[Nikar]

Hi all,

I just read some articles about how high the returns rate are for the clothing industry, with some retailers reporting 40% returns!

To make things worse, some customers use this method of "buy 5 pieces, keep the one that fits, return the rest".

These articles are all praising Amazon and Zappos for their awesome returns policy, like "full refund within 365 days of purchase".

Unfortunately, because my inventory is really tiny (50 t-shirts made up of various sizes) and I can't burn $$$ like these big guys, I can't afford to have customers ""buy 5 pieces, keep the one that fits, return the rest".
In addition, for each return, I've to pay my warehouse the restocking fee and I might even need to absorb the shipping.

What can I do in this case? How are the rest of you guys selling screen-printed (not DTG) t-shirts doing it?

If I were to offer "No Returns except for damage products", I might offend customers.

Special thanks and shoutout to Amazon and Zappos for screwing up the game for the rest of us.
I hope Amazon gets acquired by some chinese company within the next 10 yrs and Zappos gets liquidated.

 

[into the T]

never heard of zappos,
is that a shoe company?

i have heard of amazon though,
and that is a strange policy
365 day return, no questions asked

if there is nothing wrong with your work (or the shirt) then you should not accept returns,
quality control (trial your own work constantly and repeatedly) will ease your troubled mind

then you can say with confidence, i have the same tee that i have washed and dried 40+ times with no issues,
did you follow the washing instructions supplied with the garment?
i told you/have on the site all the sizes (and there may be some shrinkage in cotton garments)

as a small player simply offer better/personalized service,
you won't catch everyone, but there are still people who want what you offer

heck, i'll drive a little further and pay a little more for pie made here, than shipped in frozen from???,
talk to the baker, build the community, that is where your strength is

 

[NoXid]

Setup your terms so that (unless you are at fault):
- customer pays return shipping
- customer pays 10-15% restocking fee (I would only do this if you are printing items for each customer rather than in bulk)

Setup your listings so that:
- actual size in inches is visible in the size selector, not just the size name. Size names (small, medium, etc) mean almost nothing in women's styles. I show the chest in inches, dress size #, and size name in women's listings.
- display size charts with inches, dress size #, and size name info (I pity your soul if you sell on Amazon because they are retarded about this).
- describe who the style is designed to fit: "anorexic models or fat cows ..." Sorry, I said it that way here to make sure you choose your customer fronting language carefully. You want it to be obvious to them which garment would provide them the best fit, but at the same time avoid "labeling" the customer.

Many garments are purchased as gifts for others. Encourage your shoppers to either take a peek at a label or ask their target what size they wear.

#$%^ Amazon. They are in the "business" of losing money to gain market share. They still function more as a high-tech startup. Not an option for you and me.

What you have instead, and should playup, is your unique designs, understanding of your niche, and the quality of shirts and prints (assuming you are not trying to compete on the same bullpoop as generic $6 Chinese printed shirts). Make it clear you are a person practicing their craft, not Wal*Mart importing slave-labor junk.

Some returns for sizing errors are to be expected, as this happens with gifts. Customer pays to ship back to me, but I pay to ship replacement to them. And you will occasionally FUBAR something. Set your pricing with those occasional costs in mind.

I offer 90 days returns for the sake of people buying gifts, as there is often a significant gap between buying and giving dates. 30 days is the norm.

Set Expectations
Make sure your art is a true and accurate representation of what the customer is going to get. In particular, set expectations about the size of the design versus the size of the garment. For display purposes it is tempting to make the design appear as large as possible, but what will the person ordering a 3XL think when the design looks like a postage stamp on it? I try to keep my mockups within reason and I state the max width or height of my designs in general.

Other than women's sizes I have had few returns. Women's was sort of a nightmare before I went all out on accurately communicating the sizing, as I mentioned above. I also added a variety of womens cuts/styles as one comes no where close to working for all. If your designs appeal mainly to men, you may skip dealing with this.


FYI I screen print my own designs a few times a week as orders come in ... so sort of a DIY POD ... sort of. This allows me to offer more designs and more garment choices than I could otherwise afford to do. Yes, it can be a bit of a rat race if I get single-shirt orders for a lot of different designs. I'm not recommending it to anyone, just noting it as background for my opinions above.

