Recent internet buyers’ friends should have noticed a clear change: previously, most stores offered freight insurance, which was inappropriate for a penny; now open up shopping software, large numbers of small shops shut down freight insurance, some of their brands were to be paid in advance and returned at their discretion; and there were a number of direct messages from live outlets that were not of quality, and that all of the refunds were paid by the buyer。
The first reaction of many ordinary people is that internet buying services are shrinking, businesses become unwieldy and platforms are sold with less benefits than before. But if you look deep into the electricity industry and look at the latest reality, it becomes clear that the price of free refunds is getting smaller, not because the market suddenly becomes stingy, but rather because the entire chain of electric operators, from express outlets, small and medium-sized network stores, brand manufacturers to the platform, is beginning to settle a long-neglected cost bill in silence, with consumption dividends that have been financed by free refunds long ago, and the industry has had to return to normal business logic. Today, in big white, the costs hidden behind the refunds are being removed and the changes in the industry that all people have been forced to face。
To begin with, the deepest freight risk is felt, which is also at the heart of the free return. When internet purchases became widespread in earlier years, a single premium for freight insurance was only $0. 3 = 0. 5, and the merchants spent a few cents to label the commodity as a “repatriated package” – a significant rise in the volume of the product, even if the return was more expensive and the whole was still going to work – so almost all the merchants were in a rush to start freight insurance, and the platform was forced to require the arrival of a vendor to open a freight risk without even being eligible for registration。
In a few short years, however, freight insurance premiums have risen sharply, with high returns for women's clothing, children's clothing and footwear, and now a freight insurance premium has risen to $4 – $5. 00, and a number of return shops with very high rates of return have even exceeded the daily freight charges. A shopkeeper in guangdong, a woman in the garment business, shares the true data and the return rate has risen to 65 per cent. For every single item sold, the cost of freight insurance alone is $4. 6, 100,000 orders per month, and the cost of insurance alone is $400,000。
The results of the private comparative tests conducted by a number of vendors, the introduction of freight insurance for the same commodities, and the direct closure of freight insurance were realistic: when the freight insurance was shut down, the return rate of the shop as a whole fell directly by 10 per cent, there was a marked decrease in the number of orders that were placed on a random basis, bought several sizes to try each other and returned in bulk, fewer disputes after sale, lower overall operating costs, and, although short-term orders were down slightly, higher profit at the end. Gradually, a growing number of small and medium-sized businesses have chosen to close their freight risk, no longer bear the full cost of the return without conditions, and free return services are the first to be quickly withdrawn from ordinary shops。
The second key point is the increase in the cost of the express delivery industry and the outright increase in the cost of reverse reflows of goods, which is a prerequisite for environmental change throughout the industry. In previous years, the express delivery industry had been under a madly low price, with a single delivery fee of $0. 8 – $0. 9 for the electrician mass, and many courier companies had to purchase orders at a loss to maintain their operations on the basis of a headquarters subsidy. Over the past two years, the express delivery industry has ended its low price domestic rolls, regional industry has negotiated the setting of a delivery floor, guangdong has concentrated major electric operators, the industry has agreed on a minimum single price threshold for electricity suppliers, and freight charges for electric generators have generally increased by $0. 3 ~0. 5 in most parts of the country in comparison with earlier years, the cost of shipment has increased, and the return delivery fee has been accompanied by an increase in prices。
Only a few dollars in freight were seen for the buyer to return the goods, but it was unknown that the hidden cost of returning the goods was much higher than the cost of shipping. The normal shipment is bulk-packed, single-cargoed and then distributed at a low cost; return parcels are returned in bulk, couriers are individually picked up, bulk parcels are sorted, transported, stored, and human and transport costs are more than twice as high as those being shipped. There have been a number of live feedbacks from vendors in guangzhou's quartz shop, some of which have even reached 80 per cent, some of which have increased the percentage of refunds of orders for direct delivery to the courier network by adding a great deal of sorting pressure to the package, intercepting the parcels and returning the goods for sorting, all of which have to be carried out on the internet without additional subsidies, the profit space for the express delivery network has been severely compressed, and many of the outlets have been reluctant to take over too many return orders and have indirectly pushed down the vendor's policy of returning。
There is also a cost that has been overlooked by most consumers: the loss of stocks and manual expenses resulting from the return of goods, which, while not visible, has crushed a large number of small and medium-sized businesses. Taking the most typical example of the garment industry, industry-wide statistics show an invalid return order with a combined commercial loss of approximately $15, which includes pre-positioned promotional advertising fees, bag box consumption, round-trip delivery fees, ironing of goods after they are returned, and manual wages for checking and processing. Seasonal commodity losses have become more serious, with plumes, summer short sleeves, festivities, a sales window of only a month or two, and when a large volume of refunded goods is sent back, the season is over, the goods are processed as tails at a lower price, and there is no normal way of selling them, and the stock backlog becomes a direct loss。
This situation has become even more extreme following the outbreak of live broadcasters. In the airroom, people are rushing to write down, and many are used to taking two or three colours and three or four feet of the same style, receiving only one of the items to go through, leaving all of them back. Some of them specialize in the loopholes of platform rules, taking photographs, gathering and borrowing clothes, not cutting them off, then returning them in the same form after they have finished, wearing clothes that leave traces of sweat, wear and tear, and after the goods have been received by the merchants, the goods have depreciated, cannot be sold to their regular customers again, and the costs are borne entirely by the merchants. In the long run, merchants were forced to change their pattern and no longer to go back free without conditions。
