UK retailers have just experienced their first Black Friday in three years that has been free from Covid restrictions. With a global cost of living crisis in full swing, however, it was unclear whether shoppers would hold off or take advantage of the bargains to help spread the cost of Christmas.<\/p>\n
In the end the shoppers did come out. Barclaycard Payments (which handles \u00a31 in every \u00a33 spend on cards in the UK) reporting a 3.2% uplift in the volume of transactions it handled on Friday 25 November, versus 2021. Cyber Monday transactions were up 5%.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s a downside.<\/strong>\u00a0With e-commerce,\u00a0about 30% of fashion orders are returned<\/strong>, according to global strategists Roland Berger, so more sales means more returns.\u00a0And with the true cost of returns estimated to be around \u00a320 for a \u00a330 item, returns are expected to cost British fashion retailers some \u00a37 billion this year.<\/strong><\/p>\n On top of this, the waste generated by returns means the cost to the planet, as well as retailers\u2019 bottom lines, is getting unsustainable.<\/p>\n If your action plan on returns is to cross your fingers and hope you don\u2019t get too many, then you\u2019re in for a tough ride.<\/p>\n But there are many pro-active steps retailers can take not only to reduce the returns burden but also use it to drive future growth.<\/strong><\/p>\n In this report we look at:<\/strong><\/p>\n
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