Returns process thought to cost firms about £7bn a year and weigh heavily on companies’ carbon footprints
It all started with a hooded tracksuit worth less than £30. The unwanted item, processed online at one second past midnight on Christmas Day because it was too large, was the first in a torrent of festive returns for ZigZag Global, a company that specialises in handling online returns.
Within an hour, 709 products had been returned online via ZigZag; at 3.51am a £99 off-the-shoulder dress was the first item to be deposited at an InPost locker, and when newsagents began opening at 10am, queues began forming at counters to post back unwanted items.