Amazon joins a slew of retailers charging for returns

You’re gonna want to make sure those 3am Amazon purchases are worth it.

The Everything Store has started charging $1 for items returned to UPS stores located in close proximity to Kohl’s, Whole Foods, or an Amazon Fresh grocery store, The Information reported. Amazon has a partnership with Kohl’s and owns the latter two.

• The company has also started flagging “frequently returned” products on its site and is adding the badge to product listings on items with higher return rates, a spokesperson told CNN.

Consumers have become accustomed to free returns in the e-commerce era, and charging for returns can be a useful deterrent.

“[Shoppers have] become trained to expect returns that are free, convenient, easy, fast,” David Sobie, VP of logistics company Happy Returns, previously told Retail Brew.

Processing returns and bringing merchandise back into the fold can often be an expensive headache for retailers.

H&M, Zara, Abercrombie & Fitch, and J.Crew have all started charging fees for online returns, which experts say may turn off some customers. It’s estimated that more than $816 billion worth of merchandise purchased was returned in 2022, according to a December report from the National Retail Federation and Appriss Retail.

• The average return rate stayed the same YoY (about 16.5%).

The Amazon spokesperson who spoke with CNN clarified that customers can still return items for free to Whole Foods, Kohl's, and Amazon Fresh, so the fee won't affect most customers.