They are compulsive shoppers and return almost everything they buy online.

Returning a newly purchased item is easier than ever thanks to

Internet

. In fact, traders have the obligation to guarantee this right, but what about customers who change almost everything they buy?

The so-called "wardrobe buyer" buys and makes things compulsively. This is a customer profile that has grown in recent years and poses a series of problems to some troubled companies.

Harriet Gordon meets this profile.

Aged 28, she works in London (UK) as a human resources consultant and recognizes that she retains only half of her online purchases.

It typically spends about $ 500 a month, but returns items in which it spent about $ 250.

Most of the time, it's because the clothes do not go as expected or because the color or the fabric has nothing to do with photography that convinced him to buy the product on the Internet.

"You see models wearing clothes that look fantastic," he says, while baderting that they are not alike to the test.

The fact that most of the stores in which you buy offers home delivery facilitates the process.

Test and throw

Although she works in a central and commercial district of London, Harriet Gordon says it is much easier to buy online and avoid the queues and stress of physical stores.

This sounds like what happens to Hester Grainger, a 41-year-old woman who bought seven dresses for a wedding on the Asos website, one of the world's most popular online fashion stores.

I knew I would end up staying with one, but I wanted to make sure it was the right one.

This was not a special case. When you need new Texans, ask for five pairs, then choose one.

In total, he calculates that he spends between $ 480 and $ 510 per month for the purchase of clothes, but he returns so much that he ends up spending up to $ 90 or $ 100.

"I spend hundreds of dollars on various items in different stores for a month, but I'm probably going back around 80%," he told the BBC.

Hester, founder of Mumala Club, an online platform for mothers, explains that her buying habits are related to her small size.

It is 1.5 meters high and it's hard to know if anything will go, so it often requires three sizes of the same item.

heartbeats

Buyers like Harriet and Hester are not unusual.

A recent study by credit card multinational Barclaycard, which badyzed nearly half of credit and debit transactions in the United Kingdom, indicates that a quarter of retailers have seen the number of returns increase. last two years.

In the case of clothing and footwear stores, consumers report almost half of what they buy, according to the report.

Social networks are contributing to the trend: about 10% of shoppers acknowledge having taken a selfie for Instagram or Facebook, posing with a new item, and then returning their purchase.

Geoff Beattie, a professor of psychology at Edge Hill University in England, says he is surprised that the number of returns is not even higher.

Your own research shows that our heartbeats accelerate when we buy. This emotion lasts until we report the article to the house and show it, but then it disappears quickly and we regret having spent the money or the fact that we do not have the money. They had not worn this garment. So we give it back, he explains.

"What happens next is the least exciting part of the whole process," he told the BBC.

The increase in online shopping favors this habit because "there is no guilt or shame" nor the need to give too much explanation, says the specialist.

In addition, major discounts, such as Black Friday or Cyber ​​Monday, encourage what are called "panic", which tend to be more related to the later remorse of the buyer.

A problem for stores

The returns involve not only shipping costs, but also packing and cleaning. In addition, they are a waste of time.

If an article is not available, it may be because it's returned. And to avoid that some stores have to ask for more than what they expect to sell.

Another problem is the fast cycle of fashion. By the time an item has been returned, it may be on sale, which means that the store can no longer sell it at its original price.

This leads some traders to raise their prices. According to Barclaycard, in the UK, a third of them do it.

The fact that the stores are striving at all costs to guarantee sales during sales has made it easier for customers to return items without paying additional service fees. Sometimes they even offer the option "try before paying".

It is inevitable that many take advantage of the system.

But some companies are fighting against this. The Internet giant, Amazon, for example, has started blocking customers who send back too many things.

"We want everyone to use Amazon, but sometimes users abuse our service for an extended period," a company spokesman told The Wall Street Journal.

Other companies follow his example.

Understanding customers

However, Vicky Brock, director of data and innovation at eBound Returns, a software used to manage returns, says that it's wrong to badume that those who come back frequently are bad customers.

Brock argues that a small proportion of buyers generate the most returns, but that this group includes both the best and the worst customers.

"Putting a veto on the buyers for what they return articles constantly ignores the value of each customer and reveals that the trader does not quite understand the behavior of his customers," he told the BBC.

Some data shows that the more buyers place orders over time, the less orders they generate.

Providing better images of clothes on the Internet and more accurate sizes is one of the ways that stores are using to reduce the number of returns, experts say.

Some companies like Uniqlo and Asos already have suggestions based on previous purchases and information on the weight and size of the customer.

Another option is to direct personalized marketing. For example, if a customer tends to stay in his pants but always make his shoes, the ads will come only from the first.

Vicky Brock says stores should act urgently as the trend increases.

Buyers like Hester do not intend to change their behavior. "I do not feel sorry for the merchants, they are part of the problem because they offer free or very cheap returns, they should better adjust the sizes," he says.