How businesses can redesign online shopping to fight the environmental menace of free returns

Many retailers online are now offering free returns and extended return windows for Black Friday and the holidays. The intention is to lower the threshold to buy. On average, 20% of all online purchases are returned, whereas in brick and mortar stores, the figure is only around 9%.

In some industries, such as fashion, where fit is paramount and harder to gauge online, return rates are even higher. At online fashion giant Zalando, for example, 50% of sales are returned—every other item sold comes back.

The industry has coined December 3 as Returns Thursday, since that date, following the extended Black Friday weekend, sees more returns than any other day of the year. Indeed, while enticing to consumers, the problem with generous holiday-timed return policies is that they encourage returns rather than prevent them.

Online stores should focus more on helping customers find the right products than on promoting free and easy returns. At global tech agency Reaktor, we help major retailers, such as Adidas, minimize and prevent their returns. Even the smallest adjustments to the operations and appearance of an online store can have an enormous positive impact on the amount of returns and thereby the environment.

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