fashion store boo is to make customers pay for returning clothes.
It comes as an attempt by online stores to cut the huge costs of handling items rejected by shoppers.
The free returns policy has allowed businesses like Boohoo to thrive, but it’s been abused by many shoppers who order large numbers of items knowing they’ll never keep them.
Struggling Boohoo now joins a growing list of retailers who have given up on returns – reportedly costing the industry around £60 billion a year – to protect their finances.
Online fashion giant Boohoo said customers will now have to pay £1.99 to return products, with the cost deducted from their refund
Rising shipping costs are huge, while many of the items returned are thrown away because they are no longer fashionable.
Boohoo said customers will now have to pay £1.99 to return products, with the cost deducted from their refund.
Research by online delivery experts ParcelHero, which acts as an intermediary between consumers and courier companies, shows that 81 percent of online stores are ‘very concerned’ about the increasing number of customer returns.
The head of consumer research, David Jinks, estimated the cost at a whopping £60 billion a year.
“Retailers large and small have been stretched to a breaking point by the rising cost of returns, and we think a long line of stores will change their returns policy to recoup some of the rising costs,” he said.
High Street companies such as Uniqlo, Next and Zara already charge for online returns. In 2019, ASOS sent an email to customers warning it would deactivate accounts if it picked up an unusual pattern of returns or if it suspected people were carrying products.
Al Gerrie, of ZigZag Global, a retail returns specialist who works with Boohoo and Zara, said: “There is no such thing as free returns, there is always someone who has to pay and given the current levels of inflation, supply chain issues, With increased labor shortages and fuel surcharges, it’s understandable that retailers need to find a way to recoup some of the costs.
“Especially because after the pandemic the number of online returns has increased significantly, and with it the costs for retailers.” She added: ‘Shoppers in the UK have been spoiled for years with free returns as ‘the norm’, a luxury not offered in many other European countries.
“Retailers are starting to see a significant impact on profits from the increased costs and frequency of returns.” Catherine Shuttleworth, retail expert and founder of Savvy Marketing, said: ‘Customers have had an easy ride, but that’s changing now – they’ll increasingly find that there’s a price to pay for returns.
‘The costs, both financial and ecological, are piling up for retailers.
“Retailers have tightened their return policies by reducing the number of days a shopper can keep an item before expecting a return and charging a return fee in some cases,” she added.
In May, Boohoo said rising yields were partly responsible for a decline in annual profits.
It said customers had returned items faster than expected in the second half of the year, at a higher rate than before the pandemic.
Boohoo’s brands include BoohooMan, Karen Millen, Nasty Gal, PrettyLittleThing, Coast, Misspap, Oasis, Warehouse, Burton, Wallis, Dorothy Perkins, and Debenhams.
A spokesperson said: “As shipping costs have increased, we needed to see where we can adapt without compromising what our customers love most, the ease of shopping with us and the great value our brands offer.
“This has led us to charge £1.99 for returns so we can continue to offer great prices and products and do this in a more sustainable way.”