The environmental impact of retail, particularly the web sales of clothing, appears to be consistently underestimated. Between 22 to 44 percent of all returned clothing isn’t sold to a secondary consumer. These unused returned items have a big effect on the environment.
These data come from research conducted by the Ben-Gurion University. In line with them, while most persons are aware of the environmental impacts of fashion, there remains to be not quite a lot of research on Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions on returns.
Returns are a commonly known problem in ecommerce, for online retailers. Previous research already showed that sellers within the DACH region should take care of high costs per returned order. To discourage returning items, many sellers have implemented return fees.
20 to 30% items are returned
Nonetheless, many consumers still don’t understand the negative repercussions of returns. Over-ordering (ordering one item in several colours or sizes) in fashion is common practice, normalized by programs comparable to Amazon’s ‘Try before you purchase’. Because of this, on average 20 to 30 percent of things that were ordered online are returned.
‘Few consumers know that returned items don’t necessarily find yourself back on the shelves’
“While many consumers see the choice to return as a key consider their purchasing decisions, few appear to know that returned items don’t necessarily find yourself back on the shelves”, say the researchers.
44% items aren’t resold
When items are returned, sellers need to finish a posh technique of sorting, checking and infrequently cleansing, repairing and repackaging the product. The prices of this process are sometimes higher than the retail value. “Since many returns can only be sold at a reduction, some items are thrown away or destroyed without ever getting used.”
As much as 69,300 items of returned clothing in Europe ended up in landfills
Based on an information set of 630,000 returned clothing items in Europe, 44 percent never reach a second consumer. Half of them are recycled, 1 / 4 find yourself in landfills and a seventh are incinerated. The remaining find yourself lost somewhere along the way in which.
Emissions 16 times higher than managing returns
In line with the research, these unused products which are discarded have a really big impact on the environment. The GHG emissions which are related to the production and distribution of these things are 2 to 16 times higher than all post-return transport, packaging and processing emissions combined.
