E-commerce Returns Analyzer

About the E-commerce Returns Analyzer

Returns eat margin quietly: a refund, a return label, an item that cannot be sold again. This analyzer shows which products come back, why, and what that costs, from the files you already have — an orders file (Shopify’s orders list, WooCommerce’s orders, Amazon’s All Orders report or any orders CSV), a returns or refunds file (Amazon’s FBA customer returns report, your store’s or returns app’s list, or your own sheet) and, if you want the lost stock valued, a cost sheet.

It gives the return rate by product, SKU or variant, size, category, sales channel and month, the refunds, the return shipping and the stock that cannot be sold again, and ranks the products whose returns cost most. Return reasons are grouped into fit (too small, too large), damaged, not as described, late and changed mind, with the original wording kept, and the size view shows which sizes come back as too small or too large. Rates resting on fewer orders than you choose are greyed out, not ranked.

Without a pass the result is a free preview: every order and return is analysed, and the store-wide return rate and every count show in full, with the first rows of each ranking; the Excel action list, the CSV and the copied summary unlock with a Pro pass. Nothing is uploaded.

Common uses

• Finding the products and sizes behind most returns before reordering stock.
• Checking whether a size chart, a photo or a description is sending products back.
• Seeing which sales channel or month returns most, and what returns cost the store.
• An action list for the product team: each product with its main reason and what to look at first.

How the rates are counted

• Return rate = units returned ÷ units sold, for the orders in your orders files. Each return is tied to its order by the order number, then to the order’s line by SKU or product name, so the rate of a product, size, channel or month is about what that line sold.
• Orders with a return = orders with at least one returned unit ÷ orders.
• Refund rate = refunds given ÷ sales of the units sold. A return without an amount takes the price of its order line.
• Returns of orders that are not in your orders files (older orders) are left out of the rates and counted apart; returns without any order number are counted by product against what the orders files sold of it.
• Test, cancelled, voided and unpaid-checkout orders and gift-card lines are left out, as in the order profit analyzer.

Reason groups

• Fit: too small — “too small”, “too tight”, “runs small”; Fit: too large — “too big”, “too loose”, “runs large”; Fit: other — “doesn’t fit”, “wrong size”.
• Damaged or faulty — damaged, defective, broken, faulty, “doesn’t work”, missing parts.
• Not as described or wrong item — “not as described”, “not as pictured”, a wrong item or colour, poor quality, not compatible.
• Arrived late — late, delayed, a missed delivery date. Changed mind — “no longer needed”, “ordered by mistake”, “found a better price”, an unwanted item.
• Shopify’s own reasons are read as they are written: “Size was too small”, “Size was too large”, “Damaged or defective”, “Item not as described”, “Received the wrong item”, “Customer changed their mind”, and “Style” and “Color” (the shopper did not like them) as a changed mind.
• Everything else is other; a return with no reason (or “Unknown”) is no reason given. The reason column decides before the customer’s comment, which counts only when there is no reason. Reasons written as codes in capitals with underscores, as marketplace reports write them, are read as words. The groups read English; the original wording is always kept beside them.

What returns cost

• Lost to returns = return shipping + the cost of the units that cannot be sold again + a handling cost per return if you set one. A return is one order’s items sent back on the same day, so a return shipping or handling cost you type is counted once for it, however many items it holds. A refund on its own is not counted as lost: the item comes back and can be sold again — unless its condition says otherwise.
• Cannot be sold again comes from a condition, disposition or restock column, such as the detailed-disposition of Amazon’s FBA returns report: SELLABLE counts as sellable, and a disposition that says damaged, defective or expired (CUSTOMER_DAMAGED, DEFECTIVE, EXPIRED …) does not; words such as “unopened”, “restocked”, “damaged” or “opened” are read too. Returns without a condition are counted as unknown.
• Products are ranked by what their returns lose; when the files give no return shipping and no costs, by the refunds given.

Sizes

Sizes are found in the variant of each line — “M / Black”, “XL”, “EU 42”, “32W x 30L”, “2-3Y” — or in a size column of the orders, returns or cost sheet. The size view lists every size in size-chart order with its units sold, returned and the returns marked too small or too large.

Limitations

• Reasons are grouped by words in English and Amazon’s reason codes; reasons in other languages fall under “other”, with their wording kept.
• Returns are tied to orders by order number: when your returns file has none, its rates by month and channel are approximate.
• Amounts are added in the currency most of your orders use; returns in other currencies count in the rates only.
• An analysis of your own files: what to change in a product is your call.

Privacy

On this device; its files download once

Your orders, returns and costs are read in this browser and never uploaded; only your settings are remembered on this device.