Back-to-school concentrates a high volume of orders into just a few weeks, along with two of ecommerce's biggest challenges: sizing-related returns and the pressure to deliver on time. In this article, we look at how to reduce returns before purchase, protect your orders against loss or damage, and improve tracking, exchanges and refunds to be better prepared for the November peak in returns.

Back to school in ecommerce: what breaks at each point of the journey

Every year, once August arrives, most ecommerce teams already have their heads in Black Friday and Christmas, treating back-to-school as a warm-up before the real sales peak.

That's a perspective mistake in both the UK and Spain, because back-to-school compresses into barely four weeks the same post-purchase problems that later multiply in November and December: sizing uncertainty in kids' clothing and footwear, high-value electronics purchases made under date pressure, and a delivery expectation that allows no delays, because there's a first day of school that simply can't be postponed.

Whatever gets solved well in this period pays off in customer experience and margin for the rest of the second half of the year, and whatever gets handled badly here repeats itself, at a larger scale, in every peak that follows.

Why does back to school matter for your ecommerce?

In the UK, a back-to-school shop costs families an average of £300 per child this year, 2026, according to Nationwide research reported by Confused.com. On top of that figure comes the uniform, which remains the spending category that worries families most: 47% of parents name it as their main spending concern, according to Save the Children UK's Big Summer Survey 2026. Back-to-school remains, in any case, the second-largest retail event on the British calendar after Christmas.

In Spain, preparing for back-to-school (backpack, school supplies and textbooks) costs an average of €505.16 per student this 2026-2027 school year, up 1% from last year and 19% more expensive than in 2022, according to price analysis from comparison site Idealo. Beyond the shopping basket itself, the school uniform remains the single most expensive line item for families who need one, with an average cost of €234.30 according to the annual report from financial comparison site Banqmi, up 1.97% from the previous school year.

That combination, high volume packed into a few weeks, plus a meaningful share of spending going to tech, is exactly what makes back-to-school a perfect dress rehearsal for Q4 in both markets.

Clothing and footwear remain the highest-volume order category, but electronics is what drives the highest average order value of the whole campaign. In other words, the same few weeks bring together fashion's classic problem, sizing uncertainty, with electronics' classic problem, order value and the risk that something goes wrong in shipping.

Few moments in the year force an ecommerce to have both problems solved at once.

How many returns does back to school generate?

The underlying problem hasn't changed in recent years, but it has intensified. Online fashion returns in the UK run in a range of 20% to 40% depending on category, and within that range the dominant cause remains the same: fit and sizing account for, according to industry benchmarks compiled by Richpanel using NRF data, roughly half of all fashion returns.

In footwear, the figure is even more decisive: several studies focused specifically on shoes put the weight of fit and sizing well above that of fashion in general.

On top of that is a behavior that has become the norm among online shoppers: bracketing, meaning ordering the same item in two or three sizes with the intention of keeping only one. A UK-specific fashion market survey reported by Just Style confirms the pattern on the ground, with 40% of bracketing shoppers ordering multiple sizes of the same product outright. The same survey points to the root of the problem: one in ten shoppers say they routinely return fashion items due to poor sizing, and more than a quarter would outright want a universal sizing system across brands.

In Spain, the pattern is just as pronounced. According to the ZigZag and Retail Economics study, online returns in Spain reached €13.3 billion in 2025, with clothing (31%) and footwear (27%) as the categories with the highest return rates, followed by electronics (23%).

25% of Spanish online shoppers bracket-shop, a figure that rises to 35% among Gen Z, and the study also identifies two buyer profiles that disproportionately drive the problem: repeat returners (11% of consumers, 23% of returns) and late returners (14% of consumers, 24% of returns).

The bottom-line impact is just as concrete in both markets. Handling a return carries a reverse-logistics cost that, according to industry benchmarks compiled by Eightx using data from nShift, Landmark Global and Savills, runs between £10 and £25 per return before even factoring in the item's value, and that in fashion and footwear can end up representing 20% to 40% of the product's price once markdown-driven margin loss is added in.

How does each stage of the purchase get affected?

How do you prevent size-related returns before purchase?

Formal clothing with no room for error, footwear that runs differently across brands and kids' clothing packs bought without trying them on all share one thing: the sizing decision gets made with zero real certainty, and that uncertainty doesn't disappear. It simply shows up later as a return.

Letting shoppers see how a garment looks on their own body before deciding on a size, with virtual try-on tools like Tailor, tackles the problem at the point where it starts, rather than trying to manage the return more efficiently once it has already happened. Various studies on virtual try-on document return reductions of between 25% and 48% when shoppers use the tool before deciding on a size.

Added to this is the conversational assistance layer, which can now resolve in real time and without relying on the customer service team the questions that previously held up purchases, such as which size to choose, how long shipping takes and what happens if the garment needs to be returned or exchanged.

The Tailor AI assistant answers these questions directly within the chat, so shoppers don't have to leave the page to look for answers elsewhere. Once the question is resolved, they can also add the product to their cart within the same conversation.

It is the flip side of the virtual try-on feature. While try-on resolves the visual uncertainty around how a garment fits, the assistant resolves the informational uncertainty around everything else that goes into the purchase decision.

How do you protect high-value orders at checkout?

