How do you get fewer returns?

Start with the parcels the recipient never collected, because that is the largest flow and nobody looks at it. After that: sharpen the expectation before the order, and pack in such a way that what comes back is still sellable.

Last updated: 22 August 2026 · Jelle van der Salm, fulfilment production manager at Vogelaar

What a return really costs

The shipping costs out and back are the visible part, and usually the smallest. Underneath sits a row of operations:

opening the parcel and assessing the product
cleaning, refolding or repacking
booking it back into stock, or writing it off
notifying the customer and refunding the amount
and when it goes wrong: handling a complaint

The most expensive scenario is not the return itself but the write-off. A product that comes back damaged cannot be sold again. Then you pay the shipping twice and you have lost the product.

Where returns come from

We see them arrive, and they fall into three kinds. The first is the largest, and it is not the kind most articles are about.

Kind	Example	Where you solve it
Never reached the recipient	Nobody home, and then not collected from the pick-up point. The parcel then goes back automatically	In the delivery moment and in what you let the customer know about it
The expectation was wrong	Does not fit, looks different, disappoints. With clothing this is the bulk of it	In the web shop, before the order
Something went wrong	Wrong item, arrived damaged, arrived late	In the chain, between order and doormat

The first and the second together are the overwhelming majority. Which of the two tops your list depends on what you sell: if you sell clothing, fit is the main reason. In virtually every other category the uncollected parcel is the largest item.

The return nobody counts: the parcel that was not collected

This is the quietest flow and the easiest to reduce, because there is nothing wrong with the product. The recipient was not home, the parcel went to a pick-up point, and there it sat until the deadline passed.

You then pay for an outward journey, a return journey and a returns handling, without anything being wrong with the product. And the customer is dissatisfied without ever having held it.

What helps:

Check the address at the order. A missing house number suffix is a classic, and it costs a delivery attempt.
Let the recipient choose the carrier. This is the measure that delivers most and is offered least. Everyone has their own experience with deliverers: for one person things always go well in their street with one company, another has constant trouble with exactly that company. If you leave that choice to the recipient, they will pick the route they know works. We ship with several carriers, for instance PostNL or DHL, so you can offer that choice.
Offer a parcel locker too. A locker has no opening hours and no queue, and you do not have to be home for it. For anyone who works during the day that is often the only route on which the parcel definitely gets out.
Let the recipient choose the pick-up point. Anyone who picks a point they pass anyway will collect it. A point assigned by the system on the other side of the neighbourhood, they will not.
Remind them before the deadline passes. A message on the second-to-last day saves more returns than any text on your product page.
Check whether a second delivery attempt is cheaper than letting the parcel come back and shipping it again. Often it is, and it is a setting you make once.

What you can do before the order

Include more information than you would need yourself. Sizes in centimetres and not only S, M, L, plus the weight, the material and photos from several angles. Reviews do most of the work here: one buyer writing that something comes up small prevents exactly the order that would come back.

Consider a more generous returns window. That sounds contradictory, but a longer window takes the hurry out. What has to go back immediately goes back more often.

What the packaging has to do with it

A box that is too roomy lets the product shift. Then it arrives damaged, and then the return is not the customer's choice but a consequence of the packaging. So we make a made-to-measure box for every order, exactly around the product, with no surplus filler.

And the other way round: the easier a parcel closes again, the better it comes back. Packaging the consumer has to tear open and then improvise with tape protects nothing on the way back. A box with a returns closure keeps the product sellable. What such a box costs extra, you set against what an unsellable return costs you; that is the trade-off.

Include returns instructions that actually work. Where the label goes, how the product goes back into the packaging, and where it is headed. A return that arrives properly packed goes back into stock instead of into the write-off.

What happens when a return arrives with us

Every returned parcel is opened and assessed. If the product is fine, it goes back into stock the same day and is sellable again. If it is damaged, we write it off.

Where the return itself is recorded is up to you. Usually that is your own web shop: that is where the consumer reports it and where the administration runs. We report back the way you want it. What you see from us is the stock side: what went back into stock and what was written off.

How much can go back into stock varies a great deal by product and by customer. With one range almost everything comes back sellable; with another a large part cannot be sold after a single return. We deliberately do not quote an average here, because it would be a borrowed figure and it says nothing about your range. What does make sense is measuring it for your own products, and that is exactly where the gain sits: that is where you see where the bill is and where the room to reduce it is.

And that last part is more than administration. If you can see which product ends up in the write-off strikingly often, you know where your packaging or your product information falls short. Returns are a nuisance, but they do tell you something.

Want to know where your returns flow gets stuck? What we do in fulfilment is on fulfilment, and we answer the question of whether outsourcing is sensible at outsourcing fulfilment. If you sell to consumers, also have a look at the withdrawal button.