- Some young consumers take advantage of gaps such as wardrobe and “digital theft” to save money.
- These practices hurt the retail extract of retailers.
- Trademarks impose tougher policies and drawings in some cases to combat the problem.
Some young consumers try to earn their money further by taking advantage of the retail gaps, such as returning the elements after wearing them once, using fees recovery services on credit cards – or even pretending that they did not receive the things he requested.
In response, some retailers are due to the imposition of strict policies and drawings.
“The returns are very expensive for brands – it’s a huge part of the cost structure,” said Michael Yamartino, CEO of ROUTE, who works with about 13,000 brands to track and guarantee Business Insider. “If it is abused, it is easy to make the brand not sustainable.”
Theft in the digital age
It is said that some consumers participate in a practice called “digital theft”. They buy a product on the Internet that are safely delivered to their home, but they lie to the retailer and say they did not ask for it, or they claim that he had never arrived or stolen, and recorded a recovery for an element they keep.
They may also report the transaction to their credit card company and have asked to recover the fees to recover their money, while maintaining the item.
Society, a fraud anti -fraud company, surveyed 2000 people, and found about half of the Gen Z and Millennials who earn more than $ 100,000 a year that they had bombed digitally last year. “Wealthy customers may be more intelligent about banking and traders policies and how to misuse them.
Inflation reaches a 40 -year level and interest rates that penetrate 5 % for the first time since the financial crisis The screw turned On many families. In addition, it may help explain this trend while marketing the influencers of digital marketing as hacking to save money on social media, and generous recovery policies among merchants, explaining this trend.
Serial returnees
The returns are also a headache for retailers, as it takes time and money to transfer products to warehouses, evaluate their condition, issue recovered amounts, fill and ship them to a new customer, filtering, donating, recycling or eliminating them.
It is expected that the National Union of Retail and Happy Returns, UPS, will expect the value of revenues in the United States $ 890 billion in 2024, when retailers estimate that about 17 % of purchases will be returned.
A previous NRF report found that online purchases rates in 2023 were 17.3 %-much higher than the 10 % rate of purchases inside the store.
The “serial returnees” in the United Kingdom sent goods worth 7 billion pounds (8.7 billion dollars) of elements annually, a report of retail economics and Zigzg returns found.
Yamartino’s route bi told the height online shopping because the epidemic means “an increase in revenue rates, especially with younger buyers.”
E -commerce case report on the 2024 road found that Gen Z is likely to be involved in the “wardrobe” – purchasing elements with the intention of returning it after wearing it – with 40 % of Zoomers in a survey of 1,250 consumers who say they will do they will do so.
Social media also encouraged shopping operations – showing many elements that I bought from one store. Many of these elements can be sent again after using one.
“What we see is to buy, they use it lightly, then return it,” said Yamartino. “So it’s just the right element, it’s exactly what they want, but they don’t want it for a long time.”
Many young consumers arose with social media stars, “so there is a lot of concern about the image,” he added. “Using something like a tactic wardrobe can help you with forgery to make it.”
Trademarks are fighting again
In response, some companies have begun adding marks or strips to elements to prevent them from being returned by wearing them or shipping customers if they send elements a lot again.
Asos started telling some customers last year that they could not submit any other requests if they often returned. Fashion retailers also provided a return fee of 3.95 pounds ($ 4.90) for some UK shoppers unless they maintain more than 40 pounds.
Among the other retailers who divide the frequent factors on OH Polly, Zara and PrettyLittlething.
The influencer Molly My Hague in a shot campaign for PrettyLittlething.
Something very small
It is a difficult balance for many consumers to strike the purchase of multiple elements of online stores because they are not sure of scaling and do not want to be punished for returns.
Yamartino said that the road can help brands create profiles for customers, so loyal customers are not affected, while others are invited to pay a small amount presented instead of huge fees.
“It allows us to use the data we have for people to make the right decision on these purchases, and allows brands to protect itself and help compensate for the cost of returns programs that get more and more expensive,” he said.
