The returns policy is part of the price

A price tag tells you what a dress costs if it fits. The returns policy tells you what it costs if it doesn't. For anyone buying clothes online, where a meaningful share of orders goes back, the second number matters almost as much as the first, and it's much harder to find.

So we went to the source. We took six brands we've reviewed, spread across activewear, menswear, footwear and occasionwear, and read each one's returns policy on its own website on the same day. We weren't looking for the generous ones or the strict ones. We wanted to know what a buyer actually signs up to.

The six policies, side by side

What the table doesn't show

Where the clock starts. "Thirty days" means different things depending on whether it runs from purchase or delivery, and whether your parcel has to arrive back or just be posted. Vuori counts from the date of purchase and needs the item back at its facility within 120 days. END. counts from delivery and only needs the return to be in transit by day 30, which helps when a parcel is crossing an ocean.

Refund is not the same as store credit. MESHKI's US policy offers store credit or an exchange, not your money back, unless the item is faulty. Its store credit is valid for 12 months. That's a perfectly legitimate policy, but it changes the calculation. A dress you're unsure about is a dress you're committing to spending with that brand.

Fees add up quietly. LoveShackFancy deducts a $9 restocking fee from online refunds unless you take store credit or return in person. MESHKI takes a flat $16.99 for US and Canadian returns. Club L London charges £3.95 per parcel in the UK, so it asks you to send everything back together. None of these is hidden, but none is on the product page either.

Exchanges aren't always exchanges. Vuori doesn't offer a direct online exchange. You buy the new size and return the old one, so your money is out twice until the refund clears. Nisolo, by contrast, offers free exchanges through its returns portal, within its 14-day window.

Buying across borders changes everything. END. ships to the US with duties paid, which is generous. But it says it doesn't cover return costs for international customers, so American buyers pay to post items back to England. LoveShackFancy says it generally doesn't accept returns on international orders except where the law requires it.

Returning a lot can be noticed. END. publishes a fair-use policy: it monitors returns per account and may decline orders or close accounts it considers to be abusing returns. It's rarely a concern for ordinary shoppers, but it signals that order-two-keep-one isn't welcome.

The figure most of the internet gets wrong

Before reading the brands' own pages, we checked what a search engine and the policy-summary sites said. Two of the six didn't match. Several sources still give Vuori's window as 30 days, when the brand's current policy allows 120. Several give Nisolo's as 30 days, when its current page says 14 days from delivery. The older figure probably describes the policy before Nisolo's 2025 change of ownership.

Neither error is dramatic, but in Nisolo's case a buyer relying on the old figure could miss the window by more than two weeks. The lesson is unglamorous: read the policy on the brand's own site, on the day you buy, and screenshot it if the order is expensive.

How to read a returns policy in two minutes

1. Find the number of days, then find the start date. Purchase, dispatch, delivery or receipt.
2. Check what you get back. Original payment method, store credit or exchange only.
3. Look for deductions. Restocking fees, label fees, and whether original shipping is refunded.
4. Check final sale. Discounted items are often excluded, and some brands mark swimwear, bodysuits or earrings non-returnable for hygiene reasons.
5. If you're abroad, read the international section separately. It's frequently a different policy, and in the UK and EU your statutory cancellation rights may give you more than the brand's headline terms.

None of this tells you whether a brand makes good clothes. It tells you how much risk you're carrying while you find out.