As holiday shoppers head to malls and brick-and-mortar stores, many continue shopping online. But free returns may become a thing of the past, as some online retailers are now charging fees to take back your items. ottnews
“It’s starting to become a little more common and the reason for that is the days of free returns are just not feasible anymore,” says retail analyst and author, Bruce Winder.
With inflation, gas prices, supply chain issues and the cost to the environment, some retailers say the current online shopping model is no longer working. “To return H&M Canada items via Canada Post, there is a return shipping fee of $4.99 that is automatically be deducted from the customers refund. However, for H&M Loyalty Members, the return shipping fee is waived. Charges for online returns look different from market to market and in the near future, H&M will start testing online return fees in some European markets for all customers.
“Coming out of the pandemic, we as consumers are all used to shopping online and we have certain expectations of how returns work. We expect a certain level of convenience, and we expect that if we buy things that don’t fit, we return it,” says Sylvia Ng, CEO of ReturnBear, a company working with retailers to make it easier to return items by creating drop-off points which can help reduce shipping costs.