The cost of returns in 2026: money, parcels and carbon

Key figures

Returns cost retailers three ways: handling each parcel, losing value on goods that cannot be sold as new, and the carbon of a second journey. Fashion carries most of it: 91% of returned items in Germany are fashion.

• €2.85average transport and processing cost per returned item, GermanyUniversity of Bamberg
• €6.95average transport and processing cost per return parcel, GermanyUniversity of Bamberg
• 27%of online retailers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland cannot put a figure on their cost per returnEHI Retail Institute, 2025
• $25.1bnestimated cost of processing US online apparel returns in 2023Coresight Research
• 560mreturn parcels forecast in German ecommerce in 2026, a recordUniversity of Bamberg
• 1,500 gCO2e per return parcel, mean among German retailers that measure itUniversity of Bamberg

Headline figures

How much does it cost to process a return?

In Germany, €2.85 per returned item and €6.95 per return parcel on average for transport and handling, according to the University of Bamberg's survey of 411 retailers. Small retailers pay considerably more than large ones.

The Bamberg figures come from the European Return-o-Meter, the largest retailer survey on returns in Europe, published in September 2022 with 2021 data. They cover transport and processing only: the loss when a returned item has to be discounted, refurbished or thrown away comes on top. Bamberg found large differences by product group and by retailer size.

A newer survey asked retailers directly. In the EHI Retail Institute's 2025 survey of 124 online retailers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, just over half put their processing cost at up to €10 per returned item, and 27% could not put a figure on it at all.

Not knowing the cost is the bigger problem: a retailer that cannot price a return cannot tell whether a free-returns policy, a return fee or a better size guide pays for itself. The calculator below turns your own return rate and cost per return into a yearly figure.

What do returns cost retailers in total?

Coresight Research estimates that US online apparel returns were worth $38 billion in 2023 and cost $25.1 billion to process. Across all US retail, the National Retail Federation (NRF) expects $849.9 billion of merchandise to be returned in 2025.

Coresight surveyed 100 decision-makers at US apparel brands and retailers with at least $10 million in revenue in March 2023. Online-based companies with more than $100 million in online apparel revenue told Coresight that eliminating returns would lift their online apparel profit by over 50%. Two in three respondents (67%) said it would lift it by at least 20%, and 98% said they offer free shipping on returns.

The NRF figures measure the value of goods returned, not the cost of handling them. The NRF and Appriss Retail found that in 2023, retailers lost $13.70 to return fraud for every $100 of returned merchandise accepted, about $101 billion in total. In 2025, retailers told the NRF that 9% of returns were fraudulent.

In the UK, Retail Economics and ZigZag put the value of non-food returns at £26.7 billion in 2024 and forecast £25.1 billion for 2025, with the return rate easing from 21% to 19.5%.

How many parcels are returned?

Almost one in four ecommerce parcels in Germany is sent back (24.2%). The University of Bamberg estimates 542 million return parcels in 2025 and forecasts 560 million in 2026, the highest on record.

Bamberg multiplies its measured return rate by industry parcel volumes. For 2026 it uses 4.48 billion courier, express and parcel shipments, of which 87.3% are parcels and 73% are business-to-consumer. That gives about 2.3 billion parcels sent and 560 million sent back. Retailers in Bamberg's network report no fall in return rates, and their reports even hint at a slight rise, which Bamberg links to more shopping in apps that show less product information than desktop sites.

Fashion dominates the flow: 83% of return parcels and 91% of returned items in Germany are fashion. In the EHI survey, 12.2% of clothing retailers get more than half of all orders sent back.

Are returned clothes thrown away?

Rarely by the retailer directly: in Germany 93.2% of returned items are sold again as new and 1.3% are disposed of. Because volumes are so large, that 1.3% was still about 17 million items in 2021.

The 1.3% covers only disposal by the online retailer. Items passed to resellers and later destroyed, and goods refunded without being sent back, are not counted, so Bamberg notes the figure shows only part of the problem. It also found that, in Germany and the rest of Europe alike, disposing of returns is apparently more attractive to retailers than donating them. Bamberg published a further report on why returns and overstock are destroyed in July 2026.

