Most Returned Products Online
Items related to food and beverage and health, personal care, and beauty are among the fastest-growing consumer products in the United States, with double-digit growth expected this year.
Understanding what products are selling well allows you to leverage rising demand to boost business revenue. That said, knowing what the most returned products are is also useful, as you can tweak your sales strategy to lower your store’s return rates.
Here’s a breakdown of the most returned products online in the US.
Most returned products online: top 10
According to a recent study, clothing tops the list of the most returned products online. More than one in four (26%) US consumers say they have returned clothing items purchased online over the past year.
Bags and related accessories are the second-most returned products online, with 19% of consumers having sent back these items. This is followed by shoes, with 18%. Other accessories such as jewelry and sunglasses also have relatively high return rates. They are the fourth most returned products online, having been given back by 13% of buyers.
→ Click Here to Launch Your Online Business with Shopify
Despite the high rates of return of these fashion-related products, the US fashion industry remains set to continue growing. Total revenue grew by 8.3% in 2022, and this is expected to slow slightly to 4.5% this year.
Rounding out the six most returned products online is consumer electronics (which includes televisions and smartphones) and food and beverage. 11% of online shoppers say they have sent back items in these two categories.
This is followed by bags and luggage and cosmetics and body care—one out of every 10 ecommerce buyers returned these items online. Incidentally, beauty and personal care currently has the highest cart abandonment rate across all industries, at 84.9%. In other words, more than four out of every five people add merchandise related to beauty and personal care to their shopping carts without checking out.
The data shows that despite their relatively large sizes, household appliances are no exception to returns—as many as 9% of consumers claim to have returned these items over the past 12 months.
Tenth on the list of the most returned products online is books, movies, music, and games. This refers to the online purchase of physical products and excludes digital downloads. Items in this category were given back by 7% of US shoppers.