Few online shoppers consider the impact of their return behaviour. More than 80 percent of the customers of online stores want the free return, which costs an online store an average of 12.50 euros. Clothes and electronics are the most frequently returned items. And destroyed. A shame, because the clothing industry has a greater impact on the climate crisis than aviation and shipping combined. The clothing industry is responsible for 10 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. The production of electronics, including smartphones, is responsible for 4 percent of greenhouse gases. Worldwide, 92 million tons of textiles are thrown away every year, only 1 percent of which is recycled.
Reselling more expensive than throwing away
Why are so many returned products thrown away? “Processing returns is expensive. You need staff to unpack everything and check whether it can still be sold. Cheap products and products with a small profit margin cost less to have them destroyed. Moreover, those who buy new clothing do not like it if it turns out that they have already been worn. The same goes for electronics whose box has been opened,” says retail expert Els Breugelmans (KU Leuven). Food products that are returned must always be destroyed according to the directive of the FASFC.
Kenny Van Paesschen is manager of the Mechelen company Shop We Do, which takes care of the logistics for orders and returns from webshops. According to him, the return percentage for clothing in our country is between 15 and 20 percent, of which up to 2 percent is destroyed. The Belgian Online Sustainability Barometer 2021 from Safeshops says that 11% of returns are destroyed or thrown away, but the differences are large depending on the sector and size of the webshop.
According to Stefan Van Rompaey, editor-in-chief of the retail magazine ‘RetailDetail’, major e-commerce players such as Amazon even go so far that you don’t have to return the product. “Then they will send you a new product for free and you can also keep the product that you did not like.”
Clearer product description
In order to limit the number of returned packages, web shop operators must provide a clearer product description. “This way, customers know exactly what they are buying and you avoid ordering three pieces in three different sizes and then sending two back,” says Van Rompaey.
In addition, limits should be set on free shipping and returns, Breugelmans agrees. “We are used to being able to do it for free, even though we realize that it is not sustainable. But e-companies face a dilemma: if they agree to scrap the free shipping and returns model, the first to make it free again will have a competitive advantage.”
Van Rompaey believes that rules should be introduced at European level, but Breugelmans has questions about their effectiveness. “It is difficult to work that out in policy terms. Then they will charge 0.01 euros for shipping. Or should it be 5 euros, for a product of 2 euros? At Zalando you must provide a reason for the return. If the T-shirt was too big, they can indicate that in the product description. With artificial intelligence and virtual reality, you can try on clothes virtually, which will limit the number of returns in the future.”
Nevertheless, according to Breugelmans, the idea of free returns will be accepted by more and more players. “We must abandon the free model not only in terms of sustainability, but it must also be overhauled in terms of profitability,” says Van Rompaey. “After years of growth, e-commerce has to become profitable and then you have to charge the right price. This great pressure on prices also causes social problems, such as the unbearable working conditions of parcel deliverers.” Van Paesschen also wants to get rid of the free returns: “After the corona crisis, in which e-commerce has taken off enormously, I see that people are thinking left and right about a more sustainable return policy.”
