New ESW Global Voices Survey indicates inconvenience, excessive cost, and sustainability as top concerns

As post-Christmas returns skyrocketed in January and February, due to the explosion in ecommerce sales globally, Gen Z and Millennial consumers are now the most likely demographics to choose not to return unwanted items, the latest data from ESW, the global DTC ecommerce leader, reveals.

ESW’s ‘Global Voices: 2022’ survey of more than 14,000 consumers across fourteen countries shows that while Gen Z and Millennial shoppers combined comprise 60% of cross-border shoppers globally, 56% admitted they had made purchases from internationally based retailers that they ultimately didn’t want but chose not to return, saying the process was inconvenient (35%), expensive (34%), and bad for the environment (20%). Additional reasons cited for not returning items included insignificant item cost (28%), an unclear returns policy (26%) and a lack of local collection points (21%).

Geographically, the markets where consumers overall were most likely to avoid returns were China (67%), India (64%) and UAE (64%), with women being 13% less likely to return unwanted items than men.