In addition to ordinary small traders, even well-known sub-brands have begun to adjust the rules on return. In april 2026, the overseas outdoor brand of patagonia adjusted the rules for the return of goods on the line, the consumer paid the distribution fee in advance, the cost of the shipment was not refunded for the entire return, part of the return was refunded for freight, and the full amount of the goods ordered was refunded for prepaid freight. According to publicly disclosed business data on brands, in 2025 the platform had a strong time frame in which the return rate of orders on brand lines was close to 70 per cent, and the high rate of refund losses contributed to lower costs of the brand adjustment model. This case is not an exceptional one, with a number of offline and offline brands introducing similar models and no longer bearing the full reimbursement fee without conditions。
A lot of people wonder why the platform has made commission and traffic, so why not pay for the return cost? Here too, the reality is clear. In earlier years, major electrician platforms, in order to take over market shares, went crazy compared to after-sell benefits, very fast refunds, freight insurance subsidies, no-threshold refunds, all benefits were used to attract consumers, the costs were largely charged to the merchants, and the platform was responsible only for harvesting traffic and trading commissions. In recent years, market patterns have stabilized, the platform has slowed down its growth and the platform itself has reduced unnecessary costs by not heavily subsidizing freight insurance and the cost of reflowing goods。
The relevant industry regulations, introduced in february 2026, make it clear that the platform cannot impose automatic refund clauses on businesses, balancing the buyer's and seller's responsibilities. Starting in april 2025, mainstream platforms such as poaching, shivering, fast-tracking, and kyoto continue to optimize post-sale wind control mechanisms, reduce the system's automatic and unconditional refunding of funds, increase the room for autonomous negotiation after sale, adjust the expansive model of review of refunds, and tighten unreasonable automatic refund mechanisms, which are market-based adjustments after industry has balanced costs。
At the same time, liberal post-sales rules in previous years have created a large number of grey industrial chains for malicious refunds, adding to the costs of the entire industry. A number of courses are available online, where teachers specialize in profiting from freight margin differentials, delivering goods at a low cost of $5 and receiving a ten-dollar freight premium, and groups turn over goods across platforms, buy authentic goods and return fake goods, frequently and maliciously apply only for refunds, receive hand-held goods that continue to be retained, have difficulty obtaining evidence on small orders, have high rights-based costs, and most businesses, if they are caught in the pit, have to turn their backs and abandon their culpability. The abuse of long-standing rules makes it difficult to maintain the normal free-repatriation model, and the platform perfects the post-sale clause, which is also a change from industry calculations。
Speaking of which, many consumers are afraid that the legal rights to return goods without justification will disappear for the next seven days. Here is a clear picture of the real situation, the seven-day rule of the statute of unjustified return will not be changed, there is no quality problem with the goods, and so long as the goods are not sold twice, they can still be returned normally. What changed was the extra benefits offered by the merchants: the former offered to pay for the full refund of freight charges; now the merchants no longer paid the benefits unconditionally, and the non-quality freight costs were covered by the buyer in accordance with the rules. In short, the basic rights remain the same and the additional free benefits are slowly decreasing, which is the current situation in the industry。
In the long run, there has been a slow decline in the free return of goods, which in fact results in a two-way change of character. In the case of consumers, greater care will be taken to move away from the blind impulse to hoard, to try and try in bulk, and to reduce ineffective consumption; in the case of traders, the cost of refunds will be reduced, without adding high refund losses to commodity prices, where commodity prices can be returned to reasonable areas, without a few malicious refunds by the owner; and in the express delivery industry, there will be less windfall pressure on parcels, the efficiency of the industry will improve, and the entire network market will eventually be able to move away from low prices and return to normal trading patterns。
Of course, during the transition process, ordinary people will feel that the benefits of internet purchases have become smaller and adaptation is inevitable, and this is the stage that industry adjustments have to go through. The future electrician will not cancel a reasonable return service, but will no longer use a free, bottomless return as a competitive chip, with all costs clearly divided, who generates losses and who bears the corresponding costs, which is the most realistic industry after the electrician has calculated the cost。
Summary of text
The reason for this is not a decline in the awareness of commercial services, but rather a four-tiered combination of realistic costs: one is a sharp increase in freight insurance premiums, which crushes small and medium-sized businesses; the second is an end to low prices in the express delivery industry, which continues to increase the cost of reversals; the third is an incentive to consume and maliciously refunds, resulting in hidden expenses such as loss of stock, labour losses, etc.; and the fourth is the cessation of high post-sale subsidies on the platform, combined with regulatory adjustments in the industry, which has left the industry in the pendulum of exchange flows by overtakers。
The seven-day unjustified basic consumer interest will not change, except for a substantial reduction in the free return freight cost benefits of voluntary commercial subsidies and a rebalancing of the interests of buyers, traders and logistics. In the short term, we will feel that net-buying benefits are shrinking, and in the long run, a reasonable division of costs can reduce inefficient losses and losses in the entire electricity industry, stabilize commodity pricing, avoid all people bearing the costs of maliciously returning goods and make the net-buying environment more equitable and healthy. The changing circumstances of the times, the return of the electricity industry to the reality of cost, and the need for our consumption perceptions to change rationally with the times。
