New research reveals that 27% of UK consumers have bought items with the intention of wearing them and returning them, a trend also known as ‘wardrobing’.
The study from the UK’s most-trusted discount site, VoucherCodes.co.uk, shows that over the past 10 years, the number of people wardrobing has increased by 50%, rising from 18% in 2013 to 27% today. In addition, a further 7% of people say they would consider wardrobing in the future, suggesting that this number is set to rise.
This increase in the number of people who’ve wardrobed is likely due to the rise in online shopping over the past decade, with almost one-third saying that they feel less guilty about wardrobing when they shop online compared to in-store (30%).
According to the data, there’s several tricks consumers who wardrobe use to ensure they get their refund. Almost one-quarter check the type of tag before making a purchase to check that it’s easy to wear and return (24%). Another 19% will spray their item with air freshener or perfume before returning it.
However there is some hope for retailers as over a quarter of people who have wardrobed say that retailers have made it much more difficult recently (26%). One of these measures is introducing return fees, with 18% of wardrobers saying this makes them less likely to return items they’ve worn.
Michael Brandy, senior commercial director at VoucherCodes.co.uk, comments: “With retailers already struggling with higher operational costs and rising returns, it’s sad to see that wardrobing is also on the rise. We all know that returns hit retailer’s profits hard, and if the items can’t then be resold as they’ve been worn, this will only further increase retailer costs.
“There are some measures that retailers can take to limit the number of people wearing their items and returning them. For example, as our data shows, adding additional tags in prominent places and increasing return costs are just some ways to deter consumers from wardrobing.”
