Nshift: People Begin Returning Unwanted Christmas Presents Within Days

Some eager gift-getters even start sending back presents on Christmas Day

Festive gift-getters are wasting little time in returning their unwanted Christmas presents, according to new data from nShift, the global leader in parcel delivery management software.

According to the analysis, 28 December – dubbed “Returns Wednesday” – was the most popular day for people to begin the process of returning unwanted gifts in 2022. However, many consumers were even quicker off the mark. Some even began sending things back on Christmas Day itself.

Philipp Goldberg, Product Director for Returns at nShift said, “This is yet more evidence that when people shop online, they expect to be able to return products quickly and simply. When a retailer does not make their returns policy clear, or the process seems cumbersome, shoppers are more likely to abandon their purchase. This may be especially the case when they are buying a gift for someone else.”

nShift compiled these statistics by analyzing returns data from the last week of December 2022. By looking at which day of the week carrier companies were alerted of the need to collect an item, they were able to determine which days were the most popular for people to get the ball rolling.  Wednesday 28 was the most popular day, with over a quarter of returns requests from the week generated during that day. This was closely followed by Thursday 29 (22.3%) and Tuesday 27 (22%).

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The full statistics are:

Philipp Goldberg continues: “To ensure they increase conversions and keep customers coming back for more, retailers must offer a compelling returns policy and make it easy for both consumers and warehouses to operate. Digitizing the returns process can help make it accessible for the consumer and cut down on processing time.”

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nShift’s returns solution helps ease the administrative burden while ensuring a smooth, friction-free journey for customers looking to return their orders.

It enables customers to:

•   Avoid handwritten return slips
•   Re-convert 30% of returns to exchanges
•   Keep customers up to date on return status
•   Work in a data-driven way and analyze returns in real-time
•   Always keep track of how many returns are en route to the warehouse