What is the average return rate for apparel online?
And what are best practices to avoid returns?
13 Answers
Here's information about a study by the University of Regensburg: E-commerce: why and how often customers sent stuff back [survey]
It shows that fashion has a very high return rate. 48 % of e-commerces say that they have a return rate of between 25 and 50 %.
Among the reasons people return goods: because they don't fit and because they don't like the quality, like you would expect. But a fair portion of them (13%) also order stuff online without a purchase intention - ie: knowing in advance that they will send it back.
I think this will be even more pronounced in fashion, shoes, accessories and jewelry.
It shows that fashion has a very high return rate. 48 % of e-commerces say that they have a return rate of between 25 and 50 %.
Among the reasons people return goods: because they don't fit and because they don't like the quality, like you would expect. But a fair portion of them (13%) also order stuff online without a purchase intention - ie: knowing in advance that they will send it back.
I think this will be even more pronounced in fashion, shoes, accessories and jewelry.
According to statistics released by IMRG, eCommerce returns in the UK last year were up to 30% in the fashion industry. So comparing that to the figure Kathleen mentioned in May 2011, the growth of return rates has clearly shot up. This growth mirrors the direction that cross-border is taking, which adds to the complication of recovering returned items overseas. With the best will in the world, you can’t prevent returns from happening. The home is the fitting room for the fashion industry and returns are inevitable. The best preventative solution is to improve the returns experience for the customer and enforce positive brand reputation and consumer trust by offering a flexible returns policy.
A scary but interesting stat for you is that 80% of first time customer that experience a return actually never shop with that website again. So, it really is important to get your return policy right, because it may cost you repeat business.
It’s not surprising that retailers often focus more on pushing outbound sales, but particularly with apparel, we need to start thinking of online purchases as ‘keeps’ rather than sales with the expectation that your customers will want to return unwanted items to you. The returns experience is now a key differentiator. To find out how to manage the increased cross-border returns volumes in a cost-effective and hassle-free process, read this article which tackles the problem head-on. Latest News | TSB Supply Chain
A scary but interesting stat for you is that 80% of first time customer that experience a return actually never shop with that website again. So, it really is important to get your return policy right, because it may cost you repeat business.
It’s not surprising that retailers often focus more on pushing outbound sales, but particularly with apparel, we need to start thinking of online purchases as ‘keeps’ rather than sales with the expectation that your customers will want to return unwanted items to you. The returns experience is now a key differentiator. To find out how to manage the increased cross-border returns volumes in a cost-effective and hassle-free process, read this article which tackles the problem head-on. Latest News | TSB Supply Chain
Return rates for fashion e-commerce companies are a lot higher than in-store. There are a few factors to consider: price point and product type are important. In my experience at the higher-end of the price range, an average of 40% of what is purchased is returned. Our return rate at Nicole Miller | Online Store is 40%. We see a lot of customers buy a style in two sizes and return one of the sizes. Return rates are much higher for apparel and shoes than accessories because accessories don't have the sizing concern.
Best practices to avoid returns are to give the customer as much info about the product as possible. Lots of photos and detailed views, thorough product descriptions, etc, Showing the height and weight of the model and the size she's wearing will help them gauge their size in some cases... Videos help. We use a tool called clothes horse on our product pages that gives customers size recommendations based on some info they enter about their body type: height, weight, etc.
Best practices to avoid returns are to give the customer as much info about the product as possible. Lots of photos and detailed views, thorough product descriptions, etc, Showing the height and weight of the model and the size she's wearing will help them gauge their size in some cases... Videos help. We use a tool called clothes horse on our product pages that gives customers size recommendations based on some info they enter about their body type: height, weight, etc.
I wrote a blog touching on the online 'fit' conundrum - the most important reason for returns.
https://blog.siasto.com/the-sear...
here are some interesting factoids:
-Achieving a great first-time fit is a holy grail in online retailing. Many retailers say between 20% and 40% of their online sales are returned (the percent varies widely among retailers and spikes during promotions), and fit is the No. 1 reason.
-Fits.me describes clothes returns as a “£7.4 billion problem globally” .
-Research carried out last year by UK virtual fitting room company, Fits.me, involving 1,000 UK consumers, found that 60% won't purchase clothing online if a retailer does not offer free returns.
"Consumers don't trust the sizing information they see online, and with good reason: there are no universal sizing standards, and sizing may vary considerably even within a single retailer," says Heikki Haldre, founder and chief executive of Fits.me. To get around the problem, many online shoppers (41%) are ordering multiple sizes for one item and returning those that don't fit. This costs those retailers offering free returns a lot of money, not only in postage but in re-warehousing and, possibly, discounting for resale. "Returns are very damaging to profitability and what we may be seeing is that retailers are reaching some kind of tipping point, forcing them to address the issue," says Haldre. "We are experiencing a great deal of not just interest in our virtual fitting room, but real intent."
