Website Builder Expert highlights online returns timebomb

Germans are the fussiest online shoppers in Europe, according to research from Website Builder Expert (WBE). They return 52% of their online purchases, the company’s study found. The Dutch took second place (50%) and Brits third (41%).

E-commerce return rates have grown by 95% over the past five years, while return deliveries are estimated to cost businesses $550 billion by 2020. WBE wanted to investigate this trend further, and paired its own research with data from Optoro, UPS, the Reverse Logistics Association, PostNord, and commerce sites like nasdaq.com and shopify.com.

Asos, for example, estimates that 25% of UK women’s orders are returned, with this estimate rising to 70% for orders in Germany. In December 2018, the pureplay issued a profit warning, citing increased discounting as a key issue – a symptom of unmanageable return rates, according to WBE.