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Comment by anshumankmr | Hacker News Reader

Wish Amazon had a better selection of clothes. Major misstep in my opinion. Though, I still think Amazon's customer service is second to none, I have had issues with products and they have been almost seemlessly returned.

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As a former 3rd party seller on Amazon, selling clothing online is a waste of time/money as return rates are enormous and people cheat all the time so no non-manufacturers can actually make any profit. That was in the US, I assume in India the situation is way worse.

As someone who tried buying clothes online I agree with you in a different way. For us customers as well it’s a waste of time. The fit, colour, feel is so impossible to do online that just it defeats the purpose. Now I don’t buy footwear, clothing online at all. Not even underwear. Never!

Why would you assume situation is worse in India by the way?

I never quite understood why you don't get more detailed measurements for clothes when shopping online. If I knew those I could easily filter out most of the returns right away. If I knew, say, how broad the back of a jacket really is, that would be tremendously helpful as I have a rather broad back and lots of jackets that otherwise fit are too narrow there. I get that is additional effort but wouldn't providing those still be cheaper than all those returns?

> I get that is additional effort but wouldn't providing those still be cheaper than all those returns?

Maybe. I suspect many garment are not manufactured to really tight tolerances. Once I found a perfectly fitting trouser at a brick-and-mortar shop. It was so good that I thought I will buy two of the same size right away. Turns out the second was much larger than the first even though according to the label they should have been the same.

So yes, it shouldn't be much extra effort to measure one of each size of each new model. But if you have to measure every single garment that can become a nightmare. And I don't know how much would it cost to tighten up the tolerances in their manufacturing.

Besides I wouldn't know how to measure my own back precisely. Probably a tailor would know a standardised way to measure it but that is not something you can assume your costumers will know. And if the shop is measuring the backs of their jackets differently than the costumers do they will still get returns. Of course they can choose to not accept them, but who would buy from such a shop?

My impression is that product details are a mess across a whole lot of fields. Most search filter results are very rough, with many results that don't match the filters at all, and matching items buried or excluded. Amazon is the worst at this but other third party seller platforms struggle in this area as well.

I suspect the platforms have decided that it's not worth the trouble to wrangle a large number of sellers into maintaining accurate and consistent product listings.

Depends on turnover of inventory. If you get new styles every single week because you are into fast fashion, photos are already a big burden so imagine having very precise measurements. Especially when you know customers typically don't read. It's just not good ROI for a product that might just last a few weeks online. You'd have to show that products with very precise measurements have a substantial lower return rate, which I don't think you can.

I'm in the print-on-demand business. The listings we generate always include a size chart. My observation is that almost nobody ever looks at them.

For whatever reason, people just assume "I'm a S" or "I'm a L" and borderline cases search reviews for "it runs small" or "it runs large". Women's sizes are sometimes numbered (because, of course, women only vary on a single dimension).

How do people cheat?

If you need something fancy for an occasion and you know you are never gonna use it again then order it on Amazon, preserve the tags, after you done using it, re-attach the tags and return it at Khols within 30 days. No questions asked!

Not sure if parent meant this, but for example by using a winter jacket for a skiing trip or a dress for a party, and returning the item afterwards.

This type of return fraud has a name - it's called "wardrobing."

> return fraud

Is it actually fraud if it's a 'no questions asked returns' policy, and does not specify anywhere you aren't allow to wear it for an extended period of time before returning?

If you purchase something with the intent to return it, it's considered fraud.

Interesting. I tried Googling around but couldn't anything concrete that label this as fraud that would put you in legal trouble.

Scenario: You buy a laptop from a local shop, after returning it in person, you say to the Owner: 'Thanks for the laptop, I just needed it for my international trip.' What exactly can he charge you with legally?

EDIT: Ah okay, upon further research it seems like "fraud" and "unlawful" aren't the same here.

That's always been the best part of Amazon. They've always made returns super easy with pretty much no questions asked.

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