Thank you Tony, your thoughts on this matter are very much appreciated.
It’s going along the lines of one of thought, so it’s nice to know I wasn’t too far off the mark on this one, and the specific coding advice is really useful.
Returns is an issue, as you quite rightly pointed out, given the EU and UK consumer distance selling regulations. This is an area that is the real ‘achilles heel’ of online selling, which I know only too well as an ex retailer myself, especially for smaller retailers who don’t have great deals struck with the major parcel carriers in exchange for huge volume guarantees. There is no legal obligation to pay for returns of course, unless that is it’s stated in the terms of sale, but nowadays unless free returns are offered, especially for clothing and footwear, sales will be majorly impacted. Many online sellers have created themselves a ‘beast’ they cannot really afford in an attempt to get consumers across to buying online, but of course now they can’t stop what is seen as a given. Even for the large online retailers, return distribution costs are only part of the cost factor, with checking and restocking quickly to resell at maximum margin prior to early season sales being another cost factor, that is even if they put the returns back into stock. Some sell to the likes of TK Max, or strip out labels and sell to wholesalers, and as you quite rightly point out, some retailers will even refund without requesting return of low value items – thank you Amazon! Given my Swedish client is selling expensive ski wear however, the option of using a UK third party to group returns to be sent in bulk is a sensible option, this time using Returned Goods Relief.
Taking all into account, it really does make the option of importing direct from China into the UK a sensible option to consider, with returns sent back to the UK warehouse for UK resale. This would require the use of Transit and Customs Warehousing upon import and UK stocking, not only to improve cash-flow, but to enable stock to be transferred to the EU should it be required, without ‘double duties’ being payable. Perhaps this is a good example where you have to question the value of too greater regional centralisation. For the ‘eagle eyed’ the issue of stock control within a Customs Warehouse will however be key, otherwise issues could arise where returned goods, which have entered UK ‘free circulation’, are mixed with goods that have remained in the Customs Warehouse since import from China.
Happy to stand corrected on any of these points, as that is exactly what this forum is all about; creating discussion where people are not afraid to put their views across, even if their interpretation or recall of a situation or a solution might not be quite right, or perhaps only one of the solutions available. We must all be willing to stand corrected, otherwise how else will we stand any chance of learning as much as we need to learn?
Dale
