High street fashion retailer Zara is now charging online customers a fee to return items.
Those who choose to return items to third-party drop-off points across the country will now be charged a £1.95 fee, which is taken from the refund sum.
Zara customers will have 30 days from the date their online order ships to return it for a refund.
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The regular refund rules still apply according to Zara’s website, which states that items returned to them must have all their original labels and should be in perfect condition.
The fashion company told This Is Money that online orders that are returned to one of their 68 stores in the UK will not have the added charge.
There are now questions regarding whether adding a charge for customers who return online orders will become the norm.
Ordering clothes online couldn’t be easier in today’s shopping landscape, especially post-lockdown, however we’ve all had to return items after ordering the wrong size or simply due to a change of heart.
Returning clothes from online orders can affect a retailer’s finances as well as questions about the impact it has on the environment.
The returns section on Zara’s UK website states that all returns of orders placed from 3 May 2022 onward will have £1.95 deducted from the refunded amount.
Customers are able to search and select the nearest drop-off point via a search function on the site.
Once the return request has been completed, you can show your QR code at the drop-off point for the return label to be printed.
A spokesperson told Tyla: "Customers can return online purchases at any Zara store in the UK free of charge, which is what most customers do. The £1.95 fee only applies to the return of products at third party drop off points."
Zara is not the first fashion retailer to change its returns policy for online orders. The online-only retailer Asos changed its returns policy three years ago to block what it called ‘serial returners’, those who buy lots of items with the intention of returning most of them.
Gregory Robinson