– I am very influenced by TikTok and have bought a lot from “Keep or return” videos. Because in the comment field you can usually see the reference code for the garment, says Lea Hilleren. The dresses that lie in front of her, each wrapped in their own, are almost identical. But in different sizes. – Are you going to return both dresses? – I’m wondering if I should keep one anyway, because I’m going to a Christmas party soon. But I’m returning the other one because it doesn’t fit, says Lea. Here Lea Hilleren shows off some blazers she recently ordered online. The Blazers were lucky to stay, as Lea is no stranger to sending rebounds. Photo: Karoline Forberg / news Online store folder on the phone Girl from Førde, but who lives in central Bergen, often orders clothes in several sizes and returns what doesn’t fit. It also often happens that she orders a number of different garments and returns any she doesn’t like. – I have a separate folder on my phone with apps from online stores that I order from. So I just scroll through and order from there, says Lea. And for this year’s Christmas party season, she has already ordered three dresses. Two are kept, but one is returned tonight. Keep or Return On Tiktok, videos with the theme “Keep or Return” are trending. The theme tag addresses a central part of young people’s online shopping habits when shopping for clothes. This is what the videos of “Keep or Return” look like. They try on several garments and select which ones to return or keep. The reference code for the garments is often in the comment fields so you can easily find them. Photo: Screenshot / TikTok The videos show that you order e.g. five dresses for an event or order the same trousers in three different sizes. In both situations, only one is often retained. The rest is returned. Just like Lea does. But where do the returns end up? Returns to the landfill – Every year over two million tonnes of waste are generated through the return of goods. This leads to large piles of clothes, which is a serious environmental problem, says Dina Flått in the UngKlima project. Flått’s impression is that very few young people want to deliberately pollute either the climate or the environment, but that they rarely receive information about the consequences of returning clothes. – It is probably not as self-explanatory that many clothes actually end up on the rubbish heap when returning. If more people knew, maybe more people would think twice before buying something new online, says Flått. This happens with your return Clothes have a long journey. In February, TV 2 did an investigation where they found that seven garments they chose to return from Zalando traveled a total of 26,242 km. Many clothes end up in the pile. Ungklima says in an article that over 2 million tonnes of waste is generated each year through the return of goods. The source they have used is, among other things, the BBC. Nelly.com says that a very high proportion of their products that are returned can be resold through their own channels. Goods that cannot be sold in their markets are resold in other channels. 36 percent return The online store Nelly informs news that throughout 2022 they had a 36 percent return on all the orders they received. – It is a natural part of our business as online retailers. On the other hand, we have a clear ambition to reach a zero level regarding unnecessary returns and work strategically to reduce the number of returns, says press contact Anna Andersson. – What happens to the returns? – We can resell a very high proportion of products that are returned via our own channels. Functional goods that cannot be sold in our markets are sold on in other channels, says Andersson. Nelly offers free returns in return for placing a new order for clothes. news has asked a number of other online shops about their views on the “Keep or return” trend, but without receiving an answer. Keep or burn/throw/give the garment a long journey Ingrid Vik Lysne has become a well-known media profile with a clear focus on sustainability after “Symesterskapet” in news. She is skeptical of the trend. – You should avoid it, at least if you want to be environmentally friendly. Precisely because we know so little about what happens to the returns, says Ingrid. Ingrid Vik Lysne stays away from online shopping for clothes, except for some maternity clothes that she finds difficult to find used. Photo: Tobias Fjeldheim She says that in a dream world it would be a good solution to return clothes in order to keep only what you actually intend to wear. – But then there is a dark side to that, unfortunately. Lea shows off her Klarna app, which reveals that in November she spent over NOK 5,000 just on online shopping for clothes. But after today, around NOK 700 will be deducted from the amount when she delivers a return. Photo: Karoline Forberg / news Ingrid’s five golden online shopping tips Lysne believes it is easy to avoid returning clothes: Don’t buy clothes online that are less likely to fit exactly as they should. For example, avoid jeans and shoes. Find clothes in one hundred percent natural material. They hold up well and are good to wear. Feel free to buy clothes that are baggy or stretchy online, but other things in store. Then the probability that you will have to return is lower. Avoid buying lots of dresses for the Christmas party, only to return all but one. It is not sustainable. Check out the rental market for the Christmas table season. A friendly reminder Lea Hilleren says she partially follows this list. She stays away from jeans and likes to sew clothes in if they don’t fit perfectly. But she likes to buy a lot of dresses for a Christmas party, doesn’t check what material the fabric is in and buys a lot of shoes online. – I also think it is difficult to rent dresses if you are going to a Christmas party, for example. Then you are afraid of spilling the dress, which can be expensive as it is often expensive dresses you rent, concludes Lea. There the slightly too large dress from NAKD disappears. Either back to NAKD’s warehouse or it will have a long journey that may end up in the bin. Photo: Karoline Forberg / news When TV 2 made its revelations about Zalando’s return goods in February, Lea became aware of the return problem. She stepped down on the returns. – But then you forget it very quickly. Now I figured it out again, Lea laughs and says that she will once again keep this in the back of her mind.
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– Being very influenced by “Keep or return” on TikTok – news Vestland
