From Christmas To Valentine’s: Returns Pressure Builds For Retailers

We have previously examined product returns from a customer satisfaction perspective. That article showed returns are becoming less about convenience and more about trust – particularly when it comes to refund speed and communication. The UK data highlighted in this article reinforces this shift, showing how operational performance in returns now directly shapes customer confidence.

For many UK brands, returns are no longer a short seasonal spike. They have become a permanent feature of multi-channel retail, forcing businesses to balance cost control, customer trust and operational efficiency at the same time.

Fashion And Footwear Sit At The Centre Of The Problem

Returns are hitting the fashion sector hardest. Clothing accounted for 39% of all returned gifts over the holiday period, followed closely by footwear at 37%. Footwear stands out in particular, with returns in this category almost doubling year on year, up from 21%.

The reasons are familiar to most e-commerce teams. Gift purchases increase the risk of incorrect sizing, while consumers have become accustomed to ordering multiple options and trying them on at home.

For fashion retailers, this creates a difficult equation: offering convenience drives conversion, but it also drives up handling, processing and resale costs. At the same time, sustainability goals make it harder to justify high volumes of returned stock that cannot easily be resold.

Speed Versus Trust In The Returns Process

Automation is now embedded across e-commerce operations, but returns remain a sensitive moment in the customer journey – 81% of UK shoppers prefer to deal with a real person when returning an item, rather than a digital assistant. Trust is the main reason for 70% of respondents.

This creates a clear paradox for retailers. Customers expect fast, frictionless processes, yet still want reassurance and flexibility when something goes wrong. The most effective returns strategies are increasingly those that automate back-end workflows while keeping a human touch at key customer interaction points.

A Clear Generational Divide

Returns behaviour also varies sharply by age. The research shows that:

• 53% of 18–24-year-olds returned at least one gift in December
• 87% of shoppers aged over 65 did not return anything at all

Younger consumers have grown up with e-commerce, free returns and social commerce. For them, frictionless returns are part of the expected experience. Older shoppers, by contrast, are more likely to see returns as a last resort, shaped by years of in-store shopping and physical receipts.

Social platforms are widening this gap further. On channels such as TikTok Shop, purchases and returns play out in public. A poor fulfilment or returns experience can quickly become visible, leaving little room for retailers to recover quietly.

Applying The Lessons Beyond Christmas

The pressure on returns is not limited to Christmas. Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and other gifting moments repeatedly test reverse logistics capabilities. Our recent reporting highlights how post-Christmas returns reached £1.55 bn for UK retailers, underlining the scale and persistence of this challenge. Restricting returns or removing convenience risks alienating customers, and absorbing rising costs is unsustainable.

For e-commerce leaders, the focus is shifting towards smarter processes, better use of technology and clearer communication with customers. The challenge is no longer recognising the problem but acting quickly enough to fix it before the next peak returns season arrives.

What This Means For EU E-commerce

While this data focuses on the UK, the implications extend across European ecommerce. Many EU retailers operate with similar cross-border fulfilment models, shared carriers and centralised returns hubs. As gifting seasons continue to stack up across the calendar, pressure on returns processes, customer communication and refund speed is unlikely to remain a UK-only issue. For EU e-commerce businesses, the UK experience serves as an early signal: returns performance is becoming a competitive factor, not just an operational cost — especially for fashion, footwear and cross-border sales.