November 27th, 2023, Lesley Simeon
Regardless of their best-laid plans, consumers often end up with products that may not be the best fit for them or items that turn out not to be what they expected. An easy returns policy makes a world of difference in such situations. How important then do consumers feel an easy returns policy is when making purchases?
A recent YouGov survey asked consumers across 17 international markets about exactly this.
More than two in five consumers (43%) say the ease of returning products is very important to them during the purchase process and 40% of consumers across all our markets say it is fairly important.
On the other hand, one in ten consumers say such a policy is not very important to them (10%) while just 2% of them say ease of return is not important at all.
YouGov’s demographic data reveals that younger consumers are less likely than older ones to say it is important to them that it’s easy to return a purchased item, if need be. For instance, consumers aged 55 years and above are most likely to say so (88%) and 18-to-24-year olds are the least likely across all age groups (73%) to say an easy returns policy is important to them.
By market, what do consumers make of easy returns policies
Spain accounts for the largest share of consumers across all our markets (90%) who say it is important that the items they purchase come with an easy returns policy. Italy (87%), Indonesia (86%) and Great Britain (86%) follow Spain.
Right at the bottom of the list, our polling data features Hong Kong (76%) – consumers here are least likely to say an easy returns policy is important. The US (78%) records a two-percentage point lead over Hong Kong. Nevertheless, it’s clear that in both markets returns remain a big factor.
Notably, a previously published YouGov piece revealed that nearly three in five consumers in North America (59%) agree with the statement that companies deliberately make it difficult to complain or to return things. A similar proportion of consumers in the UAE (58%) are of the same opinion. Almost all consumers in the UAE (81%) say an easy returns policy is important to them.
Hong Kong leads (22%) when it comes to consumers who are most likely across all our markets to say such a policy is not important to them.
In Europe, Germans and the Swedes are the least likely (79%) to say an easy returns policy is an important consideration when making a purchase. Sweden accounts for the largest share of consumers in Europe (16%) to say they don’t consider an easy returns policy an important purchase factor.
As for Asia, 82% of Singaporeans say an easy returns policy is important to them - the least likely in this region to say so. In India, 84% consumers are of the same opinion.
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Methodology: YouGov Surveys: Serviced provide quick survey results from nationally representative or targeted audiences in multiple markets. The data is based on surveys of adults aged 18+ years in 17 markets with sample sizes varying between 508 and 2001 for each market. All surveys were conducted online in September 2023. Data from each market uses a nationally representative sample apart from Mexico and India, which use urban representative samples, and Indonesia and Hong Kong, which use online representative samples. Learn more about YouGov Surveys: Serviced.
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