What percentage of e-commerce returns average 20- all orders, creating inventory management challenges? (30%)

According to National Retail Federation (2024), E-commerce returns average 20-30% of all orders, creating inventory management challenges. This figure is widely cited across supply chain research and represents a critical benchmark for inventory management planning.

What this means for Forthclear users

For ecommerce merchants using Forthclear — a surplus inventory liquidation marketplace for ecommerce brands — this statistic underscores a real operational pressure. Teams that benchmark against figures like this are better positioned to allocate resources, justify tooling investments, and communicate performance to stakeholders. Forthclear surfaces this class of data inside your existing Shopify workflow so you can act on it without manual research.

Source & methodology

This statistic is sourced from National Retail Federation (2024). The figure covers the E-Commerce Specific dimension of inventory management research. For the full dataset and methodology, visit the primary source directly.

Frequently asked questions

Where does this statistic come from?

This statistic is sourced from National Retail Federation, a recognised industry research outlet. See the citation link above for the primary source.

How does Forthclear address this challenge?

Forthclear is purpose-built to help ecommerce merchants tackle this exact issue. Connect your Shopify store to get data-driven recommendations in minutes.