Black Friday: Be aware of shorter return windows, restocking fees and shorter return windows

Black Friday shoppers might be eager to get the best deals. But, they could miss an opportunity: Product returns. 

According to a recent survey by goTRG, a provider of return management services, six out of 10 retailers are considering changing their returns policies for the holiday season. These changes are generally not in the consumer’s favour, as many stores shorten the returns period and add restocking or online return fees.

This may surprise shoppers who were used to generous returns policies that existed during the pandemic. In order to give consumers more room, retailers relaxed their guidelines. Kohl’s and Bloomingdales, for example, extended their returns windows by 30 and 90 days in 2020. 

Retailers are now dealing with an Overstock of inventory The slowing economy has caused some companies to tighten their policies. Experts recommend that Black Friday shoppers check the return policy before making a purchase to avoid any unpleasant surprises. 

Shamiss explained that retailers now say, “We’re not interested in customers who are going to cause this crazy return nightmare that we cannot afford,” 

He said that retail executives are concerned about economic strength and are working to ensure their policies are in the best interest of their businesses.

Amazon has a smaller window

Amazon is one of the big retailers that has made changes this year. Customers who bought items between October 11th and December 25 can return them until January 31st 2023. That’s a shorter window than last year, when buyers could return items bought between October 1 and December 31, 2021, through January 31, 2022. 

While some retailers charge customers for online returns they will not usually charge for items that are returned to brick and mortar locations. This can reduce costs for retailers while encouraging customers to return to stores. 

Shamiss stated that “the low-hanging tree is changing the return policies.” “As ecommerce develops, they are beginning to claw back these extremely generous policies that existed for returns.”

H&M, for instance, charges a U.S. return shipping fee of $5.99 that is deducted from a customer’s refund when they return an item. Although the store stated that this policy is not new, it might start to test online returns fees in certain European markets. 

Zara began charging $3.95 online returns earlier this year, but it does not charge a fee for returning online orders to brick-and mortar locations. 

Shamiss stated, “We got used these insanely lengthy return policies” during pandemic. “None” of these policies exist anymore.