Fashion return statistics 2026

Fashion return statistics at a glance

Online clothing is returned far more often than other online purchases: about one in four US online apparel orders, against 19.3% of all US online sales.

Each row measures something different: a share of orders, of items, of sales value or of parcels. Read the definition before comparing two numbers.

What is the average return rate for online clothing?

Published estimates put US online apparel returns at 24.4% of orders, and Zalando says about half of the items it ships across Europe come back.

The 24.4% figure comes from Coresight Research, which surveyed 100 decision-makers at US apparel brands and retailers with at least $10 million in revenue. It is 7.9 percentage points higher than the NRF online average used at the time. The NRF and Happy Returns report estimates that 19.3% of all US online sales will be returned in 2025, across every category, and 15.8% of all retail sales.

European pure players run much higher because free returns and invoice payment are normal there. Zalando states that "across all our markets, an average of 50 percent of the items ordered are returned". That is a share of items, not orders, so a customer who keeps one of two sizes counts as a 50% item return.

Fashion return rate by category

Clothing is the most returned online category, ahead of shoes and accessories, but no independent source publishes a full return rate for each clothing category.

Tables online that give a precise return rate for denim, plus-size, maternity or occasionwear rarely name where the number comes from, so we do not repeat them. Your own returns data, split by product type and return reason, is the reliable category benchmark.

What share of fashion returns are due to size and fit?

Size and fit is the single biggest reason clothes are sent back: surveys put it at between 45% and 70% of returns, depending on how the question is asked.

The ranges differ because "fit or style" is broader than "size", and because some surveys ask shoppers while others ask retailers. All of them agree on the order: size and fit comes first.

Online vs in-store return rates

Things bought online are returned two to three times as often as things bought in a shop.

• NRF and Appriss Retail: 17.6% of merchandise bought online was returned in 2023, against 10.02% for pure in-store purchases (excluding online orders returned to a store).
• ICSC: the average online return rate was 15.2%, against 5% in store, across the retailers studied; for apparel it was 22% online against 6.2% in store.

In a shop the shopper tries the size on before paying. Online, the fitting room is the customer's bedroom, after the parcel has shipped.

Fashion return rates by country

Germany has the highest return rate in Europe, the US online average is about one in five sales, and the UK non-food rate is about one in five.

We found no primary source we could verify for clothing return rates in India, Australia or Brazil, so they are not listed.

How much does a fashion return cost?

Postage and handling alone average about €2.85 per returned item in Germany, and the full cost, including lost value, can reach about two-thirds of the product's price.

• University of Bamberg: a returned item costs retailers an average of €2.85 in transport and processing, lower than the €10 to €15 earlier studies estimated. This excludes the loss in value of the item itself.
• Coresight Research: US online apparel returns cost an estimated $25.1 billion to process in 2023, excluding merchandise waste. The same report quotes Optoro's estimate that processing a return typically costs 66% of the product's price.
• NRF and Happy Returns: retailers estimate that 9% of all returns are fraudulent.

Who returns the most?

Younger shoppers return the most: US shoppers aged 18 to 30 made 7.7 returns of online purchases in the last year on average.

The NRF and Happy Returns report also found that close to two-thirds of consumers admit to at least one costly returns behaviour, such as wardrobing or bracketing (ordering several sizes to keep one). Our page on bracketing covers that behaviour in detail.

How to measure your own return rate

Use mature orders, one definition, and a reason code for every return.

1. Choose a definition: share of orders, items or revenue returned, and keep it.
2. Wait until the return window has closed before reporting a month.
3. Split by product type, market and return reason, especially "too small" and "too big".
4. Compare the same products and season before and after any change.

The measurement plan gives a worksheet, and the Fashion Returns Index 2026 lists the headline figures for citation.

Sources and method

• NRF and Happy Returns, 2025 Retail Returns Landscape (15 October 2025)
• NRF and Appriss Retail, 2023 Consumer Returns in the Retail Industry
• Coresight Research, The True Cost of Apparel Returns (survey of 100 US apparel decision-makers, 6 March 2023)
• ICSC, Consumer Returns survey (1,012 US consumers, February 2024; released 19 March 2024)
• Statista, Clothing and Shoes Are the Most Returned Online Purchases (Statista Consumer Insights, US, 28 April 2025)
• Zalando, Returns at Zalando (corporate site, read 2 November 2026)
• University of Bamberg, first European retailer survey on returns management (411 retailers; press release 7 September 2022)
• Retail Economics and ZigZag, UK Returns Benchmark 2025
• Narvar, The State of Returns 2022
• McKinsey & Company, Returning to order: improving returns management for apparel companies

Every figure on this page links to the publication it comes from. Figures measure different things (share of orders, items, sales value or shoppers), countries and years, so do not add or average them. Vendor figures are labelled as vendor-reported. Rendered Fits does not publish a return-reduction or conversion figure of its own. Last reviewed 2 November 2026 by Sienna Stones; send corrections to data@renderedfits.com.