January 17th, 2023, Janice Fernandes
The National Retail Federation in the US has estimated that 17% of all retail sales – amounting to over $761 billion in merchandise – were returned last year. Now with online retailers changing their return policies, we ask consumers if they agree or disagree that companies deliberately make it difficult to complain or to return things.
Over half of global respondents (56%) agree with this statement, while only slightly more than one in ten (12%) say they disagree that companies deliberately make returning products difficult for the consumer.
Consumers in North America (59%) and UAE (58%) are slightly more likely than global respondents to agree with the statement, while Europe (55%) and APAC (54%) see slightly fewer consumers concurring. However, more than half of the population in all regions agree with the statement.
In this analysis, we also ask consumers if they end up holding onto items they don’t want because companies make it too difficult to return them.
Among consumers who agree with the first statement, 59% of global respondents say they sometimes end up keeping items they don’t want. In UAE, three-quarters of consumers (74%) would rather keep the products ordered than go through a cumbersome return process.
Around two-thirds of consumers in APAC (68%) and North America (62%) also share the same experience with online retailers. Consumers in the 25-54 age range, who are likely to have a higher disposable income, are more likely to keep unwanted products – (North America - 68% of 25-34-year-olds, 67% of 35-44-year-olds and 64% of 45-54-year-olds). Similarly, in APAC, consumers aged between 18-24 years (65%) and those over 55 (63%) are least likely to keep products.
While older Europeans are also the least likely consumers to keep products because they are difficult to return them (42% of 55+), 18-24-year-olds register the highest share of consumers (61%) who say they sometimes end up keeping items they don’t want.
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Methodology: YouGov RealTime Omnibus provides quick survey results from nationally representative or targeted audiences in multiple markets. The data is based on surveys of adults aged 18 and over in 18 markets with sample sizes varying between 514 and 2023 for each market. All surveys were conducted online in October 2022. 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 RealTime Omnibus.
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