Pixel Planet Today's post
Amazon recently announced two big changes coming to its online shopping platform: marking 'frequently returned' items and adding fees to certain returns. Cue environmental pros-and-cons list.
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🌎 The Good: Limiting waste:
The biggest benefit to both decisions is limiting Amazon's waste. Handling returns is expensive and carbon-intensive, so by preventing people from purchasing bad products in the first place (or by placing a fee on said return), the company is hoping to limit them.
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🌎 The Bad: RIP free returns?:
Offering free services is one of the biggest reasons why Amazon is the king of online retail. So, to flip its stance and tell customers they now may be subject to additional return fees at UPS stores - it's a big move (and to consumers, an aggravating one). Competitors have copied Amazon's free return model - so what's stopping customers from jumping ship and going to another retailer?
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🌎 The Verdict: Waste-free doesn't equal free:
We have a lot of issues with capitalism, but our biggest is with its lack of concern for the environment. With Amazon, its more expensive to deal with returns properly than to simply dispose of them. However, this change is set to bring a bit more balance to the return process. Not only at Amazon either, but across the board. Other online giants have been doing their best to compete with Amazon for years. But now that even Amazon is moving away from free returns? Maybe they will too.
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Read more about new return fees:
Amazon fee at UPS signals crack in era of free returns
Free online returns are something consumers may soon have to learn to live without.
https://www.axios.com/2023/04/14/amazon-return-ups-fee-free-returns
... or read more about 'frequently returned' items:
Amazon finally starts marking items that are frequently returned
The e-commerce giant hopes to reduce unnecessary returns with its new feature
https://www.androidpolice.com/amazon-frequently-returned-items-warning/
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Graphic shows the Amazon logo. The factoid reads: "The National Retail Federation estimated that 761 billion dollars of items were returned in 2021."
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This post is distributed with the help of Pixel Art Magazine. Pixel Planet Today is created by @Terrabyte. Give us a follow and keep up with the other stuff we're doing. 🌎❤️
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#amazon #amazonshopping #environmentalism #ecoshopping #onlinereturns #sutainableshopping #pixelplanet #pixelplanettoday #pixelart #pixelartmagazine #planetfacts #artivism #climatedesign
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