PYMNTS Daily Data Dive: Stores Welcome Returns

It’s that time of year again — now that all the holiday gifts are opened, the returns start rolling in. Some 10 percent of all holiday purchases are returned, a percentage that often triples when it comes to purchases made online. Holiday sales, excluding autos, gasoline and restaurants, could bring November’s and December’s total to $655.8 billion, which means that retailers can conservatively expect nearly $66 billion in goods to be returned.

Roughly 109 million people shopped online during Thanksgiving weekend, compared to the 99 million consumers who shopped in stores. However, consumers opt to return in-store at an extremely high rate — at J.C. Penney, the WSJ reported, more than 90 percent of online returns are done in physical retail locations.

10 percent | Holiday purchases from physical stores that are returned

3x | Rate of returns from online purchases compared to physical

$655.8 billion | The National Retail Federation’s estimate for holiday sales excluding auto, gas and restaurants

$66 billion | Conservative estimated value of returns retailers can expect

109 million | Number of Thanksgiving weekend online shoppers

99 million | Number of Thanksgiving weekend in-store shoppers

90 percent | Rate of online returns to physical retail locations