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When a product comes back, it’s never just a refund. Each return sets off a chain of costs that reach far beyond the item itself. Before talking about how these costs get passed along, let’s pause and look at the hidden costs that build up with every return:
Now that we’ve seen how costly returns are, it’s no surprise that many brands are tightening their policies to protect margins. The logic is simple: if returns can’t be prevented, brands look for ways to offset the impact, often at the expense of their customers. Let’s look at the policies brands are putting in place.
Return windows
Generous windows of 45–60 days are becoming a thing of the past. For most retailers, 30 days is now the maximum. Some have cut it even shorter, reducing the window to just 14 days for certain categories like sale items.
Fees
Not long ago, free returns were standard. Today, around 30% of the 50 biggest brands charge a fee: anywhere from €1.95 to €10.99 per return. A few brands have gone even further, introducing per-item fees, meaning shoppers pay for every product they send back, not just the parcel.
Loyalty & Memberships
Increasingly, brands are experimenting with tiered return policies: giving loyalty or membership customers free or extended returns, while charging occasional shoppers or first-time buyers. On paper, it looks like smart segmentation. But for many shoppers, it feels less like a reward and more like a penalty - and that’s exactly where the risk lies.
Here’s the problem: stricter return fees may help brands in the short term, but they create bigger problems long-term.
So while stricter policies may reduce today’s costs, they can quietly undermine tomorrow’s growth. In fact, a Bergen Logistics survey found that 84% of shoppers are more likely to repurchase from retailers offering a positive, hassle-free returns experience - showing that the return experience matters just as much as the product itself.
Policies may limit returns to some extent, but they’ll never fix the reasons behind them. And those reasons almost always come down to sizing and fit:
If your products don’t align with real customer bodies and expectations, returns are unavoidable. Managing returns sustainably means addressing this misalignment at the source, not just adjusting the policies around it.
It eventually comes down to how brands connect their products to their customers. Smart sizing and fit tools can bring together body data, product details, and real-world performance insights to reveal how each item will fit different customer groups. This empowers brands to design with greater accuracy, guide shoppers to the right size from the start, and predict potential issues before products even launch.
Here’s how SAIZ helps:
These solutions go beyond reducing returns, helping brands turn fit into loyalty, confidence, and long-term profitability
There’s only one situation where stricter return fees make sense: when you’ve already done everything possible to set customers up for success. That means offering clear, accurate sizing and fit guidance at every step of the customer journey, so shoppers have every chance to get it right.
If, after that, some shoppers still misuse the system (e.g. ordering 5 sizes with the intention of keeping only 1) then a small penalty can be fair. At that stage, it’s not about punishing customers, but protecting margins and ensuring that the majority who shop responsibly don’t pay for the few who don’t.
