As a retailer, you bend over backward for your customer. We talk constantly about ‘removing friction’ in retail. Of course, it’s true. The easiest and most successful route to purchase is the one that’s effortless for the customer. Retailers remove barriers to discovery, spend millions ensuring that the right product is available in the right places and at the right price, that it can be in the hands of the customer as soon as possible and offer every option under the sun at the payment stage.
Yet what we don’t talk about nearly enough is the cost of friction for retailers. Returns are, of course, a prime example. It’s hard to imagine a process built less for the purposes of sustinable profitability than that of returns. It’s a real strain on margin, capacity and sustainability.
And, they’ve become one of the defining operational headaches of modern commerce. Returns aren’t merely a customer service policy decision, nor a marketing differentiator, nor a cost line to be absorbed under ‘distribution’. They’re a structural supply chain issue, and one that touches working capital, warehouse design, carrier strategy, sustainability targets, loyalty economics and brand trust.
Yet for many retailers, they’re still being treated tactically, rather than strategically. But before we can talk about potential solutions, let’s look at the scale of the issue. The average ecommerce return rate sits around 18 per cent. In fashion (the category that underpins a good chunk of the UK’s online growth) the news is far worse, with rates routinely reaching 25 to 40 per cent. Clothing accounts for 27 per cent of returned online items, followed by shoes and accessories. This all adds up. UK returns are projected to total £27bn, while global returns costs have surged past £650bn.
For every £1m in online sales, returns can strip out approximately £100,000. That figure rarely appears in growth presentations. It rarely anchors strategic discussions. But it’s a huge, devastating material drag on profitability, particularly in categories already operating under margin pressure.
Reverse logistics consumes up to 7 per cent of gross sales in high-return sectors. The direct cost of processing a return in the UK has been estimated at over £13 per online purchase. Even where operational efficiencies reduce that headline figure, the true cost (think inspection, repackaging, restocking delays, markdown risk, transport emissions, customer service time) is inevitably significantly higher.
And that’s before you account for the most corrosive impact of all, the effect of inventory distortion. Returned inventory doesn’t re-enter the system instantly. It sits around in limbo awaiting inspection, grading, quality checks, refurbishment and so on. In that period, it’s neither fully available for resale nor formally written off. It occupies warehouse space, it consumes labour, and it erodes in value with every hour.
In fashion especially, timing is everything. A dress returned five days late may miss its full-price window. A seasonal item returned at the end of trend velocity becomes markdown inventory overnight. A footwear line returned with damaged packaging may have to be discounted even if unworn. The longer reverse flows remain inefficient, the greater the working capital trapped in limbo.
A nation that’s normalised ‘buy, try, return’
We’re a nation of chronic returners. In fact, 71 per cent of UK online shoppers return items. Nearly half have done so in the past year, rising to 60 per cent among 16–34-year-olds. The concept of buying multiple sizes, colours and variations expressly for the purpose of returning the majority is totally normal behaviour.
Serial returners (around 11 per cent of customers) account for nearly a quarter of all returns. Some consumers openly acknowledge returning items after finding them cheaper elsewhere. Others admit to false claims relating to damage or non-delivery. These aren’t ‘bad actors’ or overt scammers; these are your average customers and their actions are, in the eyes of the consumer, completely acceptable.
In response, the market’s shifted. In 2023, fewer than a quarter of the UK’s top fashion retailers charged for returns. By 2026, more than a third do. Other data suggests that as many as 3 in 4 major UK retailers now apply some form of returns charge. More important than the adoption rate is the permanence of these decisions. No retailer that introduced return fees in the past three years has reversed the move.
The adoption pattern is equally revealing. Mass-market and premium retailers led the move. Affordable luxury brands have followed, rising from negligible adoption to 1 in 5 now charging. Even luxury brands, who have been historically protective of white-glove service expectations, have begun introducing fees. These aren’t moves made lightly, but born out of pure necessity.
