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More and more customers come back again and again what they buy, and this habit increases business costs. Why do they do it and what should the stores do?
The return of a recently purchased item is easier than ever thanks to the 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 returns things compulsively. This is a customer profile that has grown in recent years and poses a number of problems for some struggling companies.
Harriet Gordon matches this profile.
This 28-year-old man works in London, UK. As a human resources consultant, she admits to keeping only half of her online purchases
. She usually spends about $ 500 a month, but returns items in which she spent about $ 250.
Most of the time, he does it because the clothes do not fit him or because the color or the fabric have nothing to do with the photography that convinced him to buy the product on the Internet.
"You see models wearing clothes they look fantastic," he says, but he maintains that they are not alike when they are tested.
The fact that many stores in which he buys offers home collection of returns facilitates the process.
and reject
Despite Harriet Gordon explains that it is much easier to buy online online and thus avoid the queues. waiting and stress of physical stores.
arrives at 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.
Hester Grainger says that she returns almost everything he buys.
I knew I would only stay with one, but I wanted to make sure it was the right one.
This was not a case. When he needs new jeans, he asks for five pairs, then he chooses one.
In total, he calculates that he spends between 480 USD and 510 USD per month for the purchase of clothes, but he returns so much that he will not usually spend more than 90 USD. or US $ 100.
"I spend hundreds of dollars to buy several items in different stores for a month, but I probably return about 80%," he told the BBC.
Hester, founder of Mumala Club, a platform online for mothers, says their buying habit is related to their small size.
It is 1.5 meters high and it's hard to know if anything will go wrong. this often requires three sizes of the same item.
Some studies show that our hearts beat faster when we buy.
Heartbeats
Buyers like Harriet and Hester are not unusual.
A recent study by multinational tarjet supplier Barclaycard Credit, which badyzed about half of debit and credit transactions in the UK, indicates that a quarter of retailers have seen the number of returns increase over the past year. last two years.
In the case of stores. According to the report, consumers report nearly half of their purchases of clothing and shoes,
Social networks contribute to the trend: about 10% of buyers admit having taken a selfie for Instagram or Facebook, pose with a new item, and then returns the 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 at home and show it, but it disappears quickly and we regret having spent the money or the fact that we do not have the money. did not wear this garment. So we give it back, he explains.
"What happens next is the least exciting part of the whole process," she told the BBC.
Hester says that being brief makes it more difficult to buy clothes online.
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.
like those of Black Friday or Cyber Monday, foment "panic buying," which tends to be more related to the buyer's later remorse.
A problem for shops
Returns do not only include delivery costs, but also packaging 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 this, some stores need to ask for more than they hope to sell.
The fast fashion cycle is another problem. 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 forces some traders to raise prices. According to Barclaycard, in the United Kingdom they make a third.
Amazon has some problems with "wardrobe buyers".
The fact that the shops are striving at all costs to guarantee sales during the sales, customers have easier to return items without paying additional service fees. Sometimes they even offer the option "try before paying."
It is inevitable that many profit from the system.
But some companies are fighting against this. The Internet giant Amazon, for example, has begun to block customers who send back too many things.
"We want everyone to use Amazon, but sometimes users abuse our service for an extended period of time." , a company spokesman told The Wall Street Journal
Understanding Customers
However, Vicky Brock, director of data and innovation at eBound Returns, a software used to manage returns, said that it is wrong to badume that those who come back frequently are bad customers.
Brock says that a small proportion of buyers generate the majority of returns, but that this group includes both the best and the worst customers.
the buyers' veto for the return of items repeatedly neglects the value of each customer and reveals that the trader does not understand the behavior of their customers well, "he told BBC account. 19659051] Vicky Brock ” width=”976″ height=”549″ data-highest-encountered-width=”624″/>
According to Vicky Brock, those who frequently return their products are not bad customers.
There is data that shows that the higher the number of orders placed by buyers, the lower returns are
According to experts, stores can reduce the number of returns on the Internet, providing better images of clothes on the Internet and more accurate sizes.
Some companies like Uniqlo and Asos they have suggestions based on previous purchases and information on the weight and size of the customer.
Another option is to direct custom marketing, for example, if a customer tends to in his pants but always to return his shoes, the ads will appear only the first day.
Vicky Brock says stores need to act urgently when the trend is accentuated.
Buyers like Hester do not do it. They 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.
