Several major retailers to limit returns ahead of holiday shopping season, report says

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — If you’re a consumer who frequently returns items — averaging more than $1,000 in exchanges annually — you might want to reconsider your shopping habits. According to a new report, several major retailers are implementing new return policies to combat an increase in fraudulent exchanges. And a number of those stores are reserving the right to ban the return privileges of those who abuse their policies.

Target recently added a new clause to its return policy stating that the company “reserves the right to deny returns, refunds and exchanges including but not limited to prevent fraud, suspected fraud or abuse.”

And members of outdoor retailer REI will also see an updated return policy.

“We pride ourselves on having a generous returns policy,” a spokesperson from REI told ABC News in a statement. “In the interest of preserving this benefit for as many of our members as possible, we recently updated our policy to provide an exception for members who have abused it in the past.”

The statement continued: “We’ve tried to curb this behavior by some members over the past several years with targeted warnings and probationary periods. Unfortunately, these tactics have not proven effective.”

The new return policy exception affects less than 0.02% of members who show a pattern of policy abuse, with an average 79% return rate and $1,400, in used returns annually, the statement added.

And Amazon added a “return processing fee” for high-return items this past June.

Retail analyst and financial expert Hitha Herzog told Good Morning America that return fraud has cost retailers billions of dollars, prompting them to take the action.

“When customers buy a product and return it, this tacks on more money to the product, and it actually ends up costing the retailer more money per product sold,” she explained. “Retailers want to mitigate that cost. Therefore, they are now turning to the customer to cover that cost.”

“Retailers don’t want to lose any more revenue than they have to, especially going into the holiday season,” Herzog added. “Customers shouldn’t be concerned, but they should be diligent about what they are buying and what the return policy is.”