A return is not an order in reverse. It is an order that has already consumed its shipping, its picking and its packaging, and that comes back to consume labour a second time — while the revenue goes back to zero.
This article gives you the six items that make up the real cost of a return, the Belgian legal framework that many shops apply incorrectly — including one rule on return shipping that hangs on a single sentence in your terms and conditions — the return-rate ranges by sector, and what you need to have decided before 20 November if you want to absorb January without losing your margin to it.
One date to anchor the calendar: Black Friday 2026 falls on Friday 27 November. The wave of returns it triggers runs from 26 December to 25 January, with most of the volume in the first three weeks of January. That gap is why returns are prepared in October and endured in January.
The short answer: a return costs more than the order it cancels
Picking and shipping a Belgian e-commerce order costs a few euros: our public rate card starts at €6.23 excl. VAT per order, shipping and pick & pack included. The instinct is to assume a return costs "a bit less", since there is no packaging and no picking. It is the opposite.
An outbound order leaves a known location, in a standard box, on a flow repeated dozens of times a day. A return arrives unannounced, in an unknown condition, and someone has to decide what to do with it — and it is that decision, taken one unit at a time, that is expensive. A properly handled return takes two to three times the operator time of an outbound order.
And operator time is only one item out of six.
The six cost items of a return
| Item | What it represents | The lever |
|---|---|---|
| Lost outbound shipping | The parcel went out, it was paid for, nothing refunds it | Cut returns at source: product pages, size guides, honest photography |
| Delivery costs to refund | The law requires you to refund the outbound delivery cost, not just the price of the item | Do not offer loss-making free delivery on high-return categories |
| Return shipping | The journey back, when you are the one paying for it | One sentence in your terms decides who pays — see below |
| Receiving and inspection | Open, identify, check the condition, photograph disputes, decide where it goes | A returns portal: the item is announced and the reason known before the parcel lands |
| Reconditioning or value loss | Back into A-stock, downgraded to B-stock, or documented destruction | Written grading rules, not a case-by-case judgement call |
| Customer service | The number of exchanges between the return request and the refund | A status the customer can see: every "where is my refund" avoided is margin kept |
The first three items are mechanical: they follow from your commercial policy and your carrier rates. The last three follow from how your warehouse is organised — and that is where the gap opens between a shop that absorbs its returns and a shop that is buried by them.
The most underestimated item is the fifth. An item that comes back and is not restocked within 48 hours during a short season will not sell at full price again: it misses the end of the season and goes into the sale. In fashion logistics, restocking speed is worth more than the handling cost itself.
The Belgian framework: two 14-day deadlines, and one sentence that decides who pays
E-commerce returns in Belgium fall under the right of withdrawal, governed by Book VI of the Code of Economic Law, articles VI.47 to VI.53. Three points account for most of the mistakes.
The two 14-day deadlines — and the third
The customer has 14 calendar days from receiving the goods to notify you of their withdrawal. They then have a further 14 days to send the goods back. On your side, you must refund within 14 days of that notification — but you may withhold the refund until you have received the goods, or until the customer provides proof of dispatch.
The operational consequence is concrete: between an order delivered on 20 December and the return parcel presenting itself at your warehouse, nearly a month can legally elapse. A Christmas order coming back in mid-January is not out of time.
The third deadline is the one nobody wants to discover: if you did not inform the customer of their right of withdrawal before the order, the 14-day window is extended by twelve months. One missing mention in a checkout flow turns two weeks of exposure into a full year.
Who pays the return: the answer hangs on one sentence of your terms
This is the most poorly applied rule in the sector. The direct cost of returning the goods falls on the consumer provided you informed them clearly before the order was concluded. Without that prior information, it stays with you.
In other words: if your terms and conditions say nothing about return costs, the law decides against you. Plenty of shops charge for a return they cannot legally put on the customer — which ends in a dispute, a bad review, and then a refund anyway.
