B
Evidence Grade B
Graded
accuracy verified by the review judge
Safe to Cite
Aging
21%
21% -- average return cost for ecommerce merchants (2024)
The cost of processing an online return averages 21% of an order's value.
Attribution:
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Lighthouse Research Team
Last verified:
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Source verified
Evidence graded
Value
21%
Unit
Percentage
Data Vintage
2024
Entity
Evidence Quality
B
Strong, reliable evidence
Sourced from a well-regarded research firm or industry leader with transparent methodology and a reasonably large sample.
Single source - not yet corroborated
Score breakdown
Extraction
75
Source Trust
60
Citation Chain
60
Independence
30
Methodology
45
Freshness
95
Source
Pitney Bowes
Primary
Tier B
https://www.signifyd.com/blog/fight-return-abuse-to-drive-profitability-and-cx/ ↗
Source Article
Fight return abuse to drive profitability and CX
Since the pandemic, the explosion of easy online shopping and free returns has backfired somewhat on ecommerce merchants, who see profits imploding with every return – whether it’s honest or fraudulent. The cost of processing an online return averages 21% of an order’s value, with some merchants los…
Original Research
Pitney Bowes
· Original study ↗
Methodology
Survey of 168 retailers by Pitney Bowes
Methodology documented
Segmentation
IndustryeCommerce
RoleAll marketers
Channelcontent
Cite this stat
Plain Text
ecommerce merchants: 21% average return cost. Source: Pitney Bowes (2024). Via Lighthouse Intelligence -- https://lighthousedata.io/data/ecommerce-return-cost
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<blockquote cite="https://lighthousedata.io/data/ecommerce-return-cost" style="border-left:3px solid #2563eb;padding:12px 16px;margin:16px 0;font-family:system-ui,sans-serif;background:#f0f4ff;"><strong>21%</strong> -- average return cost for ecommerce merchants<br><small>Source: Pitney Bowes (2024) · <a href="https://lighthousedata.io/data/ecommerce-return-cost" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lighthouse Intelligence</a></small></blockquote>
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