December 26, 1999
Web posted at: 8:46 p.m. EST (0146 GMT)

In this story: Experts say size matters Type of gift an important factor RELATED STORIES, SITES

ATLANTA (CNN) -- For many the season of giving is also the season of sending back.

Each year after Christmas, millions of unwanted gifts are returned to stores. Now e-commerce offers another avenue for dissatisfied consumers to send items back.

One marketing firm predicted over $6 billion will have been spent online this holiday season. That figure could result in a lot of unwanted goods going back to online retailers.

Experts say the ease with which items bought online can be returned varies widely.

"Depends on who you're buying from," said Ken Burke, of Multimedia Live. "If they understand the business, if the person you bought (from) understands how to work in the direct world, selling direct, then they will probably get it. If this is new to them ... they are probably going to have some struggles," he said.

Internet analysts say big stores with online sites and larger, established e-commerce retailers should be able to handle returns without great difficulty.

But bringing back a gift to a small firm that does business exclusively on the Web may extend gift-exchange troubles well into the new year.

Sometimes it depends on the type of gift involved.

"Maybe it's more of a problem for retailers who don't sell exactly the same merchandise in the stores. But it's really easy for us," said Leah Daniel of kitchen and home furnishings suppliers Crate and Barrel.

"Typically we'll just turn around and re-sell it. So it doesn't make any difference on our end where it comes from," he said.

Correspondent Carolyn Robinson contributed to this report.

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