I think charging appropriately for shipping and returns would help.
For non-specialty items, I'd suggest brick and mortar is better.
The challenge when we think about 3 pairs in order to keep 1, is that it isn't just the shipping on the 3 pairs, or 5 pairs of shoes shipped total.
The extra 2 pair take up extra space on each delivery van, each way. You reach a point where many people take this approach, and the company needs to be sending out 5 times as many vans to your neighborhood. That's just the end of line delivery as well.
I don't know enough about stock and warehouse, landfill, etc, but these things do add up.
We all need to be aware of the externalities and issues this cause, aside from just directly on the business profits/costs.
Unfortunately, because this has become common practice, the attitude seems to be "everyone else is doing it, so..."
With a brick and mortor store, you have an almost empty van going to/from your house and the store (in addition to the logistics of keeping the retail store stocked). If you factor in what the consumer spends on transportation, you will find that delivery is far more efficient, even with returns.
The big waste with returns comes from the fact that retailers can't trust them nearly as much. With in store shopping, no one is suspicious about about taking clothes left in a changing room and putting them back on the rack. With returns, you run into all of the issues talked about in the article.
For non-specialty items, I'd suggest brick and mortar is better.
The challenge when we think about 3 pairs in order to keep 1, is that it isn't just the shipping on the 3 pairs, or 5 pairs of shoes shipped total.
The extra 2 pair take up extra space on each delivery van, each way. You reach a point where many people take this approach, and the company needs to be sending out 5 times as many vans to your neighborhood. That's just the end of line delivery as well.
I don't know enough about stock and warehouse, landfill, etc, but these things do add up.
We all need to be aware of the externalities and issues this cause, aside from just directly on the business profits/costs.
Unfortunately, because this has become common practice, the attitude seems to be "everyone else is doing it, so..."