Will Retailers Sacrifice Customer Loyalty to Solve Our Returns Problem?

In 2023, $247 billion--17.6% of U.S. online sales revenue--was lost to returns, versus the 14.5% return loss for items bought in stores. Once seen as an enticing benefit to attract customers (and keep pace with Amazon), free shipping and returns quickly became the norm for ecommerce. There was a cost to keeping these free, of...