Holiday Returns Cost 15% of Revenue. Clienteling Can Prevent This.

Discover clienteling tactics to reduce returns through appointments, lookbooks, and personalized messaging that builds confidence before purchase.

Written by

Robert Woo, Writer @ Endear

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Every year, the holiday season ends the same way. The decorations come down. The inbox floods with “New Year, New You” subject lines. And retailers brace themselves for the least festive tradition of all: returns season.

According to Adobe, as much as 15% of holiday purchases are returned in the weeks following the holidays. For most retailers, that’s not just a rounding error, but a meaningful chunk of revenue quietly walking back through the door, often in less-than-resellable condition, carrying real consequences for margins, inventory flow, and let’s be honest here: operational sanity.

But the real cost of returns isn’t just financial. It’s relational. Something went wrong between the retailer and the customer. And that breakdown is often overlooked, even if it could be the most consequential result of holiday returns. Because a return doesn’t just say “this didn’t fit.” It moreover implies “this didn’t meet my expectations.”

And expectations before the sale are where clienteling comes in.

Returns Are the Aftermath of a Missed Conversation

Returns are usually treated like a logistics problem that’s a natural consequence of a busy holiday season. Basically, the sentiment is that they’re inevitable and it’s just a matter of dealing with the busywork that comes with them.

But underneath all of that is a much simpler story: the customer and the product never fully understood each other. Maybe the fit wasn’t right. Maybe the fabric felt different than expected. Maybe it looked great online but didn’t feel great in real life. Maybe it was purchased with optimism, ambition, or gifting pressure rather than clarity of purpose: will I really wear this sundress come Spring?

Returns are the result of uncertainty in the customer browsing and shopping experience, which is usually a failure in the brand’s ability to offer great clienteling solutions. After all, the definition of clienteling is providing a personalized shopping experience that feels like a white-glove concierge service. The customer shouldn’t end up returning an item because they should have known exactly what they were getting, how it looks and fits IRL, and how the item can become an integral part of their wardrobe.

A return means all this didn’t happen.

Easy Returns Matter, But They’re Not the Main Goal

Research consistently shows that customers value easy returns. When brands reduce friction in the returns process, shoppers feel safer purchasing, more trusting, and more likely to buy again. According to UPS: “40% of retailers agree that improving the returns experience leads to increased spending with their brand.” Additionally, IMGR reports that 92% of customers who receive a smooth returns process are likely to buy from you again.

That’s clearly important, and no one is arguing against easy returns. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: even the easiest return means the initial purchase missed the mark. That’s because no one wakes up excited to print a return label. No one thinks, “I can’t wait to repackage this item and haul it back to the store.” Easy returns soften the disappointment, but they don’t erase it.

So while making returns painless matters, the better goal is reducing unnecessary returns through better guidance upfront, especially after the holiday shopping season when return rates spike.

The Holiday Effect: Why Returns Spike So Hard

Holiday shopping creates the perfect storm for returns. People buy outside their usual categories. They shop on tighter timelines. They buy gifts for others, guessing on size, taste, and lifestyle. They purchase aspirational items for future versions of themselves who host dinner parties, attend formal events, or suddenly love tailoring.

And just like all those holiday calories finally mattering, January is when reality checks the receipts on all those purchases.

But the same forces that drive holiday returns exist all year long. The holidays just amplify them. According to the National Retail Federation, “retailers expect 15.8% of their annual sales will be returned this year, which translates to about $849.9 billion.” That’s the sum total of year-round returns. And that’s why the lesson of mitigating holiday returns matters well beyond January. It’s a preview of the retail challenges brands will continue to face throughout 2026.

So what can brands do to reduce the amount of returns they see for the rest of the year?

Clienteling Is a Retailer’s Best Preventative Medicine for the Returns Problem

At its core, clienteling is simple: people buy better when they feel understood. So when associates have the tools to build real relationships, including easy ways to remember preferences, understand intent, and communicate proactively, customers stop guessing. And when customers stop guessing, returns drop.

The right clienteling platform can help your team get it right the first time with the customer:

Appointments: Confidence Is the Best Anti-Return Policy

One of the most effective ways to reduce returns is also one of the most human: talking to someone before buying.

Appointments change the tone of shopping immediately. Instead of browsing aimlessly or panic-buying, customers enter a guided experience. They talk through what they need, where they’ll wear it, how they like things to fit, and what they already own. Suddenly, the associate isn’t just selling to the customer, but making informed purchases with the customer.

