Refund Impact Calculator

Fashion and electronics have the highest return rates — 15–30%. If you're in these categories, model your unit economics at a 20% refund rate by default, not 5%.

Offering exchanges instead of refunds saves 40–60% of return revenue. Most customers return because something didn't fit or wasn't right — an exchange keeps them as customers.

Free return shipping increases purchase conversion but kills margin. Model the full impact before offering it — the lift in conversion rarely fully offsets the cost on high-return products.

A clear size guide can reduce fashion returns by up to 50%. Most fashion returns are sizing issues. Better product pages and fit guides are cheaper than processing returns.