Christmas might be over, but for retailers the hard part is only just beginning.

Hi, I'm Clare Bailey, founder of Retail Champion.

In this episode of Retail Reckoning, I’m talking about the real cost of post-Christmas returns and why January can feel like a hangover no one warned you about. From gift receipts and goodwill returns to consumer rights and reverse logistics, I break down what shoppers are entitled to, where retailers often get caught out, and why poorly handled returns can quietly damage your brand.

We look at why the “Great Christmas Returns Rush” has become a new festive tradition, how sales and price drops fuel cynical returns, and what retailers can do to protect margins without turning the returns desk into a battleground.

Whether you’re a retailer bracing yourself for January or a consumer trying to work out what you’re actually entitled to, this episode will help you understand the rules, the realities, and the emotional toll of the post-Christmas remix.

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Well, whether you're into re gifting or the Great

Christmas Returns rush, certainly this is something that

affects retailers and consumers alike. Are you one of the people

that want to take your Christmas presents back, give a happy smile when you

receive them and then hope that there's a gift receipt inside? You're

not alone.

Welcome to retail reckoning. It's the 22nd of December and

if you're anything like me, you're anticipating more returns in progress

notifications than festive lights in the coming week. That's because

we're going to be deep into what I call the Great Christmas returns rush.

It's getting messy, cynical and a lot more ruthless.

So why is the returns rush so big right now? Well,

I've done a bit of research. Yeah. Retail

reckoning. Retail reckoning.

No space for dusty shelves. Cause

retail reckoning owns the floor.

Apparently. Retailers are being hit with £1.35

billion or more worth of returns.

I saw that on the Retail Gazette. And according to other

research, Brits will send back something like

67 million Christmas gifts this year.

We're an ungrateful bunch really, aren't we? Clothing, tech,

toys, you name it. People are returning for all kinds of

reasons. I mean good reasons like wrong size or duplicate

gifts or just because they've seen what they got as a gift

is now on sale. That's an interesting

point. Takes me back to our Boxing Day Blues podcast a couple of weeks

ago. So it's become the new festive tradition. You've spent 60 quid

on something and you've given it as a gift with pride. Bing.

Sale now on. There it is in your email. Same product, 30

quid. Merry Christmas. No, no

wonder we keep those gift receipts. What are people actually entitled to? And

what do retailers need to know in terms of the consumers legal rights and

the return mechanics? The first point is,

under UK law, if you've bought an item online, you've got a

14 day cooling off period to decide if you don't want it and then another

14 days to send it back. You can reference this on

gov.uk that is an absolute

comes under the distance selling regulations. A retailer

has got to refund you within 14 days of getting the item back.

They cannot add a restocking fee if it's a normal

return. That's not permitted. If you're returning under

your statutory rights and if something's faulty, you're also

protected under the Consumer Rights act, not to mention distance selling

regulation. You could get a full refund, a repair or

replacement and it all depends on the timing and the condition. And

there's more about this also on gov.uk so it's worth

understanding, as a retailer, what consumers are entitled to.

Because if a consumer stands there and starts ranting at you and there's a big

queue of people and it's busy and it's sale, you don't want to

do the wrong thing. You want to be able to say, yep, I completely understand,

thank you very much, and not have to engage in an argument that wastes time

and causes people up and down the queue to think, what's going on there? Then

then there's the other more nebulous side of returns, and that's

goodwill gift receipts and credit notes. So a

lot of retailers do offer extended returns

windows after Christmas, not out of kindness, but

it's sort of a business risk mitigation. It's more

about, you know, the positive pr. And if you receive a gift on

Christmas Eve or Christmas Day and then you fly off on holiday for two weeks

and you haven't had the opportunity to return something, then it would

be kind of unreasonable. Nonetheless, unless there's something that fits under

the Consumer Rights act, it is purely a goodwill

return, obviously, unless they've offered a gift receipt,

because they're not obliged to give you your money back if there's nothing

wrong with the product when you're out buying gifts.

Gifts receipts do matter. And as a retailer, make

sure you offer these, because without a gift receipt, you might not get

the cash back. You might have to get a credit voucher or

be forced into having an exchange. Now, some

retailers only offer credit notes for returns, but

that tends to be more for things that are on sale items.

And that's legal. If it's clearly stated in their policy,

you still do have your statutory rights, they can't be taken away under the

Consumer Rights Act. So you need to check what's what. If you buy

something on sale and you simply decide when you get home, I wish I hadn't

bought that, then you're in tricky ground. If you buy it in the

sale and let's say it's a pair of shoes and the buckle

snaps off, well, you would suggest that that is of not a

fit for purpose and that would fall into the classification

of a statutory right under the Consumer Rights act, as it's now

called, used to be known as the Sale of Goods Act

1994 Consumer Edition, which is always a bit of a mouthful,

returns. This is costing retailers a lot of money and

it's quite problematic because reverse logistics, they're not set up

for that flow as much as they're set up for the flow from

warehouse to store. So reverse logistics are quite expensive

because the retailers, whether you return to the store or whether you return

by parcel, they have to handle the product,

unpack, inspect, potentially put back on

stock or potentially repackage or potentially

send on to the manufacturer with their own complaint as to a quality

problem. And high volumes of returns in January can actually

kill off warehouse capacity. Because if you think about it, the stock in the

warehouse just to, you know, replenishment stock,

and if they're topping up stuff, sales stock, because often retailers will

pull all the obsolete stock back from stalls, consolidate

it, and then redistribute it out to stores for the sale.

