Write the policy down before the first return arrives
Returns are part of the fashion business, not a sign you did something wrong. Most Kuwait brands selling online see somewhere between 15 and 30 percent of units come back, and it climbs above that when you sell shoes, denim, or occasion wear. Build that into your margin from day one instead of treating each return as a surprise. The brands that get hurt are not the ones with high return rates. They are the ones with no written rule, so every case turns into a WhatsApp negotiation and the answer depends on the mood of whoever is holding the phone that night.
Put the policy on its own page, in Arabic and English, and link it from the product page, the checkout, and the order confirmation message. Six lines is enough: the window, the condition the item has to be in, what the customer gets back, who pays shipping, what is excluded, and how long the money takes to land. Say 7 to 14 days from delivery, not from purchase. Between courier delays and the Eid rush those two dates can sit a week apart, and the customer will always count from the day the box reached their hand.
Offer exchange first, store credit second, cash third. Word it as a menu, not a wall: the same piece in another size, a different piece of equal value, credit valid for twelve months, or a refund to the original card. Most customers take the exchange when the first thing they hear is helpful rather than defensive, and credit keeps the money inside the business instead of leaving it. But never hide the refund. If someone reads your policy and cannot find the word refund anywhere, they assume you are hiding something, and that suspicion costs more than the refund would have.
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Decide who pays the shipping before the customer asks
Split it by fault and say so in writing. If the item arrived damaged, the wrong size was sent, the colour is off, or it does not match the photo, you pay the pickup and the reshipment, no argument and no evidence demanded beyond one photo. If the customer simply changed their mind, they pay, and inside Kuwait that is usually 1.5 to 3 KD per pickup. A middle option works well and costs you little: free return pickup if they take an exchange, paid pickup if they want cash back. That one line moves a real share of refunds into exchanges.
Hygiene exclusions are normal and every serious brand has them. The wording is what decides whether the customer feels respected or accused. Exclude underwear, swimwear, and pierced earrings, and give the reason plainly: once the hygiene seal is opened the piece cannot be sold again, so we are not able to take it back. Keep a physical hygiene strip on the garment so the rule is visible before purchase rather than invented afterwards. Do not stretch the exclusion to cover abayas, dresses, or anything that was only tried on. That reads as an excuse, and it travels fast on Instagram.
Kuwait's Ministry of Commerce and Industry takes consumer complaints seriously, and a customer who feels cheated can file one. The safe working assumption for an online seller is that a defective or misdescribed item has to be replaced or refunded at your cost, and that a policy contradicting your own advertising will not protect you. Rules and enforcement change, so confirm the current requirements with the ministry or a Kuwaiti lawyer before you print anything final. Practically, all of this gets easier when the policy page, the exchange flow, and KNET refunds sit in one system — running the store on Shopify instead of a DM inbox and a notebook.
Most returns are a sizing problem you can fix upstream
Measure your own garments and publish the numbers in centimetres — chest, waist, hip, length, sleeve — per style, not one generic chart pinned to the whole store. Kuwait fashion brands buy from Turkey, China, and Europe in the same season, and those size labels do not agree with each other. A medium from one supplier is a large from another. When a customer can compare centimetres against a piece already hanging in her wardrobe, wrong-size returns drop noticeably, and that drop is usually worth more to your profit than whatever ad tweak you were planning that month.
Add the details that actually decide a size: the model's height and the size she is wearing, fabric stretch stated as none, some, or a lot, fit stated as runs small, true to size, or oversized, and one close photo of the fabric. Count the questions your DMs get for a single week and you will find the same five repeating. Put those answers on the product page. When an order looks risky, send one WhatsApp before you ship: this style runs small, do you want the next size up? That message costs nothing. A return costs 3 to 5 KD plus a week of that piece being out of stock.
Track returns by style, not as one number. Two or three SKUs normally create most of the damage, and once you can see that you can re-shoot the photos, correct the chart, or drop the style at the next order. Watch repeat returners too. A small share of buyers order three sizes intending to keep one, which is survivable on a 40 KD dress and fatal on a 12 KD top. Set a quiet internal threshold — flag any account past five returns in six months — and move those customers to exchange only, without announcing the rule publicly.