About every tenth order goes back to the retailer. This emerges from a current study. The reasons for returns are varied.
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Online trading continues to be very popular. However, the products delivered do not always correspond to the buyers’ expectations. The digital association Bitkom looked at how often goods ordered online are returned and why.
According to this, around every tenth order is returned to the sender. The numbers vary greatly between the different age groups. Young people tend to return orders more often than older people. The highest rate (15 percent) is among 16 to 29 year olds. They are followed by 30 to 49 year olds with 13 percent and 50 to 64 year olds with 10 percent. In the age group 65 and over it is only 7 percent.
Differences can also be observed between the sexes. Orders from women are returned more often than from men. Expressed in numbers, this affects 14 percent of all online purchases for women and 9 percent for men.
Most often (69 percent) products are returned because they don’t fit. Examples include clothes, of course, but also furniture. 56 percent had a product that was defective or damaged and 50 percent simply didn’t like the product. Online retailers can also learn something from the numbers. In 41 percent, the product did not correspond to the picture or description online.
A return is often already planned when the order is placed. 29 percent of those surveyed stated that they had consciously ordered more than was actually necessary. For example, trying on different sizes of clothes. Smart tools such as digital fitting could counteract this. The first online retailers are already using such tools.
Source: bitkom