Surge in returns delivering grim news for the retailers What part has size variation to play?

So, you think you’ve found the perfect outfit, only to find that in the size you picked, you can hardly pull the material over your limbs – or, equally annoyingly, it completely swamps your frame.

If this sounds familiar, you’re far from alone. Shoppers’ frustrations at clothing being either too big or much smaller than they’d imagined are seen as a major driver behind the large number of items generally wending their way back to shops after we’ve bought them.

It’s also causing a headache for retailers, as many of us now buy items fully intending to send at least some of them back. According to research from Barclaycard, UK shoppers are returning around £7 billion worth of purchases every year. A quarter (26%) of retailers have seen a rise in returns in-store and online over the past two years.

The figures are particularly high among fashion, footwear and accessory retailers, as consumers increasingly change their minds after making a purchase. Here is a look at our habits when it comes to returning shopping – and the impact they are having.

How much clothing are we returning?

Staggeringly, Barclaycard found nearly half the amount people spend on clothes online each year, ends up being refunded. While we splash out £313 on average on online clothes shopping each year, £146 worth of this is sent back. A third of shoppers say they buy clothes online expecting that items will be unsuitable before they’ve even tried them on.

Barclaycard found the number one reason given by shoppers for returning clothes is the way in which the same clothes size can vary. Two-fifths of people return clothing bought online, because items don’t fit as they expect.

Nearly one in 10 shoppers have taken to buying multiple sizes of the same item and returning those that don’t fit.

What else is driving returns?

Many people also see returning items as relatively easy – as well as often being free. Over half (52%) of shoppers think that retailers have made the returns process more convenient.

This may partly be down to stores competing for our cash – as just over half (54%) of retailers think that customers’ decisions about where to shop are now influenced by the vendor’s returns policy.

Returning so many items may be convenient – but ultimately, there’s a price to pay.

Three in 10 (29%) retailers say they have increased the price of items to cover the cost of processing and managing returns, while nearly a quarter (23%) have cut the length of time customers have to make a return – to give themselves a clearer idea of how much stock is on their books.

On the plus side for shoppers though, more than half (52%) of retailers have introduced more information about products online to help people decide, such as exact measurements.

And 48% of retailers have made their returns policy more transparent, such as making it more prominent on a website, Barclaycard found.