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Shopify return rate calculator
Enter your numbers for any period to get your return rate, refund rate and the cost of returns. Everything is calculated in your browser. Nothing you type is stored, tracked or sent anywhere.
How each number is calculated
| Result | Formula |
|---|---|
| Return rate | returned orders ÷ total orders × 100 |
| Refund rate | refunds ÷ revenue × 100 |
| Cost of returns | returned orders × average return cost |
Return rate counts orders, so it says how often sales come back. Refund rate counts money, so it says how much revenue you gave back. The two can differ: if customers mostly return cheap items, the return rate can be high while the refund rate stays low.
Cost of returns is the operating cost of handling returns and does not include the refund itself. The line under the results adds refunds and that cost to show the total money going out because of returns. Because your average return cost is an estimate, treat the result as a rough figure.
Worked example
Made-up numbers, to show the arithmetic.
1,000 orders, 80 of them returned, revenue of 60,000, refunds of 4,200 and an average return cost of 6.50.
- Return rate: 80 ÷ 1,000 × 100 = 8.0%
- Refund rate: 4,200 ÷ 60,000 × 100 = 7.0%
- Cost of returns: 80 × 6.50 = 520.00
What these numbers do not tell you
This page does not show industry benchmarks. Return rates vary widely by category, and an average from a different kind of store is rarely a fair comparison. A better yardstick is your own history, tracked period to period.
A rate also does not say why items come back. For that, group returns by product and reason: see how to analyze Shopify return reasons.