 

[into the T]

thanks NoXid,
excellent advice (saving for ideas on website policy page)

 

[Nikar]

Setup your terms so that (unless you are at fault):
- customer pays return shipping
- customer pays 10-15% restocking fee (I would only do this if you are printing items for each customer rather than in bulk)

Setup your listings so that:
- actual size in inches is visible in the size selector, not just the size name. Size names (small, medium, etc) mean almost nothing in women's styles. I show the chest in inches, dress size #, and size name in women's listings.
- display size charts with inches, dress size #, and size name info (I pity your soul if you sell on Amazon because they are retarded about this).
- describe who the style is designed to fit: "anorexic models or fat cows ..." Sorry, I said it that way here to make sure you choose your customer fronting language carefully. You want it to be obvious to them which garment would provide them the best fit, but at the same time avoid "labeling" the customer.

Many garments are purchased as gifts for others. Encourage your shoppers to either take a peek at a label or ask their target what size they wear.

#$%^ Amazon. They are in the "business" of losing money to gain market share. They still function more as a high-tech startup. Not an option for you and me.

What you have instead, and should playup, is your unique designs, understanding of your niche, and the quality of shirts and prints (assuming you are not trying to compete on the same bullpoop as generic $6 Chinese printed shirts). Make it clear you are a person practicing their craft, not Wal*Mart importing slave-labor junk.

Some returns for sizing errors are to be expected, as this happens with gifts. Customer pays to ship back to me, but I pay to ship replacement to them. And you will occasionally FUBAR something. Set your pricing with those occasional costs in mind.

I offer 90 days returns for the sake of people buying gifts, as there is often a significant gap between buying and giving dates. 30 days is the norm.

Set Expectations
Make sure your art is a true and accurate representation of what the customer is going to get. In particular, set expectations about the size of the design versus the size of the garment. For display purposes it is tempting to make the design appear as large as possible, but what will the person ordering a 3XL think when the design looks like a postage stamp on it? I try to keep my mockups within reason and I state the max width or height of my designs in general.

Other than women's sizes I have had few returns. Women's was sort of a nightmare before I went all out on accurately communicating the sizing, as I mentioned above. I also added a variety of womens cuts/styles as one comes no where close to working for all. If your designs appeal mainly to men, you may skip dealing with this.


FYI I screen print my own designs a few times a week as orders come in ... so sort of a DIY POD ... sort of. This allows me to offer more designs and more garment choices than I could otherwise afford to do. Yes, it can be a bit of a rat race if I get single-shirt orders for a lot of different designs. I'm not recommending it to anyone, just noting it as background for my opinions above.

Thanks, how do you differentiate between returns and exchanges? Do you let customers email you saying that they want to return, then you ask for their reasons?

1) And if they want a refund, you will ask them to send back the item and upon inspection if it's unworn / unwash, you then proceed to refund the money?

Problem : What if the item they sent back is dirty etc, and cannot be resold again? Do I reject the refund?
I'm afraid this will anger them, so maybe I can offer a 30% coupon to make up for that?


2) If they want an exchange, I would send them the new one AFTER I've received the old one?

 

[NoXid]

You are doing well to consider the various scenarios. Make sure you spell them out in your Policies/Terms. Then if you decide to deviate from your stated terms in a particular case (only in the direction of benefitting the customer) then you come off as a hero.

If it is my error, my policy offers exchange or cash back. Realistically, the blank on which the design is printed is worth less than the postage to mail it back to me, so I generally just tell them to keep it and use it to wash the car, if they like. And in these situations there is generally something wrong with it anyway, so why would I want it back? Ask for a photo if you need visual confirmation of a defect, rather than having them mail it back to you.

If they need to exchange for a different size, I typically wait for the returned shirt to arrive before making/sending a replacement. I have not had anyone send back a shirt that they had gotten dirty or otherwise messed up. According to my written policy, they would need to pay me for that lost value or be SOL on ever getting the replacement shirt.

Remember, you can always be more lenient in a particular case than your policy states, but you cannot act more harshly than your stated policy. And when selling on shopping platforms like eBay, Etsy, whatever, some of these policies and processes are constrained by them to varying degree.

I think the hardest thing, for most of us semi-rational naked apes, is getting past the emotional right/wrong response. No matter how @#$% in the head the customer is, what would it really cost me to bite my tongue and make them happy? A hasty reply in these situations is generally not a good idea.

If someone wants to return an item, they are not going to be shy about why. More often the why is the opening, not something you have to follow-up with them to find out.

 

[Nikar]

You are doing well to consider the various scenarios. Make sure you spell them out in your Policies/Terms. Then if you decide to deviate from your stated terms in a particular case (only in the direction of benefitting the customer) then you come off as a hero.

If it is my error, my policy offers exchange or cash back. Realistically, the blank on which the design is printed is worth less than the postage to mail it back to me, so I generally just tell them to keep it and use it to wash the car, if they like. And in these situations there is generally something wrong with it anyway, so why would I want it back? Ask for a photo if you need visual confirmation of a defect, rather than having them mail it back to you.

