Overview
- Patagonia now adds an “earth usage fee” to Tmall orders that costs 15 yuan for the first item and 5 yuan for each extra, refunds the charge if the buyer keeps the goods, and withholds it for non‑quality returns while customers pay return shipping.
- To justify the change, the company cited last year’s Double 11 results, reporting 16,179 packages shipped from its Tmall store, 11,277 returned, and about 240 tonnes of carbon emissions from deliveries and returns.
- Patagonia says the fee makes the climate impact of shipping visible and that proceeds will go to 1% for the Planet as part of its long‑standing environmental pledge.
- Chinese social media users criticized the policy as shifting responsibility to shoppers and urged the brand to fix issues like sizing and photo accuracy that drive high return rates.
- The policy, announced March 30 for Earth Month, applies only to Patagonia’s Tmall store, and customer service staff defended it as a transparent move away from the idea of free shipping.