Average Ecommerce Return Rate: 19.3% of Online Sales (2025)

The average ecommerce return rate is 19.3% of online sales

The National Retail Federation and Happy Returns, a UPS company, put the average ecommerce return rate at 19.3% of online sales for 2025 in their 2025 Retail Returns Landscape. The figure is retailers’ own estimate of how much online revenue comes back, collected from 358 people who run ecommerce at US merchants earning over $500 million a year.

Across every channel, stores included, the same survey puts returns at 15.8% of annual sales, or $849.9 billion. That all-retail rate eased from 16.9% ($890 billion) in 2024. The online rate sits above it because store purchases, still the bulk of US retail spending, come back less often. For a brand that sells mainly online, 19.3% is the figure to plan against.

How NRF and Appriss Retail count returns

The 2 benchmarks quoted most for US returns rest on different kinds of data. NRF and Happy Returns survey people: retailers estimate their own return rates, and consumers describe their habits. Appriss Retail, which sells returns and loss-prevention software to retailers, starts from transactions. Its 2026 Total Retail Loss Benchmark Report combines analytics from its retail clients with industry data and a survey of more than 1,000 consumers, and the company says its systems cover 40% of US retail transactions.

	NRF and Happy Returns	Appriss Retail
Report	2025 Retail Returns Landscape, October 2025	2026 Total Retail Loss Benchmark Report, December 2025
Data	2 surveys: 2,006 online returners, plus 358 ecommerce staff at merchants above $500 million in annual revenue	Client transaction analytics, industry data, 1,000+ consumers
2025 returns	$849.9 billion, 15.8% of sales	$706 billion
Online returns	19.3% of online sales	$339 billion of online purchases (our sum of its 2 online channels)
Fraud	9% of returns fraudulent	2% fraud plus 12% abuse, 14.2% preventable

Online and all-retail return rates, 2024 and 2025

NRF’s all-retail rate fell 1.1 points in a year, from 16.9% in 2024 to 15.8% in 2025, while the online rate stood at 19.3%. The holiday figure lands between them: retailers expected 17% of their 2025 holiday sales to come back.

Online is still a minority of retail spending, so the all-retail rate mostly reflects store purchases. Ecommerce made up 17.1% of US retail sales from April to June 2026 in the Census Bureau’s seasonally adjusted count, against 16.3% a year before. As that share climbs, more sales move into the channel with the higher return rate, and total return volume can rise even while the online rate holds still.

Share of sales returned, by measure

• Online sales, 202519.3%
• Holiday sales, 2025 season (expected)17%
• All retail sales, 202416.9%
• All retail sales, 202515.8%

Source: NRF and Happy Returns, 2024 and 2025 returns reports

Where online purchases come back

Appriss splits 2025’s returns by where the item was bought and where it came back. Store purchases returned to a store made up 52% of the dollars, $367 billion. Online purchases returned to a store, which the trade calls BORIS, came to $208 billion, or 29%, and online purchases returned online, usually by parcel (BORO), came to $131 billion, or 19%.

Where 2025's returns came back, by dollars

• Bought in store, returned in store$367B (52%)
• Bought online, returned in store$208B (29%)
• Bought online, returned online$131B (19%)

Source: Appriss Retail, 2026 Total Retail Loss Benchmark Report (2025 data)

Add the 2 online channels together and online purchases account for $339 billion of returns, 48% of the dollars Appriss counts, from a channel that made up 16.3% of retail sales in mid-2025 by the Census Bureau’s count. Of that $339 billion, 61% went back over a store counter rather than into a parcel.

Shoppers want that option. In Appriss’s survey, 45% prefer to return in person even when they bought online, and 83% do when they bought in a store. 62% see the in-store and online return experiences as different, and 13% have switched retailers over policies that differ between channels.

For a brand with no stores, every return is a parcel by default, and the 45% who would rather hand an item over in person have nowhere to take it. Drop-off networks fill that gap. Happy Returns runs Return Bar locations where shoppers drop off items with no box or label in under 60 seconds; the returns are consolidated, sorted in automated facilities and bulk shipped back to the retailer. In NRF’s 2024 survey, 84% of consumers said they were more likely to shop with a retailer that offers no box, no label returns with immediate refunds.

How much of returns is fraud or abuse

NRF’s 2025 survey puts fraudulent returns at 9% of the total. Retailers that track it reported rises in 3 schemes: overstating how many items were sent back (71%), the empty box or “box of rocks” (65%), and decoy returns such as counterfeits shipped back in place of the genuine item (64%). 85% of retailers said they use AI to spot or block return fraud.

Appriss splits the problem in 2. Fraud, meaning fake receipts, stolen merchandise and other returns made with intent to deceive, is 2% of returns, or $14 billion. Abuse, which it defines as excessive but legitimate returns, is 6 times larger at 12%, or $86 billion. Together they make $100 billion of preventable loss, 14.2% of all returns.

What is counted	Share of returns	Source, year
Fraudulent returns	9%	NRF and Happy Returns, 2025
Fraud: fake receipts, stolen goods, deliberate deception ($14 billion)	2%	Appriss Retail, 2025
Abuse: excessive but legitimate returns ($86 billion)	12%	Appriss Retail, 2025
Preventable loss, fraud plus abuse ($100 billion)	14.2%	Appriss Retail, 2025
Non-receipted returns, a fraud hot spot ($68 billion)	9.6% of return dollars	Appriss Retail, 2025

Much of it hides between channels. Appriss ties $4 billion of fraud to online purchases returned in stores, where a shopper blocked for suspicious returns online can bring the same item to a store whose system shows no warning. For an online brand, the warehouse is the only place anyone sees what actually came back: the wrong item, a worn one, a counterfeit or an empty box. Photos and inspection notes taken at receiving are what turn a suspicion into a refund you can refuse or a chargeback you can win.

