Why are affluent consumers more likely to return their purchases?

Consumers with higher incomes are more likely to return purchases than lower- or middle-income shoppers, according to a new report by the Bank of America Institute.

Higher-income households had the most retail refunds (5.3% of their 2025 purchases), while lower-income households had the least (3.7%).

The report said that while shoppers nationwide love the flexibility of returning what they’ve bought—76% consider “free returns” an important factor in where they shop—the practice is wreaking havoc on retailers, who lost $890 billion from returns alone last year, according to the National Retail Federation.

In fact, return rates have more than doubled since 2019 among large retailers.

These return costs come at a time when retailers are already struggling due to inflation, higher prices, changing consumer habits, tariffs, and overall economic uncertainty—all of which have many Americans buying less.

Why are the wealthiest shoppers more likely to send things back?

One reason “may be that higher-income households are less cash-constrained and so are more likely to buy items speculatively when they are searching for a particular purchase, in the knowledge they can return it later if they decide it’s not right for them,” according to the BoA report.

Returns to department stores were particularly high, with wealthier shoppers returning a whopping 20% of purchases, compared with lower-income shoppers who only returned 11%.

What generation makes the most returns?

Boomers (the wealthiest generation), Gen Xers, and millennials all currently send items back at around 16%, whereas those born before 1945, called traditionalists or the Silent Generation, are at 15% and Gen Zers at 10%.

Gen Z returns goods at lower rates than other generations, except when it comes to electronics. Gen Zers typically have a lower net worth than previous generations do at the same age, due to inflation, student-loan debt, and the fact that they are buying homes later in life.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jennifer Mattson is a Contributing Writer at Fast Company, where she covers news trends and writes daily about business, technology, finance and the workplace.. She is a former network news producer for CNN, CNN International and a number of public radio programs.

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