Zara has started charging shoppers who return items purchased online.
The fashion giant has implemented a fee for customers to return clothing items, with the cost subtracted from their total refund.
Shoppers who return online items to Zara stores can continue to do so free of charge.
Zara’s move follows similar strategies by the likes of Next and Uniqlo, both of which already charged shoppers to make online returns.
A Zara spokesman said: “Customers can return online purchases at any Zara store in the UK free of charge, which is what most customers do.
“The £1.95 fee only applies to the return of products at third-party drop-off points.”
Online shopping boomed during the pandemic, but for fashion retailers in particular it also sparked a spike in return rates.
Listed ecommerce players Boohoo and In The Style both issued pre-Christmas profit warnings that they attributed to rising return rates.
When revealing its full-year results earlier this month, Boohoo said that, although total sales rose 14% to £2bn, profit was impacted by “significantly” increased returns rates “ahead of both expectations and pre-pandemic levels”.
- Get the latest fashion news and analysis straight to your inbox – sign up for our weekly newsletter
No comments yet