So they, they sort of rework the stock to make sure it goes to the

most highest volume selling stores. So if you've got a warehouse

that's trying to handle redistribution of sales stock and then taking

on returns which need managing, then you

have potential risk for gridlock in the warehouse. But

also there's a risk to your brand because if you've not got a slick

returns process, people may find that, you

know, it's too much effort to deal with you and they might not come back.

Because the research suggests that poor return

experiences make people avoid a brand. It's just like any other

part of the customer experience. Being able to return and

not have an argument and not feel like, you know, you're

being scrutinized for bringing your return back is part of

the end to end customer experience. And actually people with the good

returns policies actually sell more. Because if you're anything like me, you might

buy two or three items in two or three sizes and

two or three colors. So you can take them home, for example, if it's clothing,

and try them on with other items you've already got in the wardrobe.

And you know, I might buy a navy blue, a black, a gray and

a red jacket in two different sizes because you're never quite

sure how things are going to fit over your other clothes. And it's not as

if you can take your other clothes out shopping with you. That would just be

ludicrous. And I might send back the sizes that aren't

right and the colors that maybe don't work. That doesn't

mean I'm a bad customer. It means that by being allowed to do

returns, I've inevitably spent maybe more. I might end up

with two jackets instead of one. But then you do have

serial returners, people who order, try

and return everything so it's a cost that's

disproportionate. Then you've got something called

wardrobing that's really cheeky. People buy

clothing, wear it for a night out, for example, and then

send it back. It's more hassle than it's worth. A lot of times to

argue with these people. Now, I might be being

cynical, but this feels, again, a bit like the Boxing Day blues.

Because some returns are genuine disappointment, but others are a little

bit more calculated. They might return things because they can get a better deal

now. And that links to the if only retailers

gave a window. That said, if your product is in the sale

for less than what you paid for, we'll refund you the difference.

So this is, I kind of suppose, maybe

the darker side of the Boxing Day magic and hitting the

sales because it's not hology joy, it's

strategic shopping and returns. You take your Christmas gifts with your

gifts receipts out with you and spot if you can see them cheaper elsewhere.

You return and then rebuy. But then that's the retailer's fault,

isn't it? They brought it on themselves. If only they'd had that price promised, they

wouldn't need to go to this much trouble. From a retailer's point of view, Christmas

isn't over. After the sales end, the returns wave is just

another part of the holiday margin game.

And obviously they think they've made a certain amount of sales,

they think they've had a good Christmas, but then they sit and wait and

see what happens in late December and early January. For

consumers, the constant back and forth. So buy,

return, refund, rebuy. It's a little bit exhausting,

like the hangover after the party. So there are better ways to

do this. What's my advice? The

better ways? I would say save your gift receipt. If you're a

gift recipient, this is really important. If you want to get a return,

you need to know your rights. But retailers, you need to know their rights.

Your rights. Don't assume a credit note is all you can get. You need to

check whether your return falls under statutory or

goodwill policies and return early.

If you're cancelling or returning under distant selling,

start the clock as soon as you receive your item because you've only got

so much time. You also need to think twice about returning

something just because of the sales. Is it worth the hassle? I mean, if

you're going to save five quid, but the parking is going to cost you seven,

are the savings really worthwhile? And then

you have to be kind. I'm calling to consumers now and we're all

shoppers. Be kind when you return things because retailers are

drowning in returns in January and they're suffering quite a

high level of abuse from consumers at the moment. Yes, you

still deserve clear and fair communication and everything else, but if

they're rushed off their feet and they're not necessarily as quick to

serve, just keep calm, let them

do their thing. I've also done a blog about legal

rights and costs on retailchampion.co.uk

blog for any retailers who want to understand the consumer's

rights. This seems to link back to Boxing Day

Blues, but it's an extended set of blues and

it is about the great return rush, the legal rights and

the retail headache. Is there a better consumer strategy? Well,

yes, there is. Is there a little bit of cynicism? Well,

there's a bucket load of that because gifts have

become. It's not just about who bought me this. It's often

how fast can I return it and get something better. I

think we're all a bit fickle. Maybe if we

took a bit more time and stepped back and went with the old fashioned

values of the thought that counts and maybe even had handmade gifts,

we wouldn't be facing this problem. But it is what it is. We are

in a relatively consumerist society as a retailer. If

Boxing Day is your sort of emotional low,

just know January turns out its sequel

because we're all part of the same post Christmas remix. But

if you play it smart and if you think about the

transparency and the strategies we talked about in the Boxing

Day Blues podcast, which if you scroll back through the episodes you'll be able

to see, you can walk away feeling like you've made

some positive steps, not just mistakes. So

anyway, thanks for tuning in to Retail Reckoning. I'll be

back next week with more retail insight, retail drama and maybe

some sobering stats. I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and if

you do need to do some refunds, make sure you get it

sorted before the January sales hit. I've been Claire Bailey, this has been

Retail Reckoning. Thank you for listening.

Owns the floor

Floor.