Fashion company Boohoo is the latest retailer to charge buyers for returning items.
Customers must now pay £1.99 to return products, with the cost being deducted from their refund. The move, first reported by Retail Week, went into effect on July 4.
Boohoo blamed the move on rising shipping costs.
High street companies like Uniqlo, Next and Zara are already charging online returns.
Online shopping has boomed during the pandemic, but customers are more likely to return items bought online than in-store, increasing costs for retailers.
Analysts said other retailers would likely follow suit to charge for returns.
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“Shoppers have had it easy before, but that’s changing – they will increasingly find that there is a price to pay for returns,” said Catherine Shuttleworth, retail expert and founder of Savvy Marketing.
“The costs, both financial and environmental, have been piling up for retailers… As a result, retailers have tightened their return policies, reducing the number of days a shopper can keep an item before expecting a return, and in some cases charge a return shipping fee,” she added.
“We can assume that this trend will continue and [now] We’ve seen Boohoo introduce it quietly. If you buy something on Boohoo for £10, it’s a real drag to return it when you lose £2, 20% of your investment, to send it back.
Online shopping has gained a lot of ground during the pandemic, with a sharp increase in the number of returned items.
Returns can be expensive for fashion retailers. Not only do retailers often absorb the cost of online returns to attract customers from competitors, it also takes longer for warehouse workers to process returns.
Many buyers are also becoming aware of the environmental impact of deliveries and returns.
In May, Boohoo said rising yields were partly responsible for a slump in its annual profits.
Customers returned items faster than expected in the second half of the year, with the rate being higher than before the pandemic.
Boohoo brands include BoohooMan, Karen Millen, Nasty Gal, PrettyLittleThing, Coast, Misspap, Oasis, Warehouse, Burton, Wallis, Dorothy Perkins and Debenhams.
A spokesman for Boohoo said: “As shipping costs have increased, we have had to look at where we can adapt without compromising on what our customers love most, which is the convenience of shopping with us and great value for money -Ratio that our brands offer.
“This means we charge a £1.99 fee on returns so we can continue to offer great prices and products and do it in a more sustainable way.”
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