Where do your online returns go? | Aparna Mehta

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4.1 • 11.9K Ratings

🗓️ 21 November 2018

⏱️ 8 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Do you ever order clothes online in different sizes and colors, just to try them on and then send back what doesn't work? Aparna Mehta used to do this all time, until she one day asked herself: Where do all these returned clothes go? In an eye-opening talk, she reveals the unseen world of "free" online returns -- which, instead of ending up back on the shelf, are sent to landfills by the billions of pounds each year -- and shares a plan to help put an end to this growing environmental catastrophe.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This TED Talk features retail consultant Aparna Mehta, recorded live at TED at UPS 2018.
0:08.0	Hi, my name is Aparna. I am a shopaholic and I'm addicted to online returns.
0:20.0	Well, at least I was. At one time to online returns.
0:23.6	Well, at least I was. At one time, I had two or three packages of clothing
0:27.6	delivered to me every other day.
0:30.6	I would intentionally buy the same item
0:33.6	in a couple different sizes and many colors
0:36.6	because I did not know what I really wanted.
0:39.7	So I overordered, I tried things on,
0:42.7	and then I sent what didn't work back.
0:46.3	Once my daughter was watching me
0:48.3	returned some of those packages back,
0:50.4	and she said, Mom, I think you have a problem.
0:54.7	I didn't think so. I mean, it's free shipping and free returns, Mom, I think you have a problem. I didn't think so.
0:56.1	I mean, it's free shipping and free returns, right?
1:00.3	I didn't even think twice about it.
1:03.4	Until I heard a statistic at work that shocked me.
1:08.4	You see, I'm a global solutions director for top-tier retail,
1:12.3	and we were in a meeting with one of my largest customers
1:15.3	discussing how to streamline costs.
1:18.6	One of their biggest concerns was managing returns.
1:22.5	Just this past holiday season alone,
	...

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