PrettyLittleThing shoppers 'devastated' as brand makes major change

Popular online fashion retailer PrettyLittleThing has ended its free returns policy, causing quite a stir among shoppers.

The brand joins the ranks of others such as Zara, Wayfair, Oh Polly, and H&M who have introduced charges for returns. Experts at Dojo, specialists in retail payments, suggest this change could be an effort to combat 'serial refunding' and 'wardrobing', where customers buy large quantities of clothing to try on or wear once with tags intact, only to return them later.

The news has spread across social media, with TikTok user @sjbrame highlighting the update in a video that quickly racked up over 100k views, sparking reactions from users. Comments ranged from one user lamenting, "Omg I'm devastated", to another expressing frustration: "What so I pay for royalty but have to pay to return my parcels too now. Great."

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Others were equally dismayed, with one saying, "Life is RUINED", and another noting, "I noticed this earlier! ! What a joke", reports Wales Online. One particularly upset shopper said: "This hurts more than a breakup!"

Until recently, PrettyLittleThing offered free returns via well-known couriers like Evri, Royal Mail, and Inpost. But since the start of June, UK customers are charged £1.99 for these services when returning items, which will be taken from their order refund. Should customers opt for a different return method, they must cover the cost themselves.

Experts at Dojo have commented: "High amounts of returns can prove very expensive for businesses so it's no surprise that fast fashion retailer, PrettyLittleThing, has discontinued their free returns policy."

They added: "Buy now, pay later has contributed significantly to customers buying more than what they usually would to try different sizes and colours without any money leaving their bank account. This causes mass returns costing brands money for the returns process."

"PrettyLittleThing is the latest in a long line of brands to start charging for refunds and we will likely see more brands following suit. This happened just weeks after Oh Polly announced customers would be charged up to £8.99 for returning items."

The experts also noted: "This is a move to help decrease the amount of unnecessary returns customers are making and to help offset the business costs incurred during the returns process."

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