If they need to exchange for a different size, I typically wait for the returned shirt to arrive before making/sending a replacement. I have not had anyone send back a shirt that they had gotten dirty or otherwise messed up. According to my written policy, they would need to pay me for that lost value or be SOL on ever getting the replacement shirt.

Remember, you can always be more lenient in a particular case than your policy states, but you cannot act more harshly than your stated policy. And when selling on shopping platforms like eBay, Etsy, whatever, some of these policies and processes are constrained by them to varying degree.

I think the hardest thing, for most of us semi-rational naked apes, is getting past the emotional right/wrong response. No matter how @#$% in the head the customer is, what would it really cost me to bite my tongue and make them happy? A hasty reply in these situations is generally not a good idea.

If someone wants to return an item, they are not going to be shy about why. More often the why is the opening, not something you have to follow-up with them to find out.

1) Thanks for the detailed response. What's your thoughts on free returns? e.g: the customer does not pay anything to ship back the item to you because you absorbed it (usually via economy shipping such as USPS First Class).

2) Also, to prevent people from abusing (free) returns, is it a good idea to limit the quantity of t-shirts my customers can buy, to about 1 - 2? This will also indirectly create that scarcity effect which is good.

I'm currently thinking whether I should offer free shipping or free returns and use either one as a marketing tool.
Which one do you think will make me go out of business faster?

 

[NoXid]

I would never offer free returns (other than for when it is my fault). There is nothing to abuse if you do not offer it in the first place, so don't offer it. You don't want returns, so do not encourage them like Amazon does.

I don't offer free shipping either. If your combined shipping and item price is $26.95, does that go down the customer's throat better if they see it as $26.95 upfront on the listing, or as $22.95 for the shirt with an additional $4.00 in shipping off wherever the shipping cost is stated? Even better, consider it at a price point that is going to change the leading digit: $22.95 total, versus $18.95 shirt and $4.00 shipping.

Yes, people like seeing the word "FREE," but the item price is usually displayed larger and more prominently than the shipping price or the total in search results and on the initial view of the listing itself.

You are going to pay the USPS for shipping, so there is in fact no such thing as Free Shipping.

 

[Nikar]

I would never offer free returns (other than for when it is my fault). There is nothing to abuse if you do not offer it in the first place, so don't offer it. You don't want returns, so do not encourage them like Amazon does.

I don't offer free shipping either. If your combined shipping and item price is $26.95, does that go down the customer's throat better if they see it as $26.95 upfront on the listing, or as $22.95 for the shirt with an additional $4.00 in shipping off wherever the shipping cost is stated? Even better, consider it at a price point that is going to change the leading digit: $22.95 total, versus $18.95 shirt and $4.00 shipping.

Yes, people like seeing the word "FREE," but the item price is usually displayed larger and more prominently than the shipping price or the total in search results and on the initial view of the listing itself.

You are going to pay the USPS for shipping, so there is in fact no such thing as Free Shipping.

Thanks, your replies are very insightful.

Regarding free shipping, I read that the biggest reason for shopping card abandonment is shipping costs (e.g: customers about to check out then see the shipping cost and then closing the browser window).

Does this ever bother you?

In fact, it's this reason that I'm thinking of absorbing the shipping cost lol

 

[NoXid]

Thanks, your replies are very insightful.

Regarding free shipping, I read that the biggest reason for shopping card abandonment is shipping costs (e.g: customers about to check out then see the shipping cost and then closing the browser window).

Does this ever bother you?

In fact, it's this reason that I'm thinking of absorbing the shipping cost lol

Don't "screw" people on the shipping costs
Many places do.

Do consider that those same people might not make it to the cart in the first place if you jack up the garment price with hidden shipping costs. If you don't charge them in one way or another for the shipping costs, you are just lowering your price and profit margin, not offering free shipping.

You could always play around with shifting a dollar of shipping costs to the item price, so the item is not a lot more, but proportionally the shipping is quite a bit less of the total costs. People don't like to pay as much for shipping as for the item itself. It costs the same to ship a cheap $6 shirt as it does a fancy-cut $30 Tri-Blend. So the less valuable your product is, the worse the shipping costs look by comparison. Note that I said valuable, not expensive. Charging $30 for a crummy quality shirt with a sloppy print does not make it valuable to the customer, just expensive.

There is no perfect. I am well acquainted with the impulse to research, over think, and try to get everything right ... but you won't really learn anything until you make some actual mistakes so have at it

 

[DrivingZiggy]

I have seen this on Amazon when shopping. I find an item for $100 with free shipping. Then I see the same item with a different seller going for $80 with $20 shipping. So in the end it's the same price for the same item.