PrettyLittleThing (PLT) has been hit by a backlash from customers after the fashion retailer began charging for all product returns.

The brand, owned by Boohoo Group, introduced a £1.99 fee on 3 June as it moved in line with other retailers such as Zara, H&M, New Look, Oh Polly, Boohoo’s Debenhams and more, in scrapping its free returns.

The fee introduction also includes those subscribed to the PLT Royalty programme which costs £9.99 a year and gives members free unlimited delivery on all items.

The returns cost will be deducted from the customer’s order refund.

However, on social media, customers have been questioning the decision and saying the company is punishing customers for not being able to return items to a store (PLT is online-only) and for not knowing what size will fit them.

An increasing number of UK retailers have been charging for returns in recent years, both as a way to recoup the heavy costs of online logistics and to clamp down on over-ordering.

Only last month e-tailer Oh Polly became the latest to introduce a new returns policy in a bid to clamp down on ‘repeat refunders’. It will calculate the cost of returns based on their return rates, which could be as high as £8.99 to send back the entire order.

The Guardian newspaper reported last year that UK shoppers posted back more than £4.1 billion of online clothing purchases in 2022, a figure expected to continue rising for retail businesses throughout 2024.