If you buy your clothes online, how much of it do you send back?

[AtoB]

I just ordered four things from Next - a denim bag from Accessorise, a black jumper from Phase Eight, a Friends Like These skirt and a fluffy jacket from Joe Browns and I don’t like any of it!

The bag is huge, the jumper is not nice enough for £79, the skirt is too tight on the waist and the jacket is not my style. Add to that the too small boots I took back last week and the too big trousers, I am going to give up!

I can’t see me going round the shops and actually trying on clothes (not done that for years) so I’ll make do with what I’ve got until the spring I think.

How much of what you order do you actually keep?

Hardly anything.

If the sizing is really wrong or there is an obvious flaw I do. But I must keep at least 95%.

I buy a lot online and rarely need to return anything. I know how the sizing works for me for the brands I buy regularly, I read the garment measurements and fit advice and know what that means for my body shape, and if I’m not sure I go into the store and try on if possible. Usually the quality is as expected so I only have an occasional failure.

I think the difference between a lot of yes- no here is where they a shopping.
Those shopping in cabbage and roses, Margaret Howell, studio nicholson- those are premium brands, and priced so. Those items will more than likely have individual measurements listed, or they will be cut to the brands standard sizes, but quality control will be tightly followed and the clothes will fit that standard. Fabric will be of a certain quality. You can expect that if you buy a certain item, it will look like the pictures, of which multiple are shown. I understand it would also be a costly exercise to try on 4 coats, if each coat is in the £4-500 range.

For lots of us who do return lots of things, we're not buying from those stores, we are buying from the high street. For cost reasons, and maybe for fashion reasons. They don't put quality control in to the same amount. Sizes differ between garments, definitely within styles, but also sometimes within the same style. Cuts can be badly made, shown in a certain way on a model to disguise potential issues, sometimes not on a model at all and expected to extrapolate from a flat lay or hanging shot. Materials are different- if you're not paying for natural materials, polyester types can go from feeling lovely and silky, to feeling rough and cheap, you can't tell.

I went into h&m yesterday. There is a pair of jeans, slightly cropped, that I have in 2 colours and wear a lot in spring/ summer. They have a darker pair out, but I want a longer length pair in the same cut. Well, luckily, these jeans have no quality control, so the jeans in the same size on the shelf, in the same size (regular length) had about an inch and a half discrepancy in length between various pairs. I picked the pair that was longest.

Payment wise, if I was trying on coats, they would likely be under the £150 range. I would either put them on the credit card or use Klarna, and I would expect to keep 1. I would pay the minimum payment on any bills that came in during the decision process, and pay in full at the point of sending others back and deciding on one.

Not very much.

It is hard to find sizes in shops or even shops near you with what you want

I know how the sizing works for me for the brands I buy regularly,

Part of my issue is I don't buy often enough or enough in general to get an idea of how sizing works. I've just ended up with jeans in an American size 0, which is just ridiculous. I'd originally ordered a 4 and a 6 based on the size guide.

I have given up with fashion shopping online. Most of it went back due to inconsistent sizing and being unable to ascertain the fabric or finishing quality. Even M&S sizing of their trousers within styles is not reliable.

The fashion industry is one of the most environmentally damaging industries globally. It would help cut the massive waste associated with returns if there were globally agreed and enforced size standards.

Not that much anymore. I buy pretty much everything online. But I check measurements of every item, and don’t buy from websites which don’t have measurements. The most important one for me is length, as I’m so short, so I need to know the nape to hem measurement for a jumper, for example. White stuff, Hobbs, phase eight and M&S (non exhaustive list!) is really good for this. Fat Face, for example, is not. So I don’t buy from there.

Ugh, I totally get your frustration! Online shopping can be such a gamble. I’ve definitely sent back my fair share of stuff—sometimes it feels like more goes back than stays! I ordered a pair of jeans once that were so much smaller than I expected, and don’t even get me started on shoes. The size guides aren’t always reliable! Honestly, I think I keep about 50% of what I order, if that. It’s just one of those things... the hassle of returning stuff is almost as bad as going to the shops in person sometimes. I hear you on the "making do" part too, maybe just until the spring rolls around!

