Myntra offers “no returns” discounts in bid to reduce returns rate

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Apr 25, 2019

Myntra is working on reducing its high returns rate and has introduced a new offer that gives customers a discount on clothing in exchange for them forfeiting their right to free returns.

The high rate of returns and even fraudulent returns has been one of the online fashion industry’s greatest struggles. Myntra has introduced an offer in a bid to reduce the returns rate by offerings customers a discount if they forgo their right to free returns, which Myntra currently offers, ET Bureau reported. 

“We are constantly innovating to enhance our customer experience while shopping on Myntra,” Amar Nagaram, head of both Myntra and Jabong, said in a statement. “As a part of this, we keep experimenting with new features from time to time and scale them based on performance and user adoption.”

The new feature is available on most of the products retailing on Myntra’s e-commerce site including clothing, accessories, homeware, and lifestyle goods. Offering free returns incurs high logistics costs. The foreign direct investment norms that came into effect in February no longer allows foreign owned brands, such as Walmart-owned Myntra, to sell brands on their platforms in which they have a stake. 

The new FDI norms caused platforms such as Myntra to re-jig their business models to adhere to the new rules. As this has increased logistics costs, it appears that Myntra is looking to cut similar costs elsewhere. So far, only Myntra has offered this deal and other brands of the group Flipkart and Jabong have not stated if they will follow suit. 

Product returns from online shopping is a global issue. In a Zebra study in 2018, 93 percent of respondents to the survey stated that product-return was a key challenge for the industry and that logistics for returns were not as efficient as delivery services. Of the 700 interviewees in the Zebra survey, 35 percent were from India.