COMMENT November 2022 Automation Smarter solutions for industrial efficiency automationmagazine.co.uk November 2022 In this issue:


• Robotics • HMIs & PCs


The new 10BASE-T1L standard:


What’s changed? Analog Devices explains


• Smart Factories & I4.0 • Sustainable Operations


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etailers like Next, Zara, Uniqlo and Boohoo are introducing return fees of up to £2 for items bought online.


But, if the shoe doesn’t fit, why should a customer be forced to keep it, or indeed part with money to return it – right?


The whole thing about online shopping is that the high street is dying, especially here in the UK, so online remains accessible. Plus, pandemics such as Covid have brought to light how tricky it can be to mingle with others, easily swapping infectious deceases.


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On the flip side of online shopping (and that other whole thing) is that you can’t try on what you are buying, can’t feel the material, can’t see how it moves or looks on your body. Despite sizing standards, items vary from retailer to retailer, and from item to item. They are made all over the globe, so sizing standards definitely vary – and converting international standards is yet another ball game. It’s almost a “Eureka!” moment when an item bought online fits. After all, the online buying process is, one could say, fraught with risks and associated anguish: will the item fit or not; how long before delivery; does it need a signature; has it been sent to a different location for collection; is it lost; whose money will be affected if it does go missing; if it does, there will be an investigation – and then, in reverse: will the return arrive back to the retailer; what if it goes missing; has something affected the item in the process so the retailer refuses to take it back; and so on, and so on. And that’s just from the shopper’s perspective. What about the environment? Imposing return fees is not sustainable either: for the return fee, an undecided shopper may choose to keep the item but then never wear it – clogging wardrobes and then landfill. And, don’t retailers make up by not having brick and mortar stores, which in some ways offsets return costs?


The whole thing of imposing return fees appears a hard-and-fast rule. Instead, they should invest in R&D, to establish better processes and systems, rather than pass the buck on to the consumer – who has a lot to deal with already.


Until VR and AR make appearance in retail, as well as AI and better algorithms are introduced, then the old-fashioned way of returning goods should be a risk retailers should accept for online shopping – since, as someone recently put it so aptly, “returns are a fact of retail”.


Stella Josifovska Editor


Editor


Stella Josifovska Tel: 01732 883392


sjosifovska@datateam.co.uk


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