Every Return Impacts Our Environment.
Back in 2019, there were already over 3.65 billion parcels in Germany. Since 2020 and the pandemic, that number has grown even more – an average increase of more than 90% in order volume was recorded, with German consumers ordering around 2.3 more items than usual. This comes with a proportionally growing number of returns: the absolute number of returns continued to rise in 2020 and is estimated at 315 million return packages. Especially in fashion, return rates can reach 50%, which not only creates high costs for online retailers but also causes enormous environmental damage: in addition to the energy and resources used in production, there's packaging waste and CO2 emissions from transport – on average around 200-1000 grams per package.
The Legal Framework
Last year, there was a revision of the Circular Economy Act, aimed at reducing the destruction of goods, long transport routes, and economic losses for retailers. Specifically, lawmakers require retailers to handle products responsibly – the government can now more effectively combat resource waste and create barriers against destroying returns and overstock. Instead, retailers should find meaningful uses for affected products and guarantee recycling for at least three years; companies must also document and disclose their return prevention measures.
Return Management at erlich
Every return means not just extra work for you but also environmental consequences. Our product-based return rate is currently averaging 19% per year – well below the industry average, which makes us very proud and grateful for your help. Going forward, with your support through further reducing returns, we want to protect our environment and prevent unnecessary CO2 emissions. To maintain a low rate, we want to keep raising awareness about return prevention by providing concrete information about the impact of returns and asking you to return products only after careful consideration. Should one of our products not meet your expectations 100%, you can return it free of charge from Germany and Austria within 30 days. We then carefully refurbish the returned items so we can resell or recycle them – we want to prevent disposing of our products at all costs.
We Make It Easy and Help You Choose Right
Detailed Product Representations
To give you the most accurate picture of our products before purchase, we outfit every product with realistic images from multiple angles and show our products on models of diverse body types. In the future, we'll also integrate video footage to give you an even better sense of proportions. We also go to great lengths to provide detailed descriptions and a list of product features with all important details – including material composition and care instructions, as well as the dimensions of individual elements and reference sizes of our models. So please take your time and inform yourself thoroughly about our products and their features – this helps us prevent returns and ease the burden on our environment.
Perfect Fit Before Trying On
One of the most common return reasons is ordering a product in the wrong size – that's why we include not just a size chart with measurements for each product, but also detailed instructions on how to identify and measure your size. Our size guides help too, with everything you need to know about the fit of individual products, as do customer reviews about products and their fit. To do something good for you and our environment, we ask that you be extra careful when choosing your size.
We're Here for You
If you're still unsure about the right size or the right product for you, you can reach out to us at any time via email. We're happy to help you and support your choice!
To maintain a low return rate, we want to keep raising awareness about return prevention by providing concrete information about the impact of returns and asking you to return products only after careful consideration. Should one of our products not meet your expectations 100%, you can return it from Germany and Austria within 30 days. We charge a flat return fee of €4.90. We then carefully refurbish the returned items so we can resell or recycle them – we want to prevent disposing of our products at all costs.
Our erlich Quality
So your products last you a long time, you'll find specific care instructions and tips for each of our items. To ensure maximum quality and in the spirit of sustainability, we ask you to care for the product properly – this will give it a long life and help you actively avoid returns.
We Value Our Returns and Treat Them with the Greatest Care.
Packaging & Protection
To guarantee the reusability of our products, we explain how products should be packaged and handled when returning them. By returning unworn and unwashed products in original packaging, resale is usually no problem.
Regional Processing
Your return goes straight back to our warehouse, where it's processed under the highest hygiene standards and sent back into circulation in the spirit of sustainability. We also reuse the packaging to save resources and keep the amount of new packaging materials as low as possible. Our returned goods stay in Germany and are processed and managed locally – we send damaged products straight back to the manufacturer.
Reuse Instead of Disposal
Intact products are refurbished and put back on the market – so the returned product goes back into our regular sales cycle. When that's not possible, we repurpose B-grade items in sample sales and regularly pass them on to the "Mit Ecken und Kanten" imperfect shop. In addition, we donate remaining products to charitable organizations: last year alone we were able to support Cologne's homeless assistance program with over 600 items. We want to prevent our products from being disposed of using these recycling steps.
