How the 'keep or return' challenge is driving hyper-consumption and fast fashion

A new challenge encourages TikTok users to buy masses of clothes before returning most of them to the retailer. Photo: AFP

Buy it, try it, send it back. Such is the new craze among influencers on social media. They don't hesitate to order mountains of clothes from fast fashion brands before submitting them to their followers for approval during try-on sessions.

If their fans like the clothes, they keep them, and if not, they send them back – irrespective of the environmental cost that these mass returns may incur.