So, it seems almost two thirds of us are serial returners when it comes to online clothes shopping.

Researchers preparing a report for BBC Radio Four discovered that of around 1000 people who bought women’s clothes online in the last six months, a whopping 63 per cent had sent at least one item back.

We’re using our bedrooms as changing rooms, ordering several sizes of the same item and simply chucking the rest back in the post.

It’s the joy of online shopping of course – no more standing around in long, grumpy queues before squeezing into garishly-lit cubicles, hoping you don’t have to ask the bored assistant to find you another size.

But is it really so great to have all this waste? Some of the returns come back in less than mint condition, so they have to be thrown out.

One of the logistics companies which handles the returns on behalf of the retailers, says it can deal with 40 football pitches of clothes at any one time.

And now the retailers are complaining that managing all these returns is costing them too much money – recent research from Barclaycard revealed that one in five online businesses had had to increase prices to cover the cost of processing customer returns.

So the idea that we benefit from a ‘free’ return is bogus – as in the end, it’s the customers who will end up paying more.

It’s true we have a different relationship with clothes shops now. My mum remembers shopping trips to Glasgow’s famous department stores as days out, special trips that could include a haircut at Pettigrew and Stephen or a shot on the catwalk at Treron’s, trying out the dress or coat you were planning to buy.

Now, it’s all about clicks and convenience.

But ironically, after lots of hoo-ha about the internet spelling the end of bricks-and-mortar stores, some online businesses have decided it makes sense to have actual premises.

This ‘e-tail to retail’ move has also touched the UK – once internet-only luxury brands like menswear label Orlebar Brown (think Daniel Craig’s swimming shorts in Skyfall) and jeweller Astley Clarke have opened stores in London.

‘Guide shops’, which allow people to come in and try on clothes before ordering online for home delivery, are springing up in the US.

Wow, what a revolutionary idea - that people do want to see and touch stuff they are about to spend a small fortune on.

Of course, experts are predicting this is the future of shopping – but it sounds a lot like the past to me.