Residents of large cities return their online purchases significantly less often than people in smaller towns, a Dutch survey suggests. This raises interesting questions about consumer behaviour.
Depending on city size
In the five largest Dutch cities (Amsterdam, Eindhoven, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht), the return rate for e-commerce purchases is on average 14.6 % lower than the national average. Amsterdam leads the list with 18 % fewer returns than the average, Dutch online department store Wehkamp noted when analysing more than 7.5 million orders.
In medium-sized cities (130,000 to 250,000 inhabitants), the return rate is 6.3 % lower, while in smaller municipalities (12,500 to 40,000 inhabitants) the pattern is the opposite. In municipalities with up to 40,000 inhabitants, there are 5.7 % more returns than the Dutch national average.
Asked for possible explanations, Wehkamp told RetailDetail that people living in cities could be more familiar with their sizes – and with the differences in sizes per brands – as they have more physical stores available. The company added that a first important lesson from this is that awareness around the impact of online purchases may need to be improved in smaller towns.
Depending on product itself
Moreover, the return rate for fashion products is significantly higher, with beachwear and womenswear scoring particularly high in the number of returns. These differences also highlight the need for a targeted approach by product category.
Wehkamp is now investigating how it can optimise concrete information about sizes and product photography to improve the decision-making process for customers, its PR manager Marthijn Tabak adds. “In the coming years, we will continue to invest in data analysis and targeted measures to further reduce returns, especially in smaller municipalities”, COO Frans Falize confirmed to RetailDetail.
