ASOS cracks down on returns - what's changed and why it's frustrating

There was a time when next-day delivery felt like magic. Click at 10pm, parcel at your door before lunch the next day, and a returns label tucked inside like a little safety net. Retailers sold us convenience as the future, and we bought into it enthusiastically.

But what we were really buying was the right to try before we buy, at scale, from our sofas. Forget the unique horror of shoving yourself into outfits, under the worst lighting in the world behind a curtain, you could try in the comfort of your own home – including optional parading in front of your partner for a second opinion you will probably disregard.

Now, that era is ending. And ASOS is the latest to make it official.

This week, ASOS rolled out a more explicit, data-led returns policy. Customers with high return rates will face a £3.95 returns charge, and for those returning 80 percent or more of what they order, an additional restocking fee on top. You can now see your personal return rate in-app, like a credit score for shopping behaviour.

Retailers sold us free returns in the first place

Retailers and logistics firms are applauding the move as overdue. Excessive returns are expensive, operationally painful, and increasingly unsustainable. All of that is true.

But it also requires a bit of collective honesty about how we got here.

Next-day delivery, led by ASOS and others, delivered a terminal blow to large parts of the high street. It trained us out of browsing locally and into bulk ordering at home. It normalised buying three sizes of the same dress because, frankly, you had to. And it did all of this while telling us returns were free, easy, and part of the experience.

Now everyone has got used to that convenience, we are being charged for the privilege.

Women's sizing is a mess - and this will only exacerbate the problem

The tension is especially sharp in women’s fashion, where sizing is chaotic at best. I am, depending on which shop you ask, anything from a size 14 to a size 20. That isn’t unusual. Returns aren’t a bad habit for everyone, for those between sizes they are a work around to getting what you want in a system that hasn’t solved fit.

ASOS says it’s improving transparency and helping shoppers make better choices through clearer sizing, videos, 360-degree imagery and fit assistants. All welcome. All overdue. But until sizing becomes meaningfully consistent, removing the option to “try before you buy” without penalty risks hitting sales, not fixing behaviour.

People might turn to cheaper, ultra fast fashion retailers as a result

There’s also a less comfortable knock-on effect retailers should be watching closely. If returns become stressful or expensive, people won’t suddenly buy mindfully, they’ll be more inclined buy cheaper clothes they can afford to keep, even if they’re not perfect. That’s where ultra-fast fashion platforms like Shein quietly benefit.

When a dress costs £8, you don’t necessarily order three sizes. Like the clothes equivalent of a scratch card of a Kinder Egg, you order one, shrug if it’s not a winner, and keep it anyway because the hassle of returning it outweighs the refund. Or throw it on Vinted to make £2 back. That undermines exactly the mid-range retailers trying to position themselves as more sustainable. If the message is “don’t risk it”, shoppers hear “don’t spend much”.

Returns culture didn’t emerge in a vacuum. It was engineered. Changing it is reasonable, pretending customers invented it is not.

Where this goes next matters. If retailers fix sizing, improve consistency and make people confident enough to buy once and keep it, returns will fall naturally. If they simply add fees, shoppers will adapt, just not in the way retailers might hope.

TLDR: what’s actually changed with ASOS returns

This isn’t a sudden U-turn, but it is a step change in visibility.

• ASOS has been charging some customers for returns since October 2024.
• What’s new is transparency – shoppers can now see their personal return rate in-app.
• Customers with return rates below 70 percent still get free returns.
• Those returning 80 percent or more face an additional restocking fee on top of the £3.95 charge.
• Improve your return rate and the fees go away. This is tiered, not a blanket ban.

In short: returns were already being restricted. Now customers can see the line. Whether that leads to better buying decisions, fewer purchases, or a shift towards cheaper fashion is the part retailers should be watching very closely.

We were trained into this behaviour and now the bill has arrived. The question is whether the industry fixes the system, or just starts charging for its flaws.