Getting the kinks out of product returns

I've always been fascinated by culture change and adaption, and as the good Xer I am, I'm definitely focused on transactions, marketing, commerce ... that kind of stuff.

This experience I had earlier today just blew my mind (well, it was a small blowing of the mind, not a big one... but still) --

OK, in the realm of undergarment purchases, the issue of returns is a big one. It's one thing to buy something (such as a bra) in a store, have the opportunity to try it on and and be given a more restrictive return policy. It's another thing for folks to buy something so necessarily form fitting as are bras and panties, sight unseen, and to have a rather restrictive return policy. (FWIW, in summer of 2022, I've literally seen an online retailer post that such items are non-returnable. ... Yeah, I won't be shopping there.)

Most clothing retailers have pretty good return policies. They just have to in the Amazon-i-fi-cation of more and more clothing purchases.

But, with bras and underwear, the whole return process is a different ballgame. I don't know if the health and hygiene regs don't allow returns. (Maybe it's the same with socks, IDK.) In any case, retailers selling bras are not, by any means, turning around returns, restocking the items and reselling them.

Knowing this and trying to be a thoughtful consumer (and hopefully lessening my need for the hassle on my end of returning an item), I did my best to measure my bust, my hips, my waist. But this was a home job, not a pro job, so maybe my results were accurate, maybe they weren't. IDK. Bottom line: not all the items I ordered fit well; hence, the need to return or exchange some. Hence, this blog post about this blowing-my-mind new-to-me approach a particular undergarments company has regarding returns.

OK, so I go to the company's "returns portal." I fill out the info, clarify what I want to exchange and what I want to return. So far, so good. Normal operations, right?

THEN I SEE THIS!

Basically, I can donate the item and get 1) store credit for the purchase and 2) a 30% additional REWARD of store credit.

Now, I might be late to the game and this practice has been going on for awhile. These things I do not know. What I do know is this seemed a brilliant solution to me. The company gets to make the donation, however and wherever they do so -- and get the tax benefits and pr / employee-happiness do-good-ed-ness of the act. (Or maybe I do. I've yet to figure that little detail out.)

The customer gets their payment "returned" and a 30% bonus for future purchases. And the company gets a happy customer. I could equally return the item and get my original payment back. It's my choice to opt-in for the 30% reward or not.

I totally get that many a customer will forget about their credit and that this approach may actually be a more lucrative solution for the company to "hold" the funds for a customer's future purchases (that they might, um just forgot they had). IDK.

What I do know is Underoutfits no-wire support bras are fantastic: support, shape, comfort ... and no icky sticky buggy wuggy tags or stitching! That alone is worth giving them a shot.

And can we women give a collective whoop-whoop to one of the downstream benefits of Covid lockdown: bra technology post-Covid has jumped jumped jumped in comfort and capacity! Customers have had a taste of daily comfort and said, "No more!"

Overall, I find Underoutfit's returns solution, customer-focus and (most of) their products just fabulous.