15-40 percent of clothing bought online gets returned

Please fit! Please fit! / Thinkstock
Please fit! Please fit! / Thinkstock

Do you have good luck when buying shoes of clothing online? Because we don't. We carefully inspect photos and product descriptions, we measure ourselves for accuracy, and we read shopping reviews for hints about garments running small or looking cheap in person. But sometimes when our much-anticipated package arrives, our orders still contain one or two duds that must be returned. And man is that the worst feeling in the world.

According to IMRG, a membership community for online retailers, somewhere between 15 and 40 percent of clothing purchased online are returned. Heikki Haldre, a founder of Fits.me, an online fitting room service, told the Independent, "Apparel remains one of the most difficult categories for online sales - and this is because of the lack of a fitting room." He says one in four loose fitting garments like t-shirts are returned to online retailers, while nearly half of all fitted garments are shipped back. We've heard big talk of virtual fitting rooms, and shape-shifting mannequins, which would be awesome if they were readily available. But what about when there's a drastic discrepancy in color or quality from what you thought you were purchasing? Nothing can really prevent that.

What's the only thing worse than waiting for your package and having the clothes not fit? Having to send it back. We don't know about you, but we've been so lazy about returning our clothes we've actually given them to friends or kept them knowing they'd most likely never see the light of day. And sometimes we've sworn up and down that we'd make the trip to the post office, but then missed the 30-day return policy and gotten a crappy credit for the sale price. Ugh.

We'd love to hear about your online shopping and returning habits. Weigh in by voting in our poll and please leave your comments below!

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