£1.51 billion worth of unwanted items are heading back to retailers – London Business News | Londonlovesbusiness.com

Post-Christmas returns for the first working day of the year jumped by 6.8% compared to 2 January last year, says the home delivery expert Parcelhero.

It says around £1.51bn worth of items are now winging their way back to retailers. Last year saw a slight dip in Christmas returns, but it’s likely they will set a new record this week.

Parcelhero’s Head of Consumer Research, David Jinks M.I.L.T., says: ‘We’ve looked at our own returns volumes and spoken to people in the courier and retail industries and it looks like there was a notable peak in returns yesterday compared to the small but distinct drop in the volume and value of returns last year.

‘We’re estimating around £1.51bn of clothing, electrical goods and toys are now on their way back to retailers. There was a 554.7% rise in parcel shipments compared to the same day last week, Boxing Day, as people returned to work and faced the hassle of returning unwanted gifts. Last year, the Royal Mail reported 2 January returns were up around 52% on a typical day the previous month and our own figures show that could be exceeded this year.

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‘There are conflicting figures as to how successful this Christmas was for retailers. It seems the anticipated last-minute boom in High Street footfall failed to materialise but online sales figures for Black Friday and beyond are expected to be robust. Certainly, if the number of returns in the parcels system at the moment reflects the amount we bought, people were splashing the cash before Christmas. That said, it’s possible we were all just really bad at choosing gifts this year.

‘For anyone planning to return an unwanted item, time is ticking. Strictly speaking, online shoppers have 14 days after they receive their order to tell the seller that they intend to return an item to get a full refund. They then have a further 14 days to actually return the item. That means if the item was delivered on Christmas Eve and you are reading this on 3 January, there are only four days left to contact the seller.

‘Fortunately, many retailers take a far less rigid approach to Christmas returns. For example, Amazon is accepting returns on purchases made from 1 November to 25 December right up until 31 January and Argos is accepting items purchased from 27 September to 25 December until 31 January as well.

M&S is accepting the return of items purchased from 10 October to 24 December through to 26 January and John Lewis is accepting the return of purchases made from 26 September to 24 December up until 23 January. However, not all the major retailers have such generous returns policies, so our advice is to check your returns window online now.

‘While online sellers must accept no fault 14-day returns without quibble, there’s no similar obligation for physical stores, unless an item was faulty. Returns are now a serious problem for smaller retailers. Our recent industry report shows that returns are costing UK sellers around £60bn a year. The study reveals a large chunk of these returns happen in the post-Christmas period. Around 47% of all Parcelhero shipments were marked as “returns” in the first week of last year.

‘Online businesses face a no-win choice between reluctantly swallowing returns costs or risking negative online reviews from those customers with returns issues. 81% of stores say they are very concerned about increasing levels of customer returns. Smaller, specialist online retailers who thought they had enjoyed healthy Christmas sales are potentially facing plunging margins and warehouses filling with unsaleable stock as January returns come rolling back in.

‘Customer expectations and the financial realities for smaller e-commerce sites are increasingly at odds. Some online retailers have told us that they deal with return rates as high as 60% after Christmas, with most being accepted unconditionally in order to maintain their all-important five-star ratings. These returns are being accepted despite the fact that online orders typically cost retailers £3 more to process than physical sales.’