Brits Returned A Third Of Black Friday E-Purchases

U.K. online shoppers have returned almost a third of the things they bought on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, according to parcel-return service CollectPlus.

Fortunately, that 31 percent return rate should represent the peak of buyer’s remorse in the U.K. this holiday season — except for one more brief spurt of returns just before Christmas, Retail Times reported.

In CollectPlus’s survey of more than 2,000 adult customers in the U.K., 39 percent of Brits said they have returned an online purchase already this year, with 19 percent taking time off work to return an item, 10 percent during their lunch hour, with the average customer spending 8 hours and 42 minutes returning goods over the course of 2014.

Customers expect to spend an average of 52 minutes each returning unwanted online purchases between Black Friday and New Year’s, costing the U.K. economy almost £505 million ($790 million) in lost hours, CollectPlus estimated.

Among ecommerce-returning customers, 21 percent admitted they delay returning items because they don’t want to stand in line, 14 percent said they resented having to schedule around time the post office was open, and 27 percent dislike ordering online because of the hassle of returning it. And some just give up — 12 percent of the survey respondents said they could have returned at least £240 ($375) worth of online purchases, but didn’t either because they didn’t want to pay return postage 37 percent) or just couldn’t be bothered (36 percent).