In the summer of 2026, up to 66.7 percent of retailers in Austria, Germany and Switzerland said that they have a maximum item-related return rate of 10 percent. The amount of retailers with return rates over 20 percent has decreased to 23.6 percent, a slight decrease from 25 percent in 2025.
This is according to EHI Retail Insitute’s new study “Shipping, packaging and returns management in e-commerce 2026”. In total, 108 well-known online retailers in the DACH region completed a survey. According to the report, the proportion of sellers who said that their return rates are rising, increased from 14.7 percent in 2025 to 18.7 percent this year.
‘The focus of returns management is shifting to a targeted root cause analysis’
“Higher return rates are declining this year, leading to a slight shift towards lower values. Overall, the focus of returns management is shifting from a general cost issue to targeted root cause analysis and differentiated control,” explained Niklas Stanislawski, Logistics Project Manager at EHI.
Fashion industry still has highest returns
The report looked at return rates across product categories and industries. Fashion is still the category with the highest rates. This year, 67.5 percent of sellers had return rates higher than 20 percent. A year ago, the proportion was still 65.3 percent. The amount of sellers with return rates above 50 percent has decreased. At the same time, the amount of retailers with return rates between 35 and 50 percent has increased.
Sellers of consumer electronics saw some positive changes this year. The percentage of sellers with return rates of 10 percent or less rose from 85.7 percent to 94.5 percent. And the percentage with return rates over 20 percent fell, from 4.8 to 0 percent.
More sellers offering free returns
One of the biggest changes in the report is the fact that free returns are making a comeback. This year, 60.6 percent of sellers covered return shipping costs completely. In 2025, only 49.2 percent did the same. The amount of sellers who pass on shipping costs entirely to customers has decreased, from 18 to 10.6 percent.
‘Customer sastisfaction and customer loyalty are the main reasons to cover return shipping costs’
According to respondents, customer satisfaction and loyalty are the main reasons to cover shipping costs. This factor increased from 54.5 percent last year to 76.2 percent this year. And 64.3 percent cited customer expectations and competitive advantage as the main reasons. In 2025, that share was still 60.6 percent.
Costs of returns
Return shipping is mentioned most often as a cost driver for returns processing. It accounts for 70.6 percent of returns. Inspection and refurbishment were less often mentioned as the biggest cost driver (from 63.1 percent to 52.9 percent). For more than 33 percent of sellers, the costs of returns are up to 5 euros. Almost 20 percent reported costs between 5 and 10 euros. Another 15 percent mentioned costs between 10 and 20 euros. Just under 6 percent reported costs exceeding 20 euros.
