More than half of U.S. retailers are implementing a ‘no-returns’ policy for items purchased during Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Nearly 60% of U.S. retailers have adopted “returnless” or “keep it” policies for products purchased online during Black Friday and Cyber Monday and whose returns costs exceed their value, according to goTRG, a returns management firm that surveyed 500 executives at 21 major retailers, per Reuters.
The number of retail companies that have adopted “no return” policies this year has more than doubled in number compared with last year, which saw 26% of retailers adopt such a policy, said Sender Shamiss, CEO at goTRG.
While goTRG did not name U.S. retailers that have adopted such a policy, Shamiss said most have done so as a way to shore up capital ahead of the holidays and as a way to eliminate excess costs.
Another reason companies are embracing the policy is due to certain retail products costing more to ship back than they are worth, Shamiss explained.
On average, a typical retailer pays about $30 to transport, sort, and resell a returned product, which often comes at a steep discount or loss, Amena Ali, CEO of logistics technology company Optoro, told Reuters.
“You just can’t afford to ignore it,” Ali said of the returns costs.
In total, U.S. shoppers returned $115 billion worth of holiday purchases in 2022, and that figure is expected to jump nearly 30% this year, according to data from Optoro.
“Because of the growth of e-commerce, and innovations from industry leaders like Amazon, consumers demand increased flexibility and convenience from retailers’ shopping experiences,” said Optoro in an excerpt from a recent report.
“According to our research in the spring of 2021, 81% of consumers indicated that offering an option for a third-party returns drop-off location (such as returning an Amazon package to Kohl’s) is an important part of a retailer’s return policy.”
Similarly, the firm’s research found that 78% of consumers want “an easy way to initiate returns online.”
While customers want easier and added ways to return unwanted products, about 9 out of 10 retailers have revised their return policy to include store credit or return fees, among other cost-recovery policies, reported Reuters.
