SEVERAL e-commerce business owners in China have shared their grouses regarding the surge in product return rates following the country’s biggest online shopping extravaganza held annually on November 11.
Popularly known as Singles Day or ‘shuang shi yi’ (translation: ‘double eleven’ in Mandarin) has become an anticipated sales period in China’s retail industry, according to Channel News Asia citing Chinese news reports.
This year, e-commerce retailers have offered discounts three weeks before the big date.
E-commerce retailers reportedly offer a “seven-day no-questions-asked” return policy, as quoted.
One online retailer lamented her current return rates - said to have sent out 20,000 packages of her products only to have half the amount returned to her during the first wave of the Singles Day sales.
Another retailer claimed that 1,500 packages were returned out of the 2,000 sent out during the same period as well.
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Furthermore, several consumers have taken advantage of an e-commerce site’s Single’s Day discounts by buying several items from different shops to hit the minimum amount for discounts then reportedly cancelling these orders to get a refund.
One prime example is the American fashion brand Ralph Lauren reportedly experiencing a 95% order cancellation rate in this year’s Single’s Day sales, with consumers said to buy many items to get discounts upon reaching the minimum spending amount.
Another online retailer said to have 200,000 followers also announced its closure in October due to a 70% return rate being one of the reasons along with several online women’s clothing stores that have closed down this year.
Despite retailers voicing out against these high return rates, their pleas to consumers to stop this issue at hand was shot down by thousands of dissatisfied customers justifying their actions - claiming to have received subpar quality products.
One user, for instance, posted on social media of her experience of receiving a women’s loungewear purchased online only to find it not fitting as shown in the picture advertising the product, alleging that the seller told her to “wash it first”, promising that the clothes would become “bigger”, as quoted.
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Consumers have also pointed out that online retailers in the country mostly use “generic” images, as quoted, of similar clothing items instead of using their own product pictures.
On the other hand, a clothing supplier attributed the high return rates partly to how the e-commerce businesses advertise their products, citing a price comparison system launched by a Chinese short video platform recommending cheaper products of the same fashion to users who already placed an order.
“This would cause users to refund and buy cheaper products after seeing them, thus resulting in a low-price competition.
“Considering operating expenses and profits, sellers would choose to provide lower-cost products. Quality decline is almost inevitable,” he was quoted as saying.
