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I remember as a kid in the late 80s and early 90s, there was a trend among teenagers in the UK. Long before e-commerce, there was home shopping. Nearly every home had a catalogue delivered twice a year—one for summer and one for winter—where you could buy clothes and pay for them in installments, weekly or monthly.

As teenagers, many of us had a trick. You’d order jeans or a top, hide the label inside, wear it to a party, and then return it with an excuse like “Too small” or “Not my size.”

I came across an article in The Guardian today that said the cost of returning goods ordered online in the UK is a staggering £6.6 billion a year. What is particularly eye-opening is that 36% of us Brits now identify as “serial returners,” those who buy and return regularly. I’ll admit, I’ve been guilty of the “buy multiple sizes, return what doesn’t fit” approach. But seeing the numbers has made me reflect on the real impact of this behavior.

Key insights that gave me pause:

  1. The average returned item’s journey spans 300 miles.
  2. Returns processing requires 15-20 people to handle each item.
  3. 5% of returns end up in landfills.

The human cost is significant too. Retailers are forced to hire more staff for returns processing than for shipping out new orders. And let’s talk about the environmental impact—those returns-related carbon emissions are no joke.

Shoppers with a habit of returning goods bought online will send back £1,400 worth of products each this year, totaling £6.6 billion, a UK report has found. Serial returners account for 11% of shoppers, but are on course to account for almost a quarter of the £27 billion forecasted returns this year, according to the report by return logistics company ZigZag and research firm Retail Economics.

More than a fifth of non-food purchases made online in the UK are now returned to retailers. There are also generational divides in behavior, with younger shoppers more likely to over-order with the intention of returning a large proportion of the items. More than two-thirds (69%) of Gen Z consumers said they had bought online this way, compared with about a sixth (16%) of over-60s.

H&M, Boohoo, New Look, and Uniqlo have started charging for online returns unless shoppers return items in person to physical stores. Other major players are reportedly considering introducing similar fees for returns.

Back in the 80s and 90s, returns were free. Forty years on, the pattern hasn’t really changed. But it will be interesting to see how many more big online companies follow suit.

#Retail #Sustainability #ECommerce #RetailInnovation #CustomerExperience #BusinessStrategy