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If you don’t like your online purchases in the end, you can return them… Big brands have even made this ease of “product return” a sales argument. But this service has an ecological cost. “Special Envoy” reveals that these returned items can sometimes travel thousands of miles.
E-commerce? Nothing could be simpler: a few clicks and your package arrives. Your product, ultimately, you do not like? Wrong size, wrong color? No problem: the “product return” allows you to send it back. This service, which is often free, has notably enabled e-commerce sales to explode: +28% in one year. Major brands have even made this ease of return a sales argument.
Incessant journeys across Europe, and waste…
But this service has an ecological cost. “Special Envoy” reveals that these returned items can sometimes travel thousands of kilometers by truck or plane to be repackaged in logistics centers scattered throughout Europe, to be put back on sale… And reshipped. As for products rendered unusable and also returned by consumers, some end up in recycling centers in Eastern European countries…
A report by Jessica Bertaux, Guillaume Cahour, Colin Guillemant and Antony Journo with STP Productions rebroadcast in “Correspondent” May 5, 2002.
> Replays of France Télévisions news magazines are available on the Franceinfo website and its mobile application (iOS & Android), “Magazines” section.
– The withdrawal period regulations after an online purchase.
– A article by BPI France on the challenge of “customer returns”.
The e-commerce sales figures in France in 2020, cross-checked by various sources in the sector.
Non-exhaustive list.