As a growing number of Americans use GLP-1 medications to slim down, the drugs are changing the way people shop, not just for food but for clothes. Many users describe rebuilding a wardrobe as one of the hardest parts of losing weight, and that shift is now rippling through the retail industry in an unexpected way.
The most visible side effect for retailers is a major rise in returns. According to a recent survey, about 80 percent of Americans using GLP-1s say they need new clothing because of changes to their size, prompting many to buy items, try them on, and send back whatever does not fit as their bodies keep changing.
The Wall Street Journal has reported that GLP-1 users are overwhelming retailers with nonstop returns, costing them millions of dollars in business. The expenses pile up across shipping, labor, and warehousing, turning what might seem like routine exchanges into a significant drag on costs for the companies handling them.
Impact Analytics estimates that the amount of returns for sizes across the board has jumped three to four percent within the last three years. The firm also notes that larger sizes are being purchased less often, a shift that points to the broader change in shoppers' bodies as the medications take hold.
Judith Semek, co-founder of the dress outlet, an online shop specializing in women's formal wear for all ages, says she has seen the trend firsthand, with her rate of returns up roughly six percent. She explains that customers often buy more sizes because they are unsure, ordering not just for the size they are now but the size they expect to be in two months. To offset costs such as shipping, her company has added a restocking fee on certain items.
For shoppers, the change can be disorienting. Influencer Tanya Spangelo, who has lost more than 287 pounds since 2019 with the help of weight loss surgery and GLP-1s, says that seven and a half years into her journey she is still getting used to her body and still learning how to shop and dress for it. The problem with losing a large amount of weight, she says, is that you end up moving through so many different sizes that it becomes hard to keep up.