B
Evidence Grade B
Graded
accuracy verified by the review judge
Safe to Cite
Current
70%
70% -- contribution margin reduction for eCommerce businesses (2026)
A 25 percent return rate can reduce contribution margin by as much as 70 percent.
- Illustrative scenario based on a 25 percent return rate
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Lighthouse Research Team
Last verified:
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Source verified
Evidence graded
Value
70%
Unit
Percentage
Data Vintage
2026
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
20
Independence
30
Methodology
45
Freshness
95
Source
Stellar One
Primary
Tier B
https://www.stellarone.io/stellar-one-blog/handle-ecommerce-returns-refunds ↗
Source Article
How to Handle Returns and Refunds on eCommerce Platforms Without Losing Money
How to Handle Returns and Refunds on eCommerce Platforms Without Losing Money
Returns are part of running an online store. You know that, but when you look at the numbers, the scale of the problem is easy to underestimate. The average eCommerce return rate in 2026 sits between 19 and 21 percent of a…
Original Research
Stellar One
· Original study ↗
Methodology
Illustrative analysis by publisher.
Methodology documented
Segmentation
Industrymarketing
Cite this stat
Plain Text
eCommerce businesses: 70% contribution margin reduction. Source: Stellar One (2026). Via Lighthouse Intelligence -- https://lighthousedata.io/data/return-rate-contribution-margin-impact
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<blockquote cite="https://lighthousedata.io/data/return-rate-contribution-margin-impact" style="border-left:3px solid #2563eb;padding:12px 16px;margin:16px 0;font-family:system-ui,sans-serif;background:#f0f4ff;"><strong>70%</strong> -- contribution margin reduction for eCommerce businesses<br><small>Source: Stellar One (2026) · <a href="https://lighthousedata.io/data/return-rate-contribution-margin-impact" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lighthouse Intelligence</a></small></blockquote>
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