Boohoo and Zara are the latest retailers to start charging for returns Fashion Beauty Celebrity Health Life Relationships Horoscopes Food Interiors Travel Sign in Welcome!Log into your account Forgot your password? Password recovery Recover your password Search Sign in Welcome! Log into your account Forgot your password? Get help Password recovery Recover your password A password will be e-mailed to you. YOU Magazine Fashion Beauty Celebrity Health Life Relationships Horoscopes Food Interiors Travel Home Life Boohoo and Zara are the latest retailers to start charging for returns By Sophie Hines - July 13, 2022 Free online returns are generally a massive headache for retailers, costing them a fortune each year, but as shoppers we’ve all come to expect the option of sending clothes back free of charge if they don’t fit or suit us. Getty However, this could all be set to change, as major high street retailer Zara has started charging £1.95 for online returns, prompting questions over whether other brands will follow suit. Analysts told the BBC it was likely that other retailers will soon start to charge for online returns – and they weren’t wrong. Boohoo is the next fast fashion giant to join the club, having announced that customers will now be charged £1.99 for returns. With Zara, the charge only applies to postal returns via third-party drop-off points. In this case, the £1.95 will be deducted from the refund amount. If you take your item into a Zara store to return it, then you won’t have to pay. Getty Images At online retailer Boohoo, the £1.99 charge will also be deducted from the refunded amount, but returns will continue to be free for premier customers, who pay £12.99 a year for unlimited next-day delivery and free returns. Zara and Boohoo’s move could signal the end of online haul culture, where social media users buy huge amounts of clothes from a specific retailer and show off their #haul online, before returning most of it for free. It has won praise from some corners of the internet, with people highlighting the positive environmental impact of making people more conscious of what they buy and potentially lessening the amount of delivery vans on the road. However, other commenters are angry at the move from Zara and Boohoo, which comes at a time when finances are already squeezed for many. One person wrote on Twitter: ‘Zara making changes to your free returns which now cost your customers and making no announcement about it? Not cool.’ Someone else tweeted: ‘you have to pay for boohoo returns now???? the fun is acc over’. There were also plenty of comments about the difficulty of returning items in store at Zara, with shoppers citing long queues and poor customer service as hindrances to doing so. Zara and Boohoo are not actually the first major retailers to start charging for returns – Uniqlo, Next and Sports Direct have already done so – but it’s certainly never caused such a stir before. We’ll keep you updated as to whether other major brands follow their lead. RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR Everything we know about The Crown season 5 Aldi s exercise equipment is on sale with up to 50% off The best Halloween events for 2022 across the UK Popular in Life The You magazine team reveal their New Year s resolutions December 31, 2021 Susannah Taylor The TLC tools your body will love January 23, 2022 How to stop living in fear February 6, 2022 Susannah Taylor My pick of the fittest leggings February 27, 2022 Women’ s Prize for Fiction 2022 winner announced June 17, 2022 These BBC dramas are returning for a second series June 30, 2022 Susannah Taylor gives the lowdown on nature s little helper – CBD April 17, 2022 The baby names that are banned across the world April 27, 2022 The Queen has released her own emojis May 26, 2022 Sally Brompton horoscopes 27th June-3rd July 2022 June 26, 2022 Popular CategoriesFood2704Life2496Fashion2240Beauty1738Celebrity1261Interiors684 Sign up for YOUMail Thanks for subscribing Please check your email to confirm (If you don't see the email, check the spam box) Fashion Beauty Celebrity Life Food Privacy & Cookies T&C Copyright 2022 - YOU Magazine. All Rights Reserved