Many unhappy returns
The Bottom Line
BBC
4.6 • 606 Ratings
🗓️ 25 January 2024
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Some major fashion brands have started charging for online returns, or even banning customers who routinely send products back. The companies say that growing levels of returns are hitting their profits, so just how costly is it to process an unwanted dress, and what really happens when we pop it back in the post?
Evan Davis and guests take us behind the scenes into the hidden world of returns and the mini-industry that has sprung up to deal with the billions of pounds of items rejected by customers.
It's a growing problem, according to many retailers, with a small number of customers causing particular damage, so what's the best way to tackle it and does the responsibility lie with brands, shoppers, or governments?
Evan is joined by:
Robert Kulawik, chief operating officer, Everything5pounds.com; Andy Rough, CEO, ACS Clothing; Dr Regina Frei, associate professor of digital economy, University of Surrey.
PRODUCTION TEAM:
Producer: Simon Tulett Researcher: Paige Neal-Holder Editor: Matt Willis Sound: Rod Farquhar and Neil Churchill Production co-ordinator: Rosie Strawbridge
The Bottom Line is produced in partnership with The Open University.
(Picture: A woman putting folded clothes into a cardboard box. Credit: Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:05.3 | I should say this is the podcast version of the programme, |
| 0:08.5 | and it does have some extra goodies in it that we didn't have room for in the radio broadcast. |
| 0:13.0 | I hope you enjoy it. |
| 0:15.4 | Hello and welcome to the programme. |
| 0:17.1 | It is still January just, the traditional month of the year |
| 0:20.7 | in which many of us take things |
| 0:22.3 | back to the shop from which they came. Thank goodness auntie kept the receipt for that gift |
| 0:27.1 | she bought. But the business of returning goods is these days much less about unwanted gifts |
| 0:33.0 | and much more about online shopping. The purchasing online habit means you're buying things |
| 0:39.6 | without seeing them close up, which means you're more likely to want to send them back. And |
| 0:43.9 | especially when it comes to fashion, we've become used to doing this for free. However, some retailers |
| 0:50.0 | are calling time on this by beginning to charge for returns, even at the risk of putting consumers |
| 0:55.2 | off buying things in the first place, and some even are banning shoppers who return stuff too |
| 1:00.9 | much. Well, it turns out it is a complex business handling returned goods. So today we thought |
| 1:06.8 | we might get to the bottom of what goes on. I'm guessing most of us have done it, but have |
| 1:11.5 | never been behind the scenes to see how it works. And I've three guests who know the business. |
| 1:17.8 | I should say no big retailers particularly wanted to take part in the programme. It's not a subject |
| 1:24.5 | about which they like to talk. But I am pleased to say we do have Robert Kulovic |
| 1:28.5 | with us, chief operating officer of an online clothing site called Everything Five Pound. So Robert, |
| 1:35.1 | tell us about the site, first of all. It is five pounds because we don't really produce any of the |
| 1:40.2 | items. All the items come out of major clothing retailers, your high street names from last |
... |
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