A €300 electronics order can't be treated at checkout with the same logic as a €15 polo shirt, and back-to-school is precisely the moment when both coexist in the same sales campaign.

Offering shipping protection against loss or damage right at checkout, clearly and without it feeling like a forced upsell, with something like Protect, is what separates a manageable shipping incident from a total loss that also leaves the customer without the laptop they needed for the first day of school.

That same checkout moment is also where sizing uncertainty can be resolved before it turns into a costly return. With Returns Protection, the shopper pays a small fee at the time of purchase in exchange for a free return if they need one; it's an upfront guarantee, and in a campaign like back-to-school, where a share of kids' clothing and footwear orders are almost certain to come back, offering that option solves one of brands' biggest problems: having to choose between looking rigid or losing margin on every size exchange.

How do you resolve delivery-date anxiety after purchase?

Once the order is placed, the question that comes up over and over is always the same: will it arrive on time? That anxiety, if not managed with a clear tracking page, turns into a flood of support tickets right when volume is at its highest.

Smart Tracking solves this with automated notifications the marketing team itself can configure, without depending on a technical support ticket or external tools: triggers get activated for whatever matters to each ecommerce, from shipping status changes to inactivity alerts when a package stalls. And that same tracking page, usually the second-most-visited page in the whole store after the homepage, stops being just status information and becomes a space to recommend other products or show campaign banners, capturing a moment of high attention that most brands today are giving away for free to the carrier's page.

And when the return does happen, because in kids' clothing and footwear a share of orders always comes back, the speed at which the size exchange gets resolved matters almost as much as the size itself: offering an instant exchange or refund, without waiting for the physical package to complete its trip back, with Instant, is what lets a family that needs the right size before Monday avoid abandoning the purchase and going to another brand.

What changes with cross-border purchases?

Timelines double in both directions: the package takes longer to arrive, and if a return is necessary, the return journey and the process of getting funds back into the customer's account takes even longer. That extra waiting period is, in itself, a reason not to shop again with a brand that ships from abroad.

With Atlas, tariffs and duties are clearly displayed at checkout, so international customers know the exact total cost before confirming their order, eliminating cost surprises upon delivery. Furthermore, when an order is returned, automating communication with customs and carriers cuts re-importation costs by up to 50% and reduces the time customers spend waiting for refunds or exchanges, a factor that heavily influences the decision to shop again with a brand based in another country.

How do you recover the cost of a lost or damaged shipment?

There's one last point worth deliberately setting apart from everything above, because it's not part of what the buyer experiences. It's what happens behind the scenes once the order has already left the warehouse.

In any high-volume peak like back-to-school, a share of shipments gets lost or arrives damaged, and the brand absorbs that cost unless it files a claim with the carrier within the deadline and with the correct documentation.

Automating that claims process with Claims doesn't improve the customer experience. In the best case, the customer never even finds out there was an incident. But it does determine how much of that peak-season margin gets recovered versus simply lost along the way.

In summary

Back-to-school doesn't deserve to be treated as Black Friday's little sibling. It's the first moment of the half-year when an ecommerce can check, with real data and in a short window, whether its buying experience is ready for a true peak: whether the size guide convinces before purchase, whether checkout protects what's most valuable in the cart, whether tracking resolves deadline anxiety without the customer having to ask, and whether the exchange or refund arrives in time to save the sale.

Whatever works here is, almost certainly, the same thing that's going to be needed in November, just with more room to fix it if it doesn't go well the first time.

FAQs

How can online fashion retailers reduce returns caused by sizing issues?

The best way to reduce size-related returns is to help customers choose the right size before they buy. Showing the garment’s actual measurements, demonstrating how it fits on different body types, and answering common questions on the product page can reduce uncertainty. Virtual try-on tools like Tailor let customers see how a garment looks on them before making a decision, helping reduce returns caused by sizing issues.

How can a virtual try-on help shoppers choose the right size?

A virtual try-on allows customers to see how a garment looks on their own body, rather than having to imagine it from a size chart or from how it looks on a model. Tailor offers this experience through photos and videos directly on the product page and works as an independent widget on any online store.

How can retailers protect orders against loss or damage during shipping?

One option is to offer shipping protection at checkout. If an order is lost or arrives damaged, the customer has coverage and the retailer does not have to absorb the full cost of the incident. Protect allows retailers to add this protection as an optional part of the checkout process.

How can retailers reduce “where is my order?” support tickets?

By keeping customers informed throughout the delivery process. In addition to confirming the order and notifying customers when it ships, retailers should communicate status changes, delays, and periods when a package stops moving. Smart Tracking automates these notifications and lets customers check their tracking directly on the retailer’s website, reducing the need to contact support.

How can retailers offer instant exchanges or refunds before receiving a return?

Retailers can offer both exchanges and refunds before physically receiving the returned product. For an exchange, the replacement item can be shipped before the return arrives; for a refund, the customer can receive their money without waiting for the package to reach the warehouse. Instant enables retailers to manage both processes instantly, reducing the wait during the return process.

How can retailers automate claims for lost parcels or manage shipping incidents?

Claims can be automated so the team does not have to handle every incident manually. When a parcel is lost or arrives damaged, Claims identifies the incident, prepares the required documentation, and submits the claim within the relevant deadline. This helps retailers recover money from affected shipments without adding manual work for the team.