The anti-return policy: Walmart and Amazon don't want your stuff back

Returning your returns... So meta. The new approach to online returns: don't do them. From Amazon, to Walmart, and Chewy, companies are starting to say “keep it,” according to the WSJ. They’ll refund you for that tight-fitting beanie — but they don't want it back. Why so nice?

• It's a price thing. Some returns are more expensive to process and ship than the products actually cost — especially cheap or heavy items. Companies use AI to do the math.
• Returns can cost companies $10 to $20, excluding transportation. So it makes more economic sense to just refund you for that $7 PopSocket (iPhone was allergic).

Do "one-size-fits-all" fuzzy socks count?... The number of ecommerce returns in 2020 jumped 70% from 2019. More than half of that was driven by soaring online sales. A fourth was because you didn’t want to return online orders at physical stores. And a smaller part was because... clothes didn't fit after gaining the Quarantine 15.

• For customers, this is clearly a win. Your pile of "return" items has been growing for years since the psychological hassle is just too much to bear.
• For companies, making customers happy and losing less money are wins. But it could be a slippery slope ("Amazon return fraud" is apparently a dark-web career).