Customers were particularly enraged by this, due to Zara’s inconsistent sizing.
Back in 2019, online fashion giant ASOS was one of the first companies to take steps to stamp out serial returners threatening to block shoppers who routinely returned too many orders. More recently the company has cited a rise in returns in the post-pandemic era for hitting its profits.
According to a new landmark study from the British Fashion Council’s (BFC) Institute of Positive Fashion (IPF), DHL and Roland Berger which was released in May, some 23 million items of returned fashion were sent to landfill or incinerated in the UK last year. This activity generated 750,000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions in 2022 and represents 75% of the approx 3% of all returns that can not be resold.
In the UK alone, about 30% of e-commerce fashion orders are returned, according to global strategists Roland Berger, so more sales means more returns. And with the true cost of returns estimated to be around £20 for a £30 item, returns are expected to cost British fashion retailers some £7 billion this year.
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