You may have seen that Lucy Mecklenburgh, of TOWIE fame, has been ‘banned from ASOS’ after complaining about a lost parcel.

Ant Payne, VP of Global Marketing at Brightpearl, commented on this seemingly ‘arbitrary and ill-thought out’ decision.

“ASOS’ decision to ban Lucy Mecklenburgh due to a returns issue is a risky move – especially as she is a high-profile social media user who clearly spends a lot of money with the company. It’s one thing to ban serial shopping offenders, but this decision seems arbitrary and ill thought-out. 

Consumers are increasingly unsure about where they stand in returning items. Part of the problem lies in the fact that many retailers do not currently have the right technologies in place. Research we’ve conducted recently with UK retailers shows that 59% of outlets cannot identify – or do not know whether they can identify – who their serial returning customers are. 

Without tools to track behavioural data, retailers will struggle with definition and consistent application of their returns strategies. Consumers are looking for fairness and choice when returning merchandise so retailers need transparent policies and systems in place – and if retailers don’t provide these, they could face a backlash from shoppers. Retail is driven by customers, and a brand’s success is determined by the quality of its shopping experience. By banning Lucy, ASOS has offended – and lost – a valuable client with almost 2 million Instagram followers, and they could risk alienating more buyers unless they adopt more customer-centric practices.”