Returns are exploding as homes are become shoppers' new dressing rooms - Business Insider

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Shoppers are abandoning store dressing rooms for their own homes, and it's sparked a wave of returns

, a service that tracks and bars customers from making purchases after they have made too many returns. Of those returns, online sales accounted for $41 billion. And an entire cottage industry — including Newmine — has sprung up to cater to retailers struggling to stem the tide of returns.

"What might have been $1 million returns in a year, quickly ended up being $25 million to $30 million and up to nearly $100 million in returns a year," Bhasin said. To convince shoppers to take a chance, early e-commerce retailers were prompted to enact liberal returns policies. That trend was further bolstered by the company that Holmes calls the "800 pound gorilla" in the world of retail: Amazon. Competing with Amazon's generous returns policy quickly became an "uphill battle." Amazon itself has had a tremendous impact on "driving consumer behavior" and expectations around returns, according to Bhasin.

Bhasin said that the impulse to "bracket" makes sense from a consumer perspective: it saves the shopper a potentially fruitless trip to a brick-and-mortar location, while allowing them to benefit from a "dressing room" experience nonetheless. That being said, from the retailers' perspective, it's important to "deploy certain strategies to avoid the abuse" of such practices, he said, because this wave of returns may not be sustainable for many.

Holmes said that apparel and footwear, especially, tend to attract higher return rates — often up to 30%. The results? A hit to e-commerce outfits' margins, plus added markdowns and labor costs. According to Holmes, returns are handled by seven people on average. But preventing returns is far from a zero-sum game, or a one-size-fits-all proposition. What's right for an office supply company will differ from what's right for a clothier or a nutraceutical outfit. And, cutting off consumers for fraudulent behavior should always be the last, most "extreme" resort.

 

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EyeKaleidoscope já há soluções de TI q minimizam esses retornos...

last time i was at Forever21 in the mall and a male was working the female dressing room, walking back and forth and it made me feel uncomfortable af to the point of leaving and not trying it on. you people and your gender neutral bullshit is why i shop from home now!

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