Decoded: Hidden expenses behind e-commerce - for customers and retailers

For customers there's a time cost. On top of time spent browsing online, click-and-collect often means queuing to pick up your purchase

Internet shopping has grown massively, especially now that free delivery and returns, with multiple ways of making them, are the norm. You can order a number of variations of the same piece of clothing, for example, and then just send back the unwanted ones.

While many returned items may be damaged or faulty, a lot of places will let you return something just because you don’t like what you ordered. And instagramming expensive clothes, for #OOTD (outfit of the day) posts, and then returning them is one part of the “try-buy” trend.

“Customer