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Shoppers returning unwanted Christmas gifts face an unexpected financial hit after a string of high street stores started charging a fee on items sent back.
Retailers including hiking equipment seller Mountain Warehouse and health and beauty website owner The Hut Group have changed their returns policies to include charges.
It comes amid a wider shift in the industry for stores to levy fees, after Zara and Boohoo having brought in their own returns charges earlier this year. Next also increased its fees for returns.
Brian Brick, chief executive of the suit retailer Moss Bros, said it had decided to introduce fees for some returns after a review of the wider market.
The change means it now offers customers the choice to stick with a free Royal Mail service or instead pay £2.99 for items to be picked up by courier. This charge does not apply if shoppers are switching for a different size.
Mr Brick said: “If people want something quicker, there’s a premium charge for that. But it was really about returns and understanding what our competition is doing and what our customers require.”
Mountain Warehouse’s website says it has started levying a £2 charge for orders made after October 29, which will be deducted from the total refund.
The Hut Group, which owns the website Lookfantastic, no longer offers free returns and instead charges £2.99 per order. Mountain Warehouse’s founder Mark Neale said: “In common with other retailers, MW introduced a modest returns fee for products returned to our warehouse to reflect the increasing cost of collecting and processing these returns.”
The Hut Group declined to comment.
Industry experts predicted earlier this year that a wave of businesses would start to introduce the charges. Nick Carroll, Mintel’s associate director of retail research, said: “It started pre-pandemic and it will continue, as online shopping continues to grow.”
Clothing companies are the keenest advocates for the policy owing to a surge in returns following the growth of online sales.
KPMG estimates that by 2020, up to half of clothing bought online from some retailers was being returned. The consultancy said this was costing businesses around £7bn every year. Stores are expected to be facing more pressure over returns this year owing to shipping delays following the Royal Mail strikes.
However, Mr Brick said this change had not affected Moss Bros and returns had instead started to fall.
He said: “I think most people over the last few years have seen increases in returns, although actually, at the moment we’re seeing a decrease. We’ve been seeing that when customers are coming into stores, the returns are lower and the exchanges are much higher.”
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