Are you a serial returner? TikTokers fuel £7bn worth of clothing mountain for Gen Z social media trend ‘KeepOrReturn’ – and hit business profits hard

So-called “serial returners” who take part in the social media trend return almost £7 billion worth of clothes each year.

The “KeepOrReturn” trend sees TikTokers placing large orders, called “takes”, from online fashion retailers before trying them all on on camera and asking their followers whether they should keep the items or return them.

These serial returners account for around a quarter of all online returns made annually across Britain, according to Retail Economics.

More than 11 million videos have been shared on TikTok under the hashtag #KeepOrReturn, and more than two-thirds of Gen Z shoppers admit to over-ordering with the intention of sending items back.

Every business allows for a certain amount of loss on returns each year as the process costs them money, but none predicted profits of up to £7 billion a year as a result of the TikTok trend.

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Influencers order clothing items in different sizes, colors and prints to show off to their followers, who tell them which ones to keep and which ones to send back.

On average, each “serial returner” sends back £1,400 worth of goods each year.

Online revenues are forecast to top £27bn this year, with serial returners expected to account for £6.6bn of the total, according to Retail Economics.

Young shoppers are more likely to “serial return,” according to research from retail economics and returns specialist ZigZag.

Over 40% of TikTok users in the UK are aged between 18 and 24, making Gen Z the most popular demographic on the app and the most susceptible to the KeepOrReturn trend.

According to the survey, a whopping 69 percent of Gen Z consumers have reordered sizes or colors and then returned unwanted items, compared to just 16 percent of Baby Boomers.

Richard Lim, chief executive of Retail Economics, said: “Successive returns are slowly eroding retail profitability, and many retailers are just beginning to realize this.

“The rise in opportunistic buying behavior, where many people deliberately buy large quantities of goods with the intention of returning most of them, is putting unprecedented pressure on retailers.”

But retailers are resisting new rules invented to prevent such huge losses as profits surge.

Last year, Asos revealed that customers who frequently return items cost the company £6 per order, with some making two or three orders a month and returning up to 90 per cent of items.

This month, the fashion giant introduced a restocking fee for customers who regularly return items. They will now have to pay £3.95 to send purchases back if they have kept their entire order under £40.

Boohoo has been charging customers a return fee since 2022, but recently changed its policy for top customers to pay £7.99 a year for unlimited next day delivery and free returns.

The fast fashion retailer started charging its top members £1.99 for returns without warning after they saw losses. The company even began closing accounts of customers who were deemed to be generating too many returns, even though their terms and conditions made no mention of the limit.

Subsidiary PrettyLittleThing introduced the same policy back in June, enraging dissatisfied customers who insisted the fast-fashion chain must improve the quality and fit of its clothing if it wants to cut down on the number of exchanges and returns.

Back in May, Zara started charging customers £1.95 to return clothes, with the cost deducted from the refund, but they still allow free in-store returns for items bought online.

The likes of H&M, Sports Direct and River Island have also introduced returns fees amid industry-wide losses from mass returns.