This matters because so many returns stem from misalignment, not dissatisfaction. The product wasn’t “bad.” It just wasn’t right. Maybe she didn’t consider that the rest of her wardrobe wasn’t set up to style with the new item. Maybe she was overly enthusiastic about the BOGO deal and not considering that it’s the wrong tone for her skin.

Whatever it is, an actual dialog that comes from virtual or in-person appointments helps customers land on the right choice the first time, rather than ordering multiple options with the intention of returning most of them later. That behavior may feel harmless to the customer, but at scale, it’s incredibly costly to retailers.

A short conversation upfront can eliminate weeks of reverse logistics later.

Lookbooks: Setting Expectations Before the Box Arrives

Another major driver of returns is expectation mismatch. Customers often think they know exactly what they’re buying… until it arrives. As great as their smartphone screens are, an image of a product can often be quite different from the product when it’s unboxed at home.

Lookbooks (we call them Shoppable Stories) help close that gap. Instead of showing products in isolation, they show them in context. Your style associate can take video or pictures of each item in different light, matched with different outfits, and worn in different ways. These lookbooks are also dialogues where the customer can ask for specifics that can help them better visualize how the new piece might fit their current stable of items.

A lookbook answers questions customers didn’t even know they had. How formal is this really? How does it move? What kind of shoe does this want? Is this an everyday piece or a special-occasion one? That’s why we call these lookbooks Stories, because this feature helps tell the full story of the pieces in the context of the shoppers’ lives. And when customers can see themselves in the product before purchasing, there’s far less room for disappointment after delivery.

This is especially powerful during the holidays, when shoppers are often buying unfamiliar styles, gifting items, or shopping quickly. But again, the benefit doesn’t disappear in February. Clarity scales year-round.

Messaging: The Questions Customers Almost Ask

Some of the most preventable returns come from unasked questions.

Is it sheer?
Does it stretch?
Is this forgiving or fitted?
Would you wear this to work, or is it more weekend?

Customers often hesitate to ask because they don’t want to slow themselves down or feel uncertain. Endear’s messaging features remove that friction. It keeps the conversation open before and after purchase, so questions don’t turn into regret.

When customers feel supported, they don’t feel like they’re buying alone. And buying alone is when people hedge their bets, often by ordering more than they need and returning what they don’t want. Free shipping and returns only makes this approach more common, making returns a giant headache for the retailer.

Better conversations replace hedging, and leads to fewer returns.

When Returns Still Happen: The Relationship Opportunity

Clienteling is the best strategy to prevent returns and help your shoppers buy with confidence.

But when an issue does arise, clienteling can also step in to save the day. It's not about damage control. It's about turning every return into a relationship opportunity.

The stores that win returns season don't just make the process frictionless. They catch issues early with proactive check-ins before customers have mentally committed to returning. They train associates to build customer rapport during in-store returns. They follow up afterward with personalized recommendations instead of letting the relationship end with a refund.

When handled this way, returns stop being revenue walking out the door and start becoming the foundation for repeat purchases.

Less Uncertainty. Fewer Returns. More Loyalty.

Easy returns build trust. Great clienteling builds loyalty.

When customers trust that an associate understands their style, their lifestyle, and their preferences, they shop differently. They buy with confidence. They return less. And they come back more often.

They stop treating shopping like a trial-and-error exercise and start treating it like a relationship, and relationships that are resilient. So even when purchases don’t work out perfectly, and they sometimes will despite the best efforts of your team, it’ll be a blip on the radar instead of a deal-breaker for the client.

Clienteling doesn’t just reduce returns. It helps retailers learn why returns happen in the first place and fix the root causes. That insight becomes even more valuable in 2026, as retailers navigate tighter margins, more discerning customers, and less tolerance for waste.

So your holiday returns may peak in January, but they reveal a year-round truth: returns are the cost of uncertainty. Clienteling reduces uncertainty by replacing silence with conversation, guessing with guidance, and transactions with trust.

Because the best return policy isn’t the one that’s easiest. It’s the one customers rarely need to use.

Turn Returns Into Revenue: Get the Cheat Sheet

Download our free Returns Playbook for message templates to catch issues early, in-store scripts to handle returns like relationship moments, and follow-up strategies that convert returns into repeat purchases.

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