-A recent talk by Lectra SA Thierry Moncoutié: 62% of customers unhappy with fit. 1/5 garments is returned b/c poor fit. 1/3 online garments is returned b/c of poor fit. 85% said they would buy a brand again if fit wells.
-Industry magazine Drapers’s Etail Report of 2012 corroborated this, showing 70 percent of all returns are fit related.
-Customers who try on clothes in traditional fitting rooms have a conversion rate—meaning they ultimately buy something they tried on—of 67%, according to retail consultant Envision Retail Ltd., of Surrey, England, based on observations of more than 8,000 shoppers. Customers who don't use the fitting rooms have only a 10% conversion rate. Shoppers who use the fitting rooms spend a third of their in-store time there.
-However, some are more sceptical. “I think it’s inevitable that we’ll get some pretty good ‘try-on’ software on the site at some point in the not too distant future,” says Hart. But “virtual try-on is nowhere near the top of the list of what [consumers] are asking for, to be honest. What they ask for more is the ability to build and share outfits; to gain validation from their friends of what they are thinking of buying and to see for themselves if the items they are considering will work together.”)
What we've seen at Fits.me, which provides the online version of a virtual fitting room, is that only 40% of customers end up buying the "recommended" size. As fashion is all about the style, so is the size - some people simply prefer to wear a more fitted look, while the others prefer a more generous fit. The size preferences depend on the function of the clothing (you may want to have a more looser fit when jogging as opposed when going to the yoga class), or where you are going to wear it (a Friday night event might require a different fit and look than a day in the office). About 34% choose a size larger, and the rest go for a smaller size - these choices depend heavily on the type of garments a brand is selling.
- Shirtmaker Ledbury claims to have 7% return rates.
https://blog.siasto.com/the-sear...
here are some interesting factoids:
-Achieving a great first-time fit is a holy grail in online retailing. Many retailers say between 20% and 40% of their online sales are returned (the percent varies widely among retailers and spikes during promotions), and fit is the No. 1 reason.
-Fits.me describes clothes returns as a “£7.4 billion problem globally” .
-Research carried out last year by UK virtual fitting room company, Fits.me, involving 1,000 UK consumers, found that 60% won't purchase clothing online if a retailer does not offer free returns.
"Consumers don't trust the sizing information they see online, and with good reason: there are no universal sizing standards, and sizing may vary considerably even within a single retailer," says Heikki Haldre, founder and chief executive of Fits.me. To get around the problem, many online shoppers (41%) are ordering multiple sizes for one item and returning those that don't fit. This costs those retailers offering free returns a lot of money, not only in postage but in re-warehousing and, possibly, discounting for resale. "Returns are very damaging to profitability and what we may be seeing is that retailers are reaching some kind of tipping point, forcing them to address the issue," says Haldre. "We are experiencing a great deal of not just interest in our virtual fitting room, but real intent."
-A recent talk by Lectra SA Thierry Moncoutié: 62% of customers unhappy with fit. 1/5 garments is returned b/c poor fit. 1/3 online garments is returned b/c of poor fit. 85% said they would buy a brand again if fit wells.
-Industry magazine Drapers’s Etail Report of 2012 corroborated this, showing 70 percent of all returns are fit related.
-Customers who try on clothes in traditional fitting rooms have a conversion rate—meaning they ultimately buy something they tried on—of 67%, according to retail consultant Envision Retail Ltd., of Surrey, England, based on observations of more than 8,000 shoppers. Customers who don't use the fitting rooms have only a 10% conversion rate. Shoppers who use the fitting rooms spend a third of their in-store time there.
-However, some are more sceptical. “I think it’s inevitable that we’ll get some pretty good ‘try-on’ software on the site at some point in the not too distant future,” says Hart. But “virtual try-on is nowhere near the top of the list of what [consumers] are asking for, to be honest. What they ask for more is the ability to build and share outfits; to gain validation from their friends of what they are thinking of buying and to see for themselves if the items they are considering will work together.”)
What we've seen at Fits.me, which provides the online version of a virtual fitting room, is that only 40% of customers end up buying the "recommended" size. As fashion is all about the style, so is the size - some people simply prefer to wear a more fitted look, while the others prefer a more generous fit. The size preferences depend on the function of the clothing (you may want to have a more looser fit when jogging as opposed when going to the yoga class), or where you are going to wear it (a Friday night event might require a different fit and look than a day in the office). About 34% choose a size larger, and the rest go for a smaller size - these choices depend heavily on the type of garments a brand is selling.
- Shirtmaker Ledbury claims to have 7% return rates.