Watch the other direction too: the outbound delivery cost must be refunded, up to the cheapest standard delivery option you offer. If the customer chose express, the supplement stays with them, but the standard rate comes back to you.
The exceptions: what is not returnable
The right of withdrawal does not cover everything. The cases that matter most to Belgian online sellers:
- Sealed goods that cannot be returned for health or hygiene reasons, once the customer has broken the seal. This is the basis of returns policy in cosmetics, perfumery and parapharmacy — provided the seal genuinely exists and is visible.
- Perishable goods, or goods liable to deteriorate rapidly, which covers most food logistics under AFSCA rules.
- Goods made to the customer's specifications or clearly personalised.
- Goods that, after delivery, are inseparably mixed with other items.
These exceptions are not decreed in your terms: they are built in the warehouse. A hygiene seal that is not physically applied at packing cannot be held against the customer. It is a pick & pack decision before it is a legal one.
How many returns to expect in your sector
| Sector | Commonly observed range | What moves it |
|---|---|---|
| Fashion and footwear | 25 to 35 %, above 50 % at some fast-fashion retailers in Germany and the UK | Bracketing: the customer orders two or three sizes intending to send some back |
| Electronics | 10 to 15 % | Compatibility errors, mismatch with the product page, failure on first use |
| Cosmetics and perfumery | Markedly lower, single digits | The sealed-goods exception does the work — when the seal is properly applied |
| Food | Marginal | Perishable: no right of withdrawal, but quality disputes to handle another way |
| All sectors combined | More than 17 % of online sales worldwide | The average tells you nothing useful: your product mix decides |
The number that matters is not your sector average, it is your rate per SKU. In almost every catalogue we see, a handful of SKUs concentrates the majority of returns. Pull or fix three of them — a wrongly stated size, a misleading photo, a missing instruction sheet — and the overall rate moves more than any warehouse optimisation will move it.
The January wave: why it is structural
It is not a quirk of the calendar. It is three mechanisms adding up.
- The legal lag. 14 days to notify, 14 days to send back: a Black Friday purchase delivered in early December can come back in January and stay entirely within the rules.
- Extended return windows. Many shops deliberately stretch the deadline to 31 January to reassure gift buyers. It is a good commercial argument, and it mechanically shifts the load onto three weeks of January.
- The unwanted gift. It is only opened on 25 December. The return journey starts after that, never before.
The result: the period when your warehouse receives the most inbound parcels is also the period when your outbound shipping collapses. It is an inverted capacity problem — and it is exactly why January is also the best window of the year to switch provider: outbound volumes are low, and a provider who can absorb January returns will have proved it in their first month.
What you need to have decided before 20 November
After 20 November nothing gets touched: that is the operational freeze rule before the peak. So everything below is decided in October, alongside your Black Friday preparation.
- The end-of-year return window. Extended to 31 January or not? Write the exact date down, publish it, and tell your warehouse: they are the ones who absorb the consequence.
- Who pays the return. You, the customer, or conditionally above a basket threshold. Whatever the answer, it must be in your terms and conditions in black and white before the first November order.
- The grading rules. Three written destinations, no more: back into A-stock, downgraded to B-stock with its resale channel, documented destruction. Without written rules, every return becomes an individual judgement call — and in January, an individual judgement call is a queue.
- The target restocking time. 24 or 48 hours. On a short season, that deadline decides whether the item sells again at full price.
- The customer entry point. A portal where the customer declares the return and gets their label, rather than an email to customer service. The warehouse then knows what is arriving and why: between an anonymous parcel and an announced return there is half the handling time.
- The alert threshold. The number of returns per day above which you add staff — and who makes that call.
The five mistakes that turn a return into a dead loss
- Handling returns "when there is time". In January there is never time. The stock sleeps, the season moves on, the item ends up in the sale.
