H&M has become the latest retailer to charge shoppers who return items that were bought online.
👉 Background: H&M is the multinational clothing company based in Sweden that focuses on fast-fashion. It's the second biggest clothing retailer in the world with over 4,800 stores.
👉 What happened: Now, H&M has become the latest retailer to charge shoppers who return items that were bought online. For example, customers in the UK will now need to pay £1.99 to return items - with the cost taken from their refund. In Australia, H&M will deduct $10.95 from your refund if you're not an H&M member.
👉 What else: For H&M, the goal is to discourage shoppers from bulk-buying online products and then returning the majority of them.
💡Free returns were initially offered to woo consumers into shopping online, but now they have become core to the online shopping habits.
💡Last year, Australian shoppers returned between 15% and 30% of the online shopping they bought. And this is costly for retailers, who don't just lose out on the revenue they'd earn if customers kept their purchases - they also take a hit on shipping costs, which are rising.
💡And H&M isn't alone. Other large retailers are also following suit, with H&M's competitors like Zara and Uniqlo charging for online returns too.
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