#659
Return to Sender
Published:
Sep 12, 2026
Author:
Sarah Parsons Wolter
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Retailers spent years making it effortless to buy three sizes, keep one, and send the other two straight back. Now that generosity is wearing thin. 68% of retailers charge for returns at least occasionally, up from 43% five years ago, according to Loop Returns. Processing a return costs an estimated 27% of the purchase price, a bill retailers are increasingly reluctant to cover.
Just as merchants make returning harder, AI assistants like Instinct and Muse promise to make buying easier. Meta launched Muse this week with the ability to research products, compare options, and complete purchases with the user’s approval.
That convenience could put more pressure on returns. If assistants increase purchase frequency, even an unchanged return rate would mean more parcels heading backwards. Better personalization could reduce mistakes, but an agent’s interpretation of “something fun for the wedding” may look rather different from yours.
The easier it is to reverse a purchase, the more comfortable consumers may feel delegating it. Meta already highlights no-fee returns and a refund guarantee for eligible Muse purchases through Stripe’s Link, subject to coverage terms. As merchants become less generous, the ability to undo a purchase is becoming part of the agent shopping pitch.
The ultimate personal shopper may be the one that also takes things back.
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Return to Sender
It’s getting harder to return things—and it’s making shoppers mad - Sixty-eight percent of retailers now charge a fee on returns at least some of the time, up from 43% five years ago, according to Loop Returns, an e-commerce returns-and-exchanges platform that tracks transactions for more than 5,000 merchants. Processing a return costs on average 27% of the purchase price, according to Optoro, a returns-management software company. Read more
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