Retailer's Christmas nightmare: 'Boomerang Friday' brings 30 million returned gifts

The New Year is not always bringing the joy of a white canvas. Formerly the day that marked the commence of sales, the first of January has now turned into a retailer’s nightmare: the dreaded ‘Boomerang Day’, when Christmas gift returns will reach their peak.

Market sources estimate that more than 30 million unwanted or ill-fitting presents will be taken back, with a value topping 500 million pounds, reports the ‘Telegraph’. Since some stores do not allow Christmas returns before January, Boomerang Day will be even more hectic this year.

Michael Weedon, deputy chief executive of the British Independent Retailers’ Association, said: “The whole weekend is likely to be extremely busy because it’s a bank holiday weekend, which are always busy; people are still out there looking for a bargain in the sales, and people are returning Christmas presents, so any stores without dedicated customer service tills are likely to be gummed up.”

“I’d also expect to see long queues at Post Offices because that’s where people will be returning unwanted goods bought from purely online retailers,” further adds Weedon.

According to various retail association calculations, some stores could see up to half of all goods purchased before Christmas returned for swaps or refunds, on top of those shoppers returning goods they see cheaper in the sales, asking for a refund and then re-purchasing them at the discounted price.

The boom of e-commerce also contributes to this dreaded gift return craze: online sales of non-food items were up 20 percent year-on-year in the week before Christmas. Retailers also prefer goods to be returned in stores as it saves on postage, speeds up the process of re-selling the goods, and shoppers are more likely to buy additional items if they are in a shop rather than online.

In this vein, a recent poll conducted by analytics firm SAS found that 33 percent of British shoppers expected to return a gift, with 88 percent saying they would do so in stores rather than by post.

Richard Hyman, an independent retail analyst consulted by Reuters, said: “The level of returns for fashion retailers is typically around 40pc but this could push up to 50 percent over the Christmas period.

“It is mind-boggling that almost half of all sales will be returned and makes it incredibly difficult for retailers to be confident about their sales and their bottom line. The volume of returns has shifted higher as online shopping rises. However, what I think we'll also see is an increase in the number of people who have already bought an item at full price, returning it and buying it again for less money in the sales.”