The landscape of e-commerce in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland (the DACH region) is undergoing a significant structural transformation. As retailers navigate the complex balance between operational efficiency and customer retention, new data from the EHI Retail Institute offers a comprehensive look at how businesses are handling the perennial challenge of product returns. The "Shipping, Packaging and Returns Management in E-commerce 2026" report, which surveyed 108 prominent online retailers, reveals a nuanced shift: while high-volume return rates are tapering off, the philosophy behind managing these returns is moving from simple cost-cutting to granular, data-driven analysis.
The Main Facts: A Stabilizing Trend
The headline data for 2026 suggests a market moving toward a more manageable equilibrium. A clear majority—66.7 percent—of retailers in the DACH region now report that their maximum item-related return rate remains at or below 10 percent. This stability is encouraging for logistics managers who have spent years battling the "return epidemic" that plagued the post-pandemic digital boom.
Perhaps more telling is the decline in extreme return scenarios. In 2025, 25 percent of retailers reported return rates exceeding 20 percent; by the summer of 2026, that figure has dipped to 23.6 percent. While this is a modest improvement, it represents a definitive change in direction. However, the industry is not entirely out of the woods. The proportion of sellers noting a general upward trend in their return volumes rose to 18.7 percent this year, up from 14.7 percent in 2025. This indicates that while the "average" return rate is becoming more controlled, the volatility of consumer behavior remains a persistent threat to profit margins.
Chronology of Change: From Cost-Cutting to Root Cause Analysis
The evolution of returns management in the DACH region has been rapid. Historically, returns were viewed as a "necessary evil"—an operational expense to be minimized through aggressive policy changes, such as charging customers for return labels.
- 2023–2024: The industry focused heavily on restrictive policies. Many retailers moved away from the "free returns" model that defined the 2010s to curb the mounting costs of reverse logistics.
- 2025: A period of "wait and see." Retailers grappled with inflation and reduced consumer spending, leading to a focus on operational overheads and warehouse efficiency.
- 2026: The current year marks a strategic pivot. As Niklas Stanislawski, Logistics Project Manager at EHI, explains, the industry is moving away from treating returns as a blunt-force cost issue. Instead, the focus has shifted toward "targeted root cause analysis and differentiated control."
This transition suggests that retailers are no longer just trying to make returns expensive for the customer; they are trying to understand why the product came back in the first place. Is it sizing inaccuracy in the fashion sector? Poor product descriptions in electronics? Or perhaps logistics damage during transit? By identifying the "why," retailers can prevent the return before the purchase is even finalized.
Supporting Data: Sector-Specific Realities
The EHI report highlights that "return rate" is not a monolith; it varies drastically by industry.
The Fashion Industry’s Persistent Hurdle
Fashion remains the outlier, struggling with significantly higher return volumes than other retail sectors. In 2026, 67.5 percent of fashion retailers reported return rates higher than 20 percent, an increase from 65.3 percent in the previous year.
However, the composition of these returns is shifting. There has been a notable decrease in retailers reporting "extreme" return rates (those above 50 percent), while there has been a corresponding rise in the "mid-to-high" bracket (between 35 and 50 percent). This suggests that while fashion returns remain high due to the nature of the product—where "try-before-you-buy" is essentially the consumer expectation—the most egregious offenders are beginning to tighten their quality control and size-recommendation tools.
Consumer Electronics: A Success Story
In contrast, the consumer electronics sector has seen remarkable gains. The share of electronics retailers with return rates of 10 percent or less surged from 85.7 percent to 94.5 percent this year. Even more impressive is the virtual elimination of high-return scenarios; the percentage of sellers in this category with return rates over 20 percent plummeted from 4.8 percent to effectively zero. This shift is largely attributed to improved product visualization, better technical specifications, and a more educated consumer base.
The Return of Free Returns: A Strategic Reversal
One of the most counterintuitive findings of the 2026 study is the resurgence of free returns. Despite the prevailing wisdom that charging for returns is the only way to protect margins, retailers are increasingly opting to absorb the costs.
In 2025, only 49.2 percent of surveyed retailers covered return shipping costs completely. By 2026, that number has jumped to 60.6 percent. Conversely, the number of retailers passing the entire cost of return shipping onto the customer has fallen from 18 percent to 10.6 percent.
Why this sudden change of heart? The data points to a realization that return policy is a vital marketing tool. When asked why they chose to cover return costs, 76.2 percent of respondents cited "customer satisfaction and loyalty" as the primary driver—a significant increase from 54.5 percent in 2025. Furthermore, 64.3 percent noted that it is a matter of "customer expectations and competitive advantage." In a crowded DACH e-commerce market, the ability to offer a "frictionless" shopping experience is often the deciding factor in brand selection.
Cost Implications and Operational Realities
Despite the strategic move toward free returns, the financial burden remains a significant concern. The costs associated with processing returns are multifaceted:
- Shipping Costs: 70.6 percent of retailers identify the physical return shipment as their biggest cost driver.
- Refurbishment and Inspection: While still a major expense, this is becoming slightly less burdensome as automation and better software systems streamline the process (dropping from 63.1 percent to 52.9 percent in terms of being cited as the "biggest" cost).
- Unit Costs: The price of processing a single return is highly varied.
- Under 5 Euros: 33 percent of retailers.
- 5 to 10 Euros: Almost 20 percent.
- 10 to 20 Euros: 15 percent.
- Over 20 Euros: Just under 6 percent.
These figures illustrate that for a large portion of the market, the cost per return is a manageable operational expense, provided the volume is kept in check.
Implications for the Future
The 2026 EHI report paints a picture of a maturing market. The era of unchecked growth in e-commerce, where return rates were ignored in favor of sheer volume, is over. Today, the focus is on "differentiated control."
For the DACH e-commerce sector, the implications are threefold:
- Investment in Data: Retailers must continue to invest in analytics to identify the root causes of returns. If 10 percent of returns in a fashion line are due to "fit," the solution is not a return policy change—it is a better sizing chart.
- The "Experience" Economy: The trend of bringing back free returns suggests that retailers have concluded that the cost of losing a customer outweighs the cost of the return itself. Brands that can manage the logistics of these returns efficiently will likely capture the highest market share.
- Technological Integration: As inspection and refurbishment costs decline, it is clear that technology is playing a role. Whether through AI-driven quality checks or better reverse logistics software, the operational side of returns is becoming more automated, allowing retailers to scale without a linear increase in overhead.
As we move toward 2027, the retailers who will succeed are those who stop viewing returns as a failure of the sale and start viewing them as an opportunity for customer engagement and operational refinement. The "DACH model" of 2026 suggests that the most successful companies are those that offer the most convenience, supported by the most sophisticated internal analysis.
