Returning fashion customers send back more than new shoppers, Kustom report shows

Fashion merchants face a clear loyalty paradox: the customers who return to shop again are also the ones who return the most products. That is the key finding of Behind the returns, a new report from Kustom analyzing return behavior across 78.6 million online purchases in Sweden, Norway and Finland. The highest return rates of all belong to young Swedish women, who send back more than a third of the value they spend.

Behind the returns covers orders from 1,551 connected e-commerce merchants in Sweden, Norway and Finland. The report shows that returns are primarily a fashion phenomenon, driven by product type, fit, demographics and learned buying behavior. The return rate in fashion is 22.8 percent, compared with 5.9 percent for e-commerce overall. Every year, fashion items worth approximately SEK 2.9 billion are returned through Kustom’s checkout infrastructure across the three markets..

In most e-commerce categories, returning customers return less than new ones. In fashion, the pattern is reversed. Returning shoppers send back 26.5 percent of what they buy, compared with 19.0 percent among new customers. At the same time, they shop more frequently and drive significant net value for merchants. In Sweden they even account for a higher net order value than new customers once returns are deducted.

The same logic applies to female fashion shoppers. They return up to twice as much as men, but still account for 75 percent of merchants’ net order value.

“Fashion returns cannot be assessed in isolation. A high return rate can reflect active, recurring buying behavior, where shoppers use returns to compare sizes, assess fit and choose the right product. At the same time, the same return rate in another segment can signal friction, uncertainty around fit or expectations that were not met. For merchants, the key question is therefore not only how much is returned, but why it is returned and how much customer value remains afterwards,” says Jesper Eriksson, Chief Commercial Officer at Kustom.

Returns in fashion fall steadily with age. At the top are Swedish women aged 18–29, who send back 34.5 percent of the value they spend. At the bottom are Norwegian men over 60, at just 8.2 percent. Where customers live also matters: urban shoppers consistently return more than rural ones across all three markets.

New feature for return analysis

The report shows that return rates need to be understood in context, based on shopper segment, product category and buying behavior. To help merchants turn their own return data into actionable business insights, Kustom will shortly launch a new feature in its insights tool, introduced earlier this year.

The new feature makes it possible to track return rates over time and analyze trends by customer segment. This helps merchants better understand which returns are linked to active buying behavior, which signal friction in the customer journey and where there is the greatest potential to act.

“Returns only become truly useful when they are put into context. By making it easier to track return data over time and identify return patterns, we want to give more merchants access to insights they can act on, insights that have historically mainly been available to the largest players,” says Rasmus Fahlander, Chief Product Officer at Kustom.

Key findings

• Returns are a fashion phenomenon. Across Sweden, Norway and Finland, the return rate in fashion is 22.8 percent, compared with 5.9 percent for e-commerce overall.
• Fashion has a loyalty paradox. Returning fashion customers return more than new customers: 26.5 percent compared with 19.0 percent across the three markets.
• Young women have the highest return rates. Swedish women aged 18 to 29 return 34.5 percent of the value they spend on fashion. Norwegian men over 60 have the lowest return rate, at 8.2 percent.
• Fit is the main driver. Apparel is returned three to four times more often than bags and accessories across all three markets.
• Norway has the lowest return rate. The fashion return rate is 19.5 percent in Norway, compared with 24.9 percent in Sweden and 21.9 percent in Finland.
• A higher price tag does not mean fewer returns. In Sweden and Finland, premium fashion has the highest return rate of all price segments.
• Urban shoppers return more. Return rates in fashion are higher in cities than in rural areas across all three markets. In Sweden, the return rate is 27.9 percent in urban areas compared with 20.0 percent in rural areas.

About the report
Behind the returns is based on aggregated, anonymized transaction data from Kustom's checkout infrastructure in Sweden, Norway and Finland between August 2025 and April 2026. A total of 78.6 million orders from 1,551 connected e-commerce merchants were analyzed. The analysis covers merchants continuously active for at least four months with significant order history. The main findings on gender and age differences are statistically significant (p<0.001).

The report is available here: www.kustom.co/reports/behind-the-returns
 

Press inquiries
Julia Grönstedt
press@kustom.co

About Kustom
Kustom is one of Europe’s leading checkout solutions, helping merchants across Europe grow through a high-conversion, low-complexity, and highly customizable setup. By making the checkout process seamless and transparent, and adaptable to local markets and shopper preferences, Kustom supports stronger, long-term customer relationships. Today, Kustom serves more than 24,000 merchants across 170 markets and has converted more than 25 million shoppers.