Prime members return purchases more, and more efficiently

Product returns are a long-standing issue at Amazon and virtually all other e-retailers. We’ve analyzed how Amazon handles this before, showing over half of Amazon customers rarely or never return purchases.

Not surprisingly, as the most active Amazon shoppers, Prime members are the most active returners, too. Fortunately for Amazon, they help by returning products in ways that cost Amazon the least to process.

About one-quarter of Prime members returned an Amazon purchase in the past three months, compared to only 10% of non-Prime customers (Chart 1). While over half of non-Prime members have never returned a purchase, only a little more than one-third of Prime members report never returning a purchase.