Asos triggers customer backlash and risks further sales slump by introducing £3.95 returns charge
STRUGGLING Asos has triggered a customer backlash and risked a further sales slump — by introducing a £3.95 returns charge.
The online retailer emailed users yesterday to say they must pay unless they keep £40 of goods from an order.
Customers on its £9.95 speedy deliveries Premier account only escape if they retain at least £15 worth.
It comes the day after Asos sold a 75 per cent stake in Topshop to boost its balance sheet.
Recent sales are down more than 15 per cent as customers return to high street shops.
Asos’s decision comes after Boohoo, Pretty Little Thing, Zara and H&M began charging returns fees — all lower.
Asos insisted that the charge under its new “fair use” policy applies only to a “small group of customers with a frequently high returns rate”.
Costs to the firm — higher than most because punters cannot try on before they buy — include transport, steam cleaning and repackaging, sometimes for sale.
But customers are not happy.
Twitter/X user Kaity Barrett posted, “Imagine being told you have to keep X amount of clothes when trying on in store or you’re charged.”
Another wrote: “Work on your sizing and quality of garments Asos rather than penalising your clientele.”
TECH BOSS OFF
CYBER firm Darktrace boss Poppy Gustafsson has stepped down before its £4.3billion takeover.
She was the protégé of co-founder Mike Lynch who died when his superyacht sank last month.
She had called him a “mentor”.
Ms Gustafsson will make around £24million from Darktrace’s sale.
HOUSE BOOM
HOUSE prices have rebounded close to the records reached before the mini-Budget meltdown.
Property prices rose by 0.3 per cent in August, the fifth monthly increase in a row, Halifax said.
The average house price is now £292,505 — the highest since August 2022 and £1,000 below June 2022.