Return Rate Cost Calculator

About this calculator

Every returned item costs an ecommerce or retail business more than just the refunded price — there's reverse logistics (return shipping), inspection and restocking labor, repackaging, and sometimes the item can't be resold at full price at all. Industry estimates put average return processing costs at a meaningful chunk of the original order value, on top of the refund itself.

This calculator adds up the total cost of returns from the number of units returned, the unit cost, and a per-return processing cost, giving ecommerce operators and retail finance teams a clearer number than “return rate percentage” alone for deciding whether a product's return volume is eating into its margin.