Ecommerce Returns in 2026: Rates, Costs & The Management Playbook

Returns are the quiet line item that decides whether an ecommerce business is profitable. The customer paid, the order shipped, the dashboard says “delivered” — and then 14 days later the parcel comes back, the marketplace claws the payout, the SKU sits in a return bin nobody has time to inspect, and the unit economics that looked fine on the contribution margin row turn into a loss after reverse logistics. The brands that grow past £1m a year almost always have a returns process that someone owns. The brands that stall almost always treat returns as an exception to be handled when somebody complains.