CEO of Hubbub, Trewin Restorick, says trying to unravel the murky world of fashion returns is “complicated” as he discusses how Hubbub undertook research to understand whether consumers considered the environmental impact of their purchasing habits.
Fast fashion brand Boohoo reported that profits had taken a hit after online shoppers returned clothes faster than before the pandemic. Whilst the financial implications are clear, it is much harder to gauge the environmental impact of this change in consumer behaviour.
Trying to unravel the murky world of fashion returns is complicated, but what is certain is that transporting clothing back and forth must have significant carbon, packaging and waste implications.
As part of a growing exploration of the fashion industry, Hubbub was interested to know what was driving this behaviour and whether consumers considered the environmental impact of their purchasing habits. Independent polling was commissioned with 3,000 people providing a cross-representative sample of the UK adult population. The results were fascinating.
The implication is that there is a gap between what young people say they care about and their shopping habits. How can this gap between values and action be narrowed?
As expected, the polling revealed that fashion purchasing online is increasing. This was most pronounced amongst Gen Z (16-24 year olds), three quarters of whom buy online every month.
This group tends to buy an average of 3 items at any one time with 82% saying that they return unwanted items with the average number of returned items being two.
When ordering clothes online, 23% order things in multiple sizes and return ones that don’t fit, 21% say they order multiple outfits and return items they don’t like. 7% of respondents admit they order clothes/accessories to wear once and then return them.
The most common reason for returning clothes/accessories bought online were poor fitting clothes/wrong size (56% and 48% respectively), poor quality (34%) and the item not looking like the picture (31%).
Growth in returns driven by Gen Z
The results indicate that the growth in returns is significantly driven by Gen Z yet this was the age group that expressed most concern about the environmental impact of returns.
The polling revealed that 82% of Gen Z said that they were concerned about the negative impact of returning clothes purchased online compared with 75% overall.
This age group was also the most cynical about what happened to clothing that was returned with 25% saying they thought these items were being destroyed, compared with 7% overall.
The implication is that there is a gap between what young people say they care about and their shopping habits. How can this gap between values and action be narrowed?
One option for retailers would be to charge for returned items, but the polling showed that this would face customer resistance.
46% of those who buy online and return, disagreed that as a customer, they should pay to return a piece of clothing/accessory they’ve bought online – this was more so among women than men (59% vs 31% respectively). More than three quarters (76%) said they were more likely to buy from retailers that provide free returns
There were actions that retailers could take which would be more palatable for customers. The top three actions respondents feel retailers/brands could follow were: More customer feedback to show quality and fit of the product (45%), better, more detailed information/description about the products (43%) and better quality of products (39%).
Transparency
Another route would be for retailers to be more transparent about what happens to returned clothing and how these impact upon the environment and the economies of countries where some of the clothing is undoubtedly ending up.
There is confusion and uncertainty about what happens to clothing that is returned and this poses a risk to any companies found to be discarding returned items.
Over half of polling respondents said they would no longer shop with a retailer who was found to be throwing clothing away. This was more so amongst those aged over 35, but interestingly dropped to 42% amongst those aged 16-34.
Maybe there could also be a role for tighter policy regulations which is something that DEFRA could consider in the development of Extended Producer Responsibility legislation and which might also be covered in some of the EU’s ambitions around circularity.
What the polling does reveal is that the environmental impact of fashion returns is currently a largely untold story and that a significant shift in consumer behaviour is required which currently seems a long way off.
