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 and shoes are the second- and third-most returned products online, with 18% of consumers having sent back these items. This is followed by other accessories such as jewelry and sunglasses, which also have relatively high return rates. They are the fourth most returned products online, having been given back by 13% of buyers.
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Despite the high rates of return of these fashion-related products, the US fashion industry remains set to continue growing. Total revenue grew by 4.5% in 2023 to nearly half a billion dollars.
Rounding out the five most returned products online is food and beverages. 12% of online shoppers say they have sent back items in this category.
Consumer electronics (which includes televisions and smartphones) is in sixth place, with 11%. This is followed by 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 82.9%. 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.
Bags and luggage, books, movies, music, and games (which refers to the online purchase of physical products and excludes digital downloads), and household appliances make the seventh- to 10th-most returned items online. As many as 9% of consumers claim to have returned these items over the past 12 months. This goes to show that size does not generally matter when it comes to returns.