What is the carbon footprint of a return?

About 1,500 g CO2e per return parcel, on average, among German retailers that measure it. On that figure, returns in Germany caused about 795,000 tonnes of CO2e in 2021, as much as driving a car 5.3 billion kilometres.

Treat this number with care. More than 80% of retailers in the Bamberg survey do not measure the footprint of a return, 15% did not know or did not answer, and fewer than 5% do measure it. The 1,500 g mean comes from that small group, and Bamberg says independent research is urgently needed. Even so, it is well above the 850 g Bamberg had assumed before, so the climate cost of returns has probably been underestimated.

Why does Germany have so many returns?

Bamberg found the highest return rates in Europe in Germany, with Switzerland and Austria close behind, and points to three causes: more free returns, more orders paid by invoice after delivery, and longer return windows.

In the same survey, the average return window was 53.5 days in Germany against 29.6 days in the rest of Europe. Outside Germany, almost half of retailers make shoppers pay part of the cost: 17.9% charge a return fee and 29.7% leave the postage to the customer. German retailers do achieve lower costs per return than their European competitors.

In the UK, Retail Economics and ZigZag found that 42% of clothing and footwear retailers charge for returns.

Returns cost calculator

Multiply your orders by your return rate and your all-in cost per return to see what returns cost you each year, and what one percentage point of return rate is worth.

Returns also cost sales you never see: in the UK, Retail Economics found that 49% of shoppers, and six in ten Millennials, have abandoned a purchase because of an unsatisfactory returns policy. Charging for returns can lower the bill and lose orders at the same time.

How can fashion brands cut the cost of returns?

By preventing the returns that come from size and fit, the reason apparel companies name most often, rather than only charging for returns or processing them faster.

• Prevent size-related returns. In Coresight's survey, 53% of US apparel decision-makers named size or fit the top reason for returns. Zalando says its size and fit tools prevented 9% of size-related returns in 2026. See the Fashion Returns Index for every published figure.
• Price your returns. Know your all-in cost per return before you change your policy, so a return fee or a shorter window can be judged against the sales it may lose.
• Record the reasons. Only 29.5% of retailers in the EHI survey capture return reasons fully automatically, and 7.3% use AI in returns management. Reasons tied to products show which size charts and descriptions cause returns.
• Resell quickly. Most retailers in the EHI survey (43.4%) need one to two days to process a return. Faster processing gets items back on sale at full price sooner.

For figures on whether try-on and size tools lower returns, see the virtual try-on returns benchmark.

How this page is compiled

We list a figure only if its publisher names the data behind it, and we link to that publication. Widely repeated figures whose original source we could not find or read are left out, including undated vendor estimates of returns sent to landfill. The German return-parcel series is Bamberg's own estimate; we have not modelled or adjusted any figure. Each figure is re-read every quarter and changes are logged here. Corrections: data@renderedfits.com.

Sources

• Asdecker, B., Felch, V. and Karl, D., European Return-o-Meter, Forschungsgruppe Retourenmanagement, University of Bamberg (7 September 2022)
• University of Bamberg, Forschungsgruppe Retourenmanagement, updated estimate of return parcels in 2026 (30 September 2026)
• University of Bamberg, Forschungsgruppe Retourenmanagement, record of 550 million return parcels expected in 2025 (25 November 2025)
• EHI Retail Institute, Zwischen Retouren und Rentabilität, survey of 124 online retailers (27 November 2025)
• Coresight Research, The True Cost of Apparel Returns (survey of 6 March 2023)
• NRF and Happy Returns, 2025 Retail Returns Landscape (15 October 2025)
• NRF and Happy Returns, 2024 retail returns report (5 December 2024)
• NRF and Appriss Retail, 2023 Consumer Returns in the Retail Industry (26 December 2023)
• NRF and Appriss Retail, 2022 Consumer Returns in the Retail Industry (13 December 2022)
• Retail Economics and ZigZag, UK Returns Benchmark 2025
• Zalando, Returns at Zalando (read 9 November 2026)

Every figure on this page links to the publication it comes from. Rendered Fits does not publish a cost figure of its own. Last reviewed 10 November 2026 by Sienna Stones.