Online shopping in Switzerland faces revolution?: Federal Council must stop the returns craze

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Is online shopping in Switzerland on the eve of a revolution? The flow of returns in online retail puts politicians in the spotlight. The Commission for the Environment, Spatial Planning and Energy of the Council of States (Urek-S) has submitted a postulate to the Federal Council that seriously questions the popular mantra “Buy now, think later” that many online customers have internalized.

Politicians want to put an end to returns from online mail order companies. They demand that these false incentives be investigated and, if necessary, corrected at legislative level. This should be done through a tax incentive.

Politicians want to apply the ‘polluter pays’ principle

This means: In the future, a fee will be due for every order – according to the polluter pays principle – a kind of advance payment for any returns. If customers keep the products they ordered, they should receive this compensation back. A plan that not only forces customers to think twice when shopping, but also protects the environment.

This is intended to put online stores and stationary retailers on an equal footing. Because: In physical stores, customers now have to return their returns themselves and therefore bear the costs – be it in the form of time or transport.

Damian Müller (39), member of the FDP Council of States of Lucerne and Urek member, says about the commission’s postulate: “The online mail order sector causes a lot of economic and environmental disruption. It is therefore right and important that the Federal Council fundamentally evaluates in a report whether – and if so, where exactly – action is needed. In this way, false incentives can be specifically eliminated in the future.

The Swiss are masters at returning things

The Urek-S bases its postulate on a current study that reveals remarkable figures: as many as seven percent of all goods ordered in Switzerland are returned. That’s every fourteenth article. In some industries, especially fashion, the return rate is as high as 20 percent. In European comparison, no one returns as many packages as the Swiss.

Zalando, the giant among online retailers, even achieved a return rate of 50 percent in 2020. Half of all ordered products were returned to sender! The easier it is to return goods, the more often it happens.

The problem is that these returns not only cost retailers a lot of money, but also put enormous pressure on the environment. The returned goods must be sorted, cleaned and sometimes even completely destroyed. The environment suffers when products are sent back and forth over enormous distances and end up in the trash.

Zalando not impressed by the plans from Bern

At Zalando, returns are part of the business model. It should remain that way in the future. The company seems to have little interest in Federal Bern’s plans: “Since there are no changing rooms in the classic sense in online retail, free returns are part of our service,” it says when asked.

Zalando customers should therefore continue to have the option to only keep what they really want to wear in the future.

Source:Blick