The Return of the Package

Online retailers who successfully want to target European consumers increasingly have to look at returns information and the conditions for product returns. According to PostNord research, many Europeans have a habit of returning products they bought online. This is especially true in Germany and the Netherlands: more than half of the population in these countries sent at least one purchased good back to an online store between early 2017 and spring 2018. The United Kingdom could be found in third place.

In all three countries, fashion is a popular product to buy online. The percentage of Dutch consumers who purchased a fashion item through a web shop tripled from 19 percent in 2007 to 57 percent in 2017. That was only surpassed in the United Kingdom where a bigger share of the population (61 percent) bought these products online, whilst 50 percent of the consumers in Germany used online shopping for either clothes or sports goods.