Return Rates in 2026: What the EHI Data Actually Shows

The average return rate in German e-commerce, according to the EHI study 2025 (based on 2024 data), is 17.4 percent across all product categories — not the 25 to 30 percent frequently attributed to "EHI and HDE" in online articles. That higher figure cannot be traced back to any named primary study. One secondary source even calls it an "estimate," while another presents it as "confirmed" — a contradiction that shows how a number loses its origin as it gets passed along in citations.

What the EHI data on return rates actually shows

The EHI study "Shipping, Packaging and Returns Management" surveyed 124 well-known online retailers in the DACH region in summer 2025, roughly a quarter of them with annual revenue above one billion euros. That's a survey of large retailers — not a full census of the market. Treating those percentages as representative of "retail" as a whole confuses sample with population. For the overall rate across all categories, the most defensible figure remains the 17.4 percent from the EHI 2025 study, cited independently in multiple places, including TextilWirtschaft.

Broken down by category, the picture varies considerably: in electronics, 85.7 percent of retailers report rates up to 10 percent; for furniture, around 93 percent report up to 10 percent as well. Fashion is the clear outlier on the high end.

Why fashion return rates genuinely reach up to 50 percent

Unlike the overall 25–30 percent figure, the fashion number is actually backed by EHI data — just not in the way it's usually cited. 87.7 percent of surveyed fashion retailers report return rates of up to 50 percent, 12.2 percent report even higher, and nearly one in four fashion retailers (24.5 percent) sits between 36 and 50 percent. That's a distribution of self-reported figures from individual retailers, not a single aggregated industry number — an important distinction if you're using it to plan your own operations. A fashion retailer assuming a blanket "50 percent" figure likely overstates their own situation unless their assortment is dominated by the highest-return categories.

What's wrong with the €18 billion figure

The frequently cited total cost figure of over €18 billion annually for logistics, handling, value loss, and staff also circulates without any named primary study behind it. Sources merely reference "industry reports" — a sign that the number has been passed along rather than calculated. The merchandise value of returns is reported elsewhere at a lower, more specific figure: around 530 million returns per year with an estimated merchandise value of €12 to 15 billion. Even per-item costs are fuzzy: 53.3 percent of EHI-surveyed retailers report up to €10 per returned item, 13.9 percent up to €20 — but the study explicitly notes that a lack of cost transparency hampers targeted optimization for many retailers. That's the real story here: the problem isn't the headline number, it's that many companies don't know their own return costs precisely enough to act on them.

What's new since July 2026: destruction ban and withdrawal button

Two legal changes now directly affect how returns are handled. Since July 19, 2026, large companies are subject to the destruction ban on unsold textile goods under Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/296 implementing the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR). For online fashion retail, this explicitly covers returns, B-grade stock, seasonal goods, and remaining inventory. Ten exemptions remain — for damage, hygiene issues, or legal violations, for example — but companies must document the fate of affected goods for five years. Mid-sized companies get until 2030. A digital product passport for textiles follows from 2027.

Since June 19, 2026, an electronic withdrawal button under § 356a BGB has also been mandatory: any business offering consumers distance contracts via an online interface must provide an electronic withdrawal function. From September 27, 2026, further disclosure requirements on eco-friendly delivery options and repairability follow. The rules on who bears return shipping costs remain unchanged: under § 357(2) BGB, the merchant covers return costs unless consumers were informed otherwise in the withdrawal notice — unchanged since 2014, regardless of the persistent myth of a "€40 threshold."

What this means for your own data foundation

The real takeaway from this data isn't a new headline figure — it's a question about your own data infrastructure: does your company actually know its return rate by category, channel, and supplier, and what each return truly costs in logistics, value loss, and staff time? According to EHI itself, that cost transparency is missing even at many large retailers surveyed. In practice, the relevant data is usually scattered: return reasons in the shop system, stock levels in the ERP, pricing and reorder data in yet other tools, marketplace data in separate exports. An analysis layer that pulls marketplaces, shops, ERP, returns, stock, and pricing into one normalized, joinable dataset turns these scattered numbers into an actual basis for decisions. Instead of a generic industry rate pulled from the web, the real return rate by category and supplier becomes visible, linked to lead times and seasonality — feeding concrete, justified recommendations on pricing, reordering, or clearance that go to a human for approval before anything executes. That doesn't replace legal advice on ESPR or the withdrawal button, but it provides the numerical foundation without which any decision on assortment, returns handling, or pricing rests on guesswork.