Between 2024 and 2026, return fees became normal among large US retailers. Before you follow, look at what they have that you probably don’t, and at what they said happened next.

Who charges what

In the NRF and Happy Returns survey of large retailers, 72% charged for at least some returns in 2025, up from 66% in 2024 Reported. Loop says 65.2% of its Shopify merchants charge on some return outcomes, averaging $9.04 Reported. Coverage of the 2025 holidays listed these mail-return fees:

ReportedCBS News, December 26, 2025; TheStreet, December 21, 2025. Fees change; check each retailer’s current policy before citing it.

Note the word that repeats: mailed. Every retailer on the list has stores, and the fee falls on mailed returns, which steers customers to return in person, where they may buy something else. Amazon’s 2023 fee made the logic explicit: $1 for returning at a UPS Store when a Whole Foods, Amazon Fresh or Kohl’s drop-off was closer Reported. A DTC brand without stores that adds a mail fee isn’t steering anyone. It’s charging everyone.

What the fee-chargers said happened

In the same 2025 survey, of retailers that began charging, 47% saw more complaints, 37% said they lost customers, 34% saw average order value fall and 24% saw sales fall Reported. A year earlier, 54% said fees had cut return rates Reported. Both can be true. The question is whether a fee cuts returns more cheaply than it cuts customers, and Bower and Maxham’s findings in chapter 3 are the reason to worry.

A case: L.L.Bean

For a century, L.L.Bean took back almost anything, at any age. In February 2018 it moved to a one-year limit with proof of purchase, while still covering manufacturing defects after that. The company said it had lost $250 million over five years on returned items that had to be destroyed, and that such returns had doubled over that period Reported. Its chairman said some customers had come to treat the guarantee as “a lifetime product replacement program, expecting refunds for heavily worn products used over many years” Reported. Within days a Chicago customer sued, seeking class-action status Reported.

The lessons carry to a small brand. The change targeted a specific abuse, the generous core survived (a year is still long), and the company explained itself with numbers. The lawsuit is the last lesson: a policy that has been part of the brand for years is part of the price customers think they paid, and taking it away feels like a price rise.

A fee cuts returns. The only question is whether it cuts them faster than it cuts customers.

How to test a fee

1. Decide what the fee is forSteering to a cheaper method (a free option still exists) or deterring returns. Steering is easier to defend.
2. Assign by customer, at the first orderA random half of new customers sees the fee in the policy, product page and checkout; the rest don’t. The assignment sticks to the customer.
3. Set the decision metric in advanceTwelve-month contribution per customer, including fee income, return costs and repeat orders. Watch first-order conversion, return rate, exchange share, tickets and chargebacks as guardrails.
4. Size itUse the tool in chapter 5, with the fee’s expected income as the cost.
5. Write the decision ruleBefore launch: “We keep the fee if twelve-month contribution per customer is no lower in the fee group, at the 90-day read and confirmed at twelve months.”

Different customers seeing different terms is a pricing test, with legal and reputational risk. Disclose each customer’s terms before they buy, never change terms after purchase, and have counsel review the design. If a customer-level test isn’t possible, use a before-and-after with a comparison group the change didn’t touch, such as another country you ship to.

Do this

• If you charge a fee today without having tested it, reverse it for a random half of new customers for six months and read the result. If you’re about to add one, run the chapter 5 tool first and write the decision rule.