- Refunding without inspecting. Tempting for customer satisfaction, expensive as soon as the rate climbs: you lose track of damaged items and you finance abuse.
- Writing nothing about return costs. Silence in your terms does not work in your favour: it puts the cost on you.
- Applying a decorative seal. A seal that cannot be seen, or that can be reapplied without a trace, does not protect the hygiene exception. It must be visible, named on the product page, and physically irreversible.
- Measuring only an overall rate. An overall return rate cannot be fixed. A rate per SKU can.
In summary
A return costs more than the order it cancels, and the difference is made in the warehouse: restocking speed, written grading rules, and knowing the reason before the parcel arrives. The Belgian framework itself fits into three numbers — 14 days to notify, 14 to send back, 14 to refund — and into one sentence of your terms, the one that decides who pays for the return.
We handle returns from our warehouse in Willebroek: a portal in your brand, configurable rules and restocking within 24 h, with no minimum volume and no subscription. Send us your current return rate, your product categories and your monthly volume: within 4 working hours you get a quote and a returns policy ready to publish. Let's talk.
FAQ
How long does a Belgian customer have to return an order?
Two deadlines run one after the other. The customer has 14 calendar days from receiving the goods to notify you of their withdrawal, then a further 14 days to send the goods back. So nearly a month can pass between delivery and the parcel physically coming back. If you did not inform them of that right before the order, the initial period is extended by twelve months.
Who has to pay return shipping in Belgium?
The consumer bears the direct cost of returning the goods on one condition: that you informed them clearly before the order was concluded. If your terms and conditions are silent on the point, the cost stays with you. It is the most common mistake and the easiest to fix: one explicit sentence, published before the first order of the season.
Do I have to refund the outbound delivery cost?
Yes. The refund covers the price of the item and the outbound delivery cost, up to the cheapest standard delivery option you offer. If the customer chose an express option, the supplement stays with them. You must refund within 14 days of the notification, but you may wait until you have received the goods or proof of dispatch.
Which products are not covered by the right of withdrawal?
Mainly sealed goods that cannot be returned for health or hygiene reasons once the seal is broken, perishable goods, personalised or made-to-measure goods, and goods inseparably mixed with others after delivery. The hygiene exception only holds if the seal physically exists and is visible: it is applied at packing, not in your terms and conditions.
What does an e-commerce return really cost?
Six items add up: the lost outbound shipping, the delivery cost to refund, the return shipping if you carry it, receiving and inspection in the warehouse, reconditioning or value loss, and customer-service time. In operator time, a properly handled return represents two to three times an outbound order — more still if the item does not go back into A-stock.
What return rate is normal in my sector?
Fashion and footwear commonly sit between 25 and 35 %, with peaks above 50 % at some fast-fashion retailers in Germany and the UK. Electronics runs around 10 to 15 %. Cosmetics stays in single digits thanks to the sealed-goods exception, and food is marginal. Across all sectors, more than 17 % of online sales come back. But the sector average steers nothing: measure your rate per SKU.
Why do returns mostly arrive in January?
Three mechanisms add up: the two 14-day legal deadlines, which mechanically push a late-November purchase into January; the return windows extended to 31 January that many shops offer for gifts; and the unwanted gift, which is only opened on 25 December. So the peak of inbound parcels falls exactly when your outbound shipping is at its lowest.
Sources
Right of withdrawal in distance selling: Book VI of the Belgian Code of Economic Law, articles VI.47 to VI.53 — see the FPS Economy guidance and its brochure on the right of withdrawal in distance contracts. Return-rate ranges: sector averages published for 2026 (fashion 25-35 %, electronics 10-15 %) and a global estimate of more than 17 % of online sales returned. Commercial date: Black Friday on Friday 27 November 2026.
Written by the Yaslan team, an e-commerce logistics provider based in Willebroek. The operational orders of magnitude come from the return flows we handle; they do not replace having your terms and conditions reviewed by a lawyer.