Dive Brief:
- Retailers’ return policies influence the purchasing decisions of 82% of consumers responding to a recent survey from ICSC, which represents shopping centers.
- Across all retail categories, 6.2% of in-store customers returned items they bought, while about a third of online shoppers did so. Among apparel shoppers, 6.2% of in-store customers returned their merchandise, but over a fifth (22%) of online apparel shoppers returned theirs, the survey found.
- When faced with charges for online returns, almost eight in 10 shoppers said they would be more likely to return an item in stores, and 77% said they would go to a store to purchase, the survey found.
Dive Insight:
The ICSC’s survey adds to the evidence that e-commerce means higher levels of returns.
A great majority of consumers who purposely over-order online are shopping for apparel: 87% of those surveyed said they order extra items to try on at home and return what they don’t want. Some retailers are instructing shoppers to keep items they want to return, with six in 10 survey respondents saying that retailers had given them full refunds and told them to keep their unwanted online purchases.
“We have known for some time the value of brick-and-mortar to a retailer’s strategy,” Tom McGee, president and CEO of ICSC, said in a statement. “Our latest findings further prove this by showing that the return rate for in-store purchases is three times less than the return rate for online purchases. Additionally, consumers are becoming more mindful of changing return policies that result in fees and shortened return windows.”
Last year, retailers received $743 billion in returns, according to the National Retail Federation and transaction data from the analytics company Appriss Retail. The two estimate that $10.40 per $100 worth of returns were fraudulent transactions.
More major retailers, including H&M, Zara and Amazon, have begun charging fees for returns. Meanwhile, the apparel retailer South Moon introduced its KeepIt Program last June, which allows shoppers a 15% discount on full-priced items but prohibits customers from returning them.
