UK apparel retailers brace £360m of Christmas returns

UK retailers face £360 million of Christmas 2020 clothing and footwear returns, according to a survey by Retail Economics and Penningtons Manches Cooper. This comes as apparel retailers have grappled £4.3 billion of returns across 2020 as a whole. Return rates of clothing and footwear under pressure as sales shift online, the survey revealed.

With the proportion of online clothing and footwear sales rising to 36 per cent in 2020, up from 22 per cent in the previous year, the step-change in sales has brought operational challenges, Retail Economics said in a press release.

On an average, UK consumers return about 17 per cent of the value of their online clothing and footwear purchases, which equates to around £2 billion of returns on e-commerce sales of £11.4 billion across 2020.

This compares to a returns rate of less than 12 per cent for store purchases, which represents some £2.3 billion of returns on store sales of £20.2 billion in 2020.

As the fit and quality of fashion can be difficult to convey online, apparel retailers have dealt with an additional £372 million worth of returns from online sales in 2020 compared with the previous year.

Gen Zs are the most prolific returners, particularly for online purchases. For online orders, 18 to 24 year olds return double the value of apparel purchases compared with the over 65s.

The growth of online orders has put pressure on fragmented returns channels, including the Royal Mail and Post Office.

The research shows that apparel shoppers like the convenience of returning unwanted items to physical stores, preferred by around two fifths (46 per cent) of shoppers who return products. This was ahead of the Post Office (32 per cent), while over one in 10 (13 per cent) favoured pickup points.

This equates to around £166 million of unwanted Christmas gifts going through stores, some £115 million of returns through the Post Office, and £47 million to pick up points.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)