Returns fees: Mountain Warehouse, THG and Moss Bros introduce charges

returns A raft of retailers have started to charge customers to return online orders

// Mountain Warehouse, THG and Moss Bros are among the retailers that have added a charge for customers to return online items in recent months

// The moves are among a wider shift across retail to charge customers for returns

A raft of retailers including Mountain Warehouse, THG and Moss Bros have added a charge for shoppers to return items bought online. The move follows fashion giants Zara and Boohoo introducing charges to send back items last year amid a wider shift in the industry to recoup the rocketing fulfilment costs involved in online returns. THG, which owns brands including Lookfantasic, MyProtein and Glossybox, now charges GBP2.99 per order for returns while Mountain Warehouse introduced a GBP2 fee from late October.

Mountain Warehouse's founder Mark Neale told The Telegraph that it introduced the "modest" fee to "reflect the increasing cost of collecting and processing these returns".

Subscribe to Retail Gazette for free

Moss Bros told the newspaper that it had brought in a fee after a review of the wider market. Its customers can opt for a free Royal Mail service or pay GBP2.99 for a courier to pick up the item. Moss Bros chief executive Brian Brick said: "If people want something quicker, there's a premium charge for that.

But it was really about returns and understanding what our competition is doing and what our customers require." Other retailers are expected to follow suit, particularly in fashion where there has been an increase in returns rates. According to specialist ReBound, one in three fashion items bought online are sent back.

This is around double the rate of shop-bought goods.

Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette's free daily email newsletter