What processing a return costs

Appriss puts the average cost of processing a return at 30% of the item’s value, which came to $211 billion across US retail in 2025. The report also stresses that returns-related loss hits profit 1 to 1: every dollar lost on a return is a dollar off the bottom line.

Cost is the reason retailers give for charging. Asked why they charge for returns, retailers in NRF’s 2025 survey named higher processing costs (40%), higher carrier shipping costs (40%), and economic uncertainty and tariffs (33%). Shoppers push the other way: 82% called free returns a major consideration when buying, up from 76% a year earlier, and 71% said a poor returns experience makes them less likely to buy from that retailer again, up from 67%. 4 in 5 said they would tell friends and family about it.

Fixing returns is on the agenda. NRF found 64% of merchants call updating their returns process in the next 6 months a priority, and they named increasing online sales and reducing return rates as their top 2 goals for 2026.

Holiday returns and the January peak

NRF found retailers expected 17% of their 2025 holiday sales to come back, a level it called consistent with previous years. Those returns arrive in a compressed window after the holidays, as gift returns and late-December orders land on top of ordinary January volume.

Retailers plan to meet the wave with outside help. For the 2025 season, 49% planned more focus on third-party logistics partners, 43% planned to hire seasonal staff only for returns, and 37% planned longer return windows. For 2024, 40% sought added support from 3PLs and 34% planned seasonal returns hires.

How retailers planned to handle holiday returns

• More focus on 3PL partners, 202549%
• Seasonal returns staff, 202543%
• More support from 3PLs, 202440%
• Longer return windows, 202537%
• Seasonal returns staff, 202434%

Source: NRF and Happy Returns, 2024 and 2025 returns reports

When half of large retailers lean harder on 3PLs in the same weeks, the returns benches in shared fulfillment buildings fill up in the same weeks your own returns arrive. A brand that has not agreed peak returns staffing by October finds out in January how far down the queue it sits.

Shopper habits that keep the rate high

Returns behavior skews young. NRF found shoppers aged 18 to 30 made 7.7 returns of online purchases on average over 12 months, more than any other generation, and its 2024 survey found 51% of Gen Z consumers bracket, buying several sizes or colors with the plan to send some back.

Close to 2 in 3 consumers in the 2025 survey admitted at least 1 costly returns behavior, from wardrobing (wearing an item, then returning it) and bracketing to sending back a different item or an empty box. 45% think bending the truth on a return is acceptable, especially when they are unhappy with the purchase.

Shoppers also read the rules before they buy. Appriss found 55% check a return policy before purchasing, rising to 84% among very frequent returners, and 76% of NRF’s respondents lean toward a return option that gives an instant refund or exchange. A good experience pays back: 8 in 10 shoppers in Appriss’s survey said it raises their intent to buy again, and 73% made an extra purchase after one.

A retailer’s best customers return less than average. In Appriss’s data the top 1% of customers generate up to 50% of sales and return 8% less than the average shopper. Because they buy more, they also hit blanket rules on receiptless returns, short windows and ID checks more often, so a policy written to stop abusers can drive away the customers who matter most.

What a 19.3% return rate means for a brand buying fulfillment

Start with the money. If 19.3% of online sales come back and each return costs 30% of the item’s value to process, the returns line grows in step with revenue. The table applies those 2 published averages to 3 sales levels; swap in your own rate once you have 3 months of data.

Monthly online sales	Value returned at 19.3%	Processing cost at 30% of that value
$100,000	$19,300	$5,790
$400,000	$77,200	$23,160
$1,500,000	$289,500	$86,850

Only part of that cost reaches the 3PL’s invoice. The return label, customer service time and the markdown on items that cannot go back on the shelf land elsewhere on the P&L. What the 3PL bills is mostly labor: at the $21.49 median hourly wage BLS reports for stock clerks and order fillers in warehousing in 2025, every 10 minutes spent opening, inspecting and grading a parcel costs about $3.58 in pay before benefits, overhead and the warehouse’s margin.

Inside a fulfillment center, returns get their own area of the floor, where each parcel is opened, matched to its order, graded, and either restocked, set aside for repair or written off. Until a unit clears that bench, it is stock you own but cannot sell. At 19.3%, a brand selling 4,000 units a month online has roughly 770 units a month passing through that state, if its unit rate tracks the dollar rate, and every day of backlog is a day those units cannot fill an order.

That makes returns terms worth settling while you are still choosing a 3PL, not after go-live: the fee per return and per unit, the turnaround from dock to restocked, the grading rules, photos on damaged or empty returns, and the reason codes reported back to you. Reason codes are how you separate bracketing from a sizing chart that runs small, and only the second is fixable at the source.

Carrier and policy choices change the bill too. A drop-off option beside the prepaid label serves the 45% who would rather return in person, and consolidated drop-off returns reach the warehouse as bulk shipments rather than single parcels, which changes how the 3PL receives and charges for them. Charging for returns cuts cost but works against the 82% who weigh free returns before buying; free exchanges with a small fee on refunds keep revenue in the business while charging for the costliest outcome.