Buying clothing online can be a risky venture, as the products may not match their descriptions exactly, and this often results in consumers returning goods to online merchants. The rate of online returns of clothing ranges between 20 and 50 percent of purchases, according to various news sources, including the New York Daily Post. This highlights a need to provide better and more accurate information to shoppers. Reducing the rate of returns can help improve the customer experience and keep retail inventory management in line.

Consumers commonly return clothes due to poor fit, which can be traced back to a lack of transparency about the items. The Washington Post reported that technological options may be able to improve consumers' ability to get a more accurate idea of how clothing will fit before they buy. This has the potential to leave more customers satisfied in their purchases the first time around, scaling down the rate of returns.

Even with the best efforts and intentions, it's still likely that some shoppers will need to return or exchange items they purchase online. Retailers may be able to keep these customers coming back if they have solid return policies and easy-to-navigate ecommerce software to streamline the process. Online shoe and clothing retailer Zappos.com, for instance, includes a return shipping label with every purchase that makes it easy to box items up and send them back if they don't fit. 

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Wednesday, April 2nd, 2014 at 9:44 am .