Oh no, that’s so frustrating! I feel you – online shopping can be such a gamble. I think I return about half of what I order, if not more. The sizing is always hit or miss, and sometimes the quality just doesn't match the pictures. I also got some boots last week that were way too small, and I’m still waiting for the right pair to come through. Honestly, sometimes it feels easier just to give up and wear what I already have! But yeah, I totally get not wanting to hit the shops. It’s a bit of a struggle all around!

Same here. And I am not buying premium brands, just checking the sizing against things I already have with a tape measure. If they can't be arsed to put measurements on the site I don't try buying from them. So many jerseys and jackets are too short in the back or the arms or both, but I return hardly anything these days.

"If I'm buying for a specific event, I usually order 3-4 dresses in one or two sizes and keep one.
Are you loaded? Or is it all quite cheap? I couldn't imagine being out of pocket for 4x's the price of a dress to get 1 dress- even using a credit card are you not worried you might have to clear it before the returns are processed?"*
*
I'm the person who said this. I'm not incredibly loaded, but I'm financially secure. The dresses are always less than £100, usually nearer the £40-70 mark. So not cheap but not super expensive either. I think £400 is the most I've ever ordered at once and that was very unusual, but I always return to store so the money is usually refunded within a week or so (next day delivery and stores near my work). I time my purchases for the start of my credit card period, or if I'm not using my card I either time it for payday, move savings to cover it or very occasionally go into my overdraft for those few days.

I send back loads- I treat online shopping as equivalent to taking something into the changing room- not a commitment to buy.

Loads of people can afford to buy lots of things and not worry about the refund, surely that's not a mystery?

Those costs are passed on to the customer though surely?

I suppose it depends how much you're spending. Poster with 4 dresses has said the price range is £40-£70. I spend a lot more than that on individual items and I can afford it. I still wouldn't want the hassle of 4×'s the price of a dress being paid out to get one.

I keep most these days as v rarely buy new - but did recently return all of an order of v nice dresses that just didn't suit me.

Having said that if I could return Vinted items I'd probably return well over half!

Very little now. I tend to order from shops that I am confident in their sizing. I would much prefer to buy in store but the stores in my nearby city carried very very little stock.

Why do you order online at all if you’ve tried it on in person? Why not buy the one you tried on?

The majority. But that is because if I want to buy one thing then I buy about four different versions of it at the same time to choose just the best one to keep. I rarely just order one skirt, jacket, jumper etc like you did. I find that if I do that I am tempted to keep things that aren't really quite right.

It's not just ordering different sizes (in fact, I don't generally do that unless I am really unsure. If I get it wrong then I can always change the size). It's ordering different styles, fabrics.

I wouldn’t order so much if I didn’t do it through my Next account as you don’t pay upfront, you only pay for what you keep. I don’t do post office returns any more as that was a pain.

Anyway I am fed up of not finding things that fit although plenty of people on here seem to!

Exactly this!

I don't know about pp but I would do this because I know I can get a better deal online for various reasons.

e.g. I know I have an online voucher, or I know I can get a blue light discount but don't have my blue lightcard with me etc. Or I can search to see if other shops have the same items for a lower price - especially true with brands that have their own stores but are also stocked with M&S etc (e.g. Seasalt).

I generally only order online from shops still in my town.So I can try on in-store & return immediately if they're not right. I don't tend to buy multiple sizes. I prefer to try on clothes in shops now assuming is so variable.

The one exception is that I've ordered a couple of coats from BrandAlley, as I know the sizing of these Mango coats. Due to a try-on in J Lewis a couple of weeks ago.

...and I just learned that typing M&S means a hyperlink to their store is automatically applied...

Pretty well off, yes (it's all relative so not sure what counts as "very well off"). And I don't use a credit card. I maintain a high enough balance on my current account that buying a few items of clothing is not going to make a big impact tbh. We're not talking thousands.