It all started with a hooded tracksuit worth less than £30. The unwanted item, processed online at one second past midnight on Christmas Day because it was too large, was the first in a torrent of festive returns for ZigZag Global, a company that specialises in handling online returns.
Within an hour, 709 products had been returned online via ZigZag; at 3.51am a £99 off-the-shoulder dress was the first item to be deposited at an InPost locker, and when newsagents began opening at 10am, queues began forming at counters to post back unwanted items.
Shoppers have sent back more goods than ever this Christmas as the cancellation of parties, the return to working from home and a shift to online shopping led to an enormous pile of unwanted goods.
Since Christmas, returns have surged by 24% on the year before, according to ZigZag, which works with the likes of Boohoo, Selfridges and Gap. Fellow returns specialist ReBound has recorded even higher demand, with returns in December 40% greater than a year earlier.
With up to half of clothing bought online returned to some retailers, the…