Yet of course charging for returns isn’t a ‘yes or no’ question. There’s nuance in the process and some interesting solutions coming from key industry players. For example ASOS monitors return behaviour over a rolling period, charging only customers who exceed a 70 per cent return threshold. Boohoo applies a modest flat fee while exempting loyalty members. New Balance positions free returns as a membership benefit, rather than a baseline entitlement.
These strategies recognise that not all customers create equal reverse cost. Blanket policies obscure that imbalance. Behaviour-based models begin to address it. But charging is a defensive mechanism. It protects margin at the edges. It doesn’t solve the structural inefficiency beneath.
So, what does fixing returns actually look like?
If returns are structural, then the response must be structural too. Simply resolving to charge £1.99 for all returns and hoping for the best isn’t a strategy. If we look at the retailers gaining ground in 2026, they’re attacking the problem from three directions. Those are prevention, acceleration and intelligent friction.
Prevention starts long before a parcel leaves the warehouse. High return rates are rarely random. They cluster around specific SKUs, suppliers, fabrics, fits and photography. The most commercially disciplined retailers are treating returns data as product intelligence, not back-office admin. If one dress consistently comes back due to fit, that’s a buying and grading issue. If a footwear line is frequently returned because colour differs from imagery, that’s a content problem. If “wrong item sent” features heavily in return reasons, that’s operational accuracy.
Feeding that data directly into merchandising, product development and digital content teams reduces avoidable returns at source. Better sizing tools, clearer imagery, customer reviews that flag fit nuances, even AI-driven size recommendation engines, all are potentially magin saving tools.
Then there’s acceleration. If a return is inevitable, speed becomes everything. Returned inventory sitting in a warehouse quarantine zone is working capital trapped in limbo. Sharp retailers are compressing the time between receipt and resale. That means dedicated reverse zones, trained grading teams and systems that reintegrate re-saleable items into live inventory in near real time.
The metric that matters isn’t speed to refund (although that protects loyalty), but speed to resale. Every day shaved off processing protects full-price recovery and reduces markdown exposure. Some operators are also investing in refurbishment capabilities inside their network, particularly in fashion and footwear. A quick steam, repackage or minor repair can convert a write-off into margin.
The third lever is what might be called ‘intelligent friction’. Retailers are realising that frictionless returns aren’t always commercially rational. The goal is not to punish customers, but to balance behaviour. As discussed in our introduction, we see removing friction for the consumer as a positive at all costs, but maybe it’s not, especially post-purchase.
Behaviour-based models (like the one used by ASOS, which targets only high-frequency returners) acknowledge that a small cohort drives disproportionate cost. Loyalty-based incentives, such as New Balance offering free returns as a membership benefit, reposition returns as something earned rather than assumed. Tiered models, like those used by Boohoo, blend cost recovery with retention.
Retailers with store estates are also nudging customers toward in-store returns, where items can be inspected immediately and potentially resold the same day. Online-only brands are partnering with third-party networks to create consolidated drop-off options that reduce both cost and emissions. Subtle design changes (charging for home collection but not for drop-off, for example) influence behaviour without overtly damaging trust.
Let’s be honest, none of these solutions eliminate returns. But together they do reshape the economics. The most progressive retailers are also beginning to view reverse logistics through a sustainability lens. Consolidated return routes, smarter packaging, refurbishment over liquidation, and even resale channels for returned goods all reduce waste while protecting margin.
Retail has spent years perfecting the art of getting product to the customer quickly and effortlessly. Remove friction, keep the customer happy, have the item to them before they’ve even bought it. That’s been the retail mindset. But it’s just not sustainable. In a tighter, more scrutinised market, what happens after the parcel is opened matters just as much. Returns distort inventory. They clog warehouses. They erode margin. They inflate emissions. They cancel-out growth.
Charging for returns may be becoming permanent policy, but it’s really only the beginning of the response. Retailers need to accept that they’re bleeding margin, and treat reverse logistics with the same rigour they once reserved for outbound fulfilment.
Forward logistics maybe have defined ecommerce supply chains until now, but perhaps reverse logistics will define the next era ahead of us.
And for those operating in the UK, where returns are reaching eyewatering levels with no signs of slowing down, solutions need to be devised fast.
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