France is rising up as a leader in changing the cruel fate of unsold products. So far she stands alone. It is estimated that in France 650 million Euro’s worth of unsold non-food items are eliminated every year. This is by no means a localised issue, we are talking about a global challenge of massive…
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True story – fake name! Jake ordered a new shirt from a well-known online retailer. When the shirt arrived, unfortunately it was too small. Jake initiated the return process. Much to his surprise the online retailer responded with a simple but clear message: “send a picture of yourself destroying the shirt, once you have done…
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If I buy a shirt from a physical store — say the local boutique in my town — and I regret my purchase and return it to the store the next day without ever having worn it, is the item resold as new or “refurbished”? I think most of us assume that the returned item…
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In a recent survey conducted by Censuswide for the charity Barnardo’s, it said that Britons will buy £700m worth of new clothing to be worn over their vacation trips and never again. In the States, on average an item will be worn 7-10 times before it is tossed out. The decision how many times to…
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There’s this crazy race happening out there. The race is taking place simultaneously by land, sea and air. It involves: thousands of facilities tens of thousands of hands hundreds of thousands of hours and tons of fuels, millions of packaging-related items hundreds of billions of dollars (These numbers are probably on the low end.) The…
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Not only is the pending death of offline retail a lie, it is a shameful one at that. Physical stores are here to stay and the industry should be embracing them for what they can provide, over and above simply the exchange of goods for a fee. Don’t believe me? Here are seven reasons why…
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Online product returns lead an uncertain and unhappy life, with very little guarantee of a happy outcome. The story begins with a cruel twist. You arrive at the purchaser’s home, only to be rejected. Maybe you were not what they expected. Maybe you were the product of a spontaneous moment, and are now unwanted. Maybe…
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Good things are round. Apples, rings, hula-hoops and the circular economy. The principles are simple, instead of something — let’s say a shirt — being made, used and then thrown away unceremoniously, circular economy says: things don’t need to flatline — they can be re-used, recovered, refurbished, recycled and gain a new life — over…
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This is insane. If you are reading this and you are anywhere in the European Union, look around you. Statistically, you, and the person next to you, and the person next to them — in fact everyone around you — is guilty of doing this, not once, but twice. 4 billion online purchases are made…
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You know that moment when you open an online purchase and you see what’s inside the box? What’s the first thing you say to yourself? If it is any of the following things, we are pretty sure that you will return the purchase. “WTF is this?” Probably the most common reaction. Yes, sometimes the online…
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