From holiday shopping season to holiday returns seasons
Marketplace All-in-One
Marketplace
4.5 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 26 December 2024
⏱️ 8 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The National Retail Federation expects 2024 to be one of the biggest years ever for merchandise returns, totaling $890 billion. And retailers are increasingly more likely to charge return shipping or restocking fees. We’ll unpack expectations for post-holiday returns (then repack them and see if we remember where we put the gift receipt). Plus, Trump’s threats of tariffs on Mexican goods stresses the relationship with a key U.S. trade partner.
Transcript
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| 0:28.4 | Seven bucks to return those Dufacy Online Pants? |
| 0:33.0 | I'm David Bruncatcher. The background sound is switching on this 26th of December from wrapping coming off to packing tape going on. |
| 0:41.5 | The season of returns begins. The National Retail Federation expects this year to be one of the biggest for returns ever. |
| 0:48.2 | $890 billion worth of merch headed back. Marketplaces Kristen Schwab looks at how retailers deal. |
| 0:55.4 | Returns are inevitably a big part of online shopping, says David Sobey, CEO of logistics |
| 1:00.5 | company, Happy Returns. And the way that shoppers accommodate for the limitations of shopping online |
| 1:06.0 | is that they often buy multiple sizes or multiple colors, a practice known as bracketing. |
| 1:11.3 | Bracketing is especially popular with Gen Z. More than half do it. And Soby says it's why |
| 1:16.7 | returns will likely keep increasing. So retailers are doing what they can to give shoppers a more |
| 1:22.0 | accurate understanding of goods before they buy. Improving their product descriptions, |
| 1:30.0 | using customer ratings, perhaps someone says, hey, I bought this item, and it runs big. And on the post-purchase side, retailers are trying to put |
| 1:35.9 | the cost of returns on the consumer, says Tony Sheroda, executive director of the Reverse Logistics |
| 1:41.1 | Association. Everything used to be free to return. |
| 1:45.0 | Now there are some limits. |
| 1:47.7 | Retailers are now more likely to charge return shipping or restocking fees and are labeling |
| 1:52.7 | more items as final sale. |
| 1:55.3 | I'm Kristen Schwab for Marketplace. |
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