Why Do Consumers Return Products in E-Commerce? Evidence from Online Review Analysis

Product returns have become a critical challenge in e-commerce, affecting operational efficiency, costs, and customer satisfaction. This study adopts a data-driven approach to examine the drivers of product returns using consumer-generated online reviews. A publicly available dataset was filtered to identify return-related reviews, from which 400 samples were analyzed. The study employs thematic analysis to identify key return drivers and complements it with sentiment analysis based on review ratings. The findings reveal five primary drivers of product returns: defective or damaged products, size and fit issues, expectation mismatch, poor product quality, and return/refund process-related concerns. The results highlight that return behaviour is influenced by both operational inefficiencies and perceptual gaps between expectations and actual product performance. Sentiment analysis indicates a strong dominance of negative emotions associated with return experiences. The study provides actionable insights for e-commerce firms to reduce return rates through improved product representation, quality control, and return policy design.