12 October 2026

Do Size Charts Reduce Returns? What the Data Actually Says

Short answer: Probably, for some returns, but nobody has a reliable number. Size and fit is the top reason shoppers and sellers give for online clothing returns, and most apparel sites do not give enough sizing information. A clear, product-specific size chart fixes the information gap. It cannot fix fit preference, fabric feel, or bracketing on its own.

How big is the returns problem?

US returns overall (NRF / Happy Returns 2025)

The National Retail Federation and Happy Returns “2025 Retail Returns Landscape” (press release 15 Oct 2025) projects:

• $849.9 billion in total US retail returns in 2025
• 15.8% of annual sales returned (compared with 16.9% and $890 billion in 2024)
• An estimated 19.3% of online sales returned in 2025

These are US figures across all retail, not apparel only. Say so when you share them with a team or investor.

Why apparel is different

Clothes are hard to buy without trying them on. Shoppers guess at fit from photos, a size label, and whatever chart you show. When that information is thin or wrong, “wrong size” becomes a common return reason. That does not mean every apparel return is a chart problem. Preference, fabric, colour, and quality still drive returns even when the table is perfect.

Apparel also stacks costs beyond the refund: return shipping, inspection, restocking, and sometimes unsellable goods. Coresight’s suggested fixes are fit technology such as virtual try-on and size recommenders. The case for charts is narrower: they fix a missing-information gap on pages you already own.

Why shoppers return clothes for size

What shoppers say (Rithum 2025, IMRG 2026)

In Rithum’s 2025 Global Returns and Profit Impact Report (published 15 May 2025), 61% of consumers said wrong size or fit was the top reason they returned clothing or shoes. The survey covered more than 6,000 consumers in the US, Canada, the UK, France and Germany. Rithum sells ecommerce software and commissioned the survey. It does not name the research firm or the survey dates.

In the UK, IMRG and nShift’s “The Ecommerce Returns Opportunity” surveyed 1,000 UK consumers in April 2026. According to nShift’s summary of the report, fit was the most common return reason at 57.6%, ahead of poor quality (50.8%) and damaged items (45.9%). This covers all online purchases, not only clothes, and nShift sells returns software.

Read these carefully: they are shares of shoppers who named fit as a reason, not the share of returned items.

What sellers report (Coresight, 2023)

Coresight Research, “The True Cost of Apparel Returns” reports an online B2B survey of 100 decision-makers at US apparel brands and retailers (survey conducted 6 Mar 2023, published 4 Apr 2023, ±10% margin of error, sponsored by 3DLOOK). Size/fit was the top reason for online apparel returns, cited by 53% of respondents, followed by colour (16%) and damage (10%).

Word that carefully: 53% of surveyed retailers named size/fit as the top reason. Do not write “53% of returns are due to size.” That is a common misquote of the same survey. This is still the most recent retailer survey on return reasons we could find, so treat it as 2023 data.

Missing or confusing size info (Baymard)

Baymard Institute reports that 82% of apparel sites in its UX benchmark do not provide sufficient sizing information (article updated 25 Feb 2025). Its earlier sizing study (Jul 2022) put the figure at 83% of desktop and 87% of mobile sites. In Baymard’s testing, uncertainty about sizing was a common reason users abandoned a product. If shoppers cannot answer “will this fit?” they leave, or they order and return.

Sizes are not standard across brands

Standards for how to measure bodies exist, for example ISO 8559-1:2017 (body measurement definitions) and related size-designation work such as EN 13402 in Europe. Brands still grade their own sizes. “Size M” on one label is not the same as “size M” on another. A chart that shows your measurements for this product type beats a generic industry table every time.

Bracketing

Bracketing means ordering two (or more) sizes on purpose and returning the ones that do not fit. In the NRF and Happy Returns 2025 report (surveys run Aug to Sep 2025), 36% of US shoppers who had returned an online purchase said they had bracketed in the past year, rising to 53% of Gen Z. Large US retailers in the same report said 23% of purchases in the last year included a bracketed item, rising to 26% in apparel and footwear. Among retailers dealing with bracketing, 41% are adding more sizing information to discourage it, and 37% add model sizing and fit notes. Rithum’s 2025 survey also found that 36% of consumers across five countries admitted to bracketing. A size chart can reduce honest uncertainty. It will not stop every shopper who wants to try two sizes at home.

What a good size chart can fix

Missing measurements

If the product page has no chest, waist, hip, or garment length, shoppers guess. Add the measurements that matter for that product type.

The wrong unit or the wrong country’s sizes

Shoppers abroad need cm and inches, and often US / UK / EU labels. Baymard recommends both units and international conversions where relevant. Put the conversions next to the chart, not on a separate help page shoppers never open.

A generic chart on the wrong product type

One “unisex apparel” table on jeans, bras, and sneakers creates false confidence. Use one chart per fit block (for example men’s regular-fit tees), then assign it to the right products. See different size charts per product, or start from the templates hub.

No “how to measure” help

A table without “measure yourself like this” still leaves doubt. Short measuring notes (or a simple diagram) cut “I measured wrong” returns.

What a size chart can’t fix

A clear chart will not fix:

• Fit preference (“I wanted oversized”)
• Fabric stretch and feel after wear
• Colour or quality mismatch
• Deliberate bracketing

Some apps add size recommenders or fit quizzes for those cases. Honest Size Charts & Guides does not. It shows clear charts in a popup or inline on the product page, and does not include a size recommender. If you need a recommender, compare options fairly in our best Shopify size chart apps roundup. Size tools are not a sure fix either. A 2025 study in the Journal of Innovation & Knowledge looked at 496,365 items bought on a Swedish high-end fashion platform between 2015 and 2022. Shoppers who used its size finder were 0.65% more likely to return an item, although those customers were worth more over time.

How to measure your own size-related returns in Shopify

You do not need a published industry percentage for your store. Measure your own baseline:

1. In Shopify admin (or your returns app), look at return reasons for a recent period.
2. Separate too small from too large (and “wrong size” if that is how reasons are labelled in your setup). Exact label names vary by Shopify version and returns app, so use whatever size-related reasons you actually see.
3. Tag or note the top returned products by SKU or handle.
4. After you improve a chart, compare the same reasons for those products over a similar window.

If size-related reasons do not drop after a chart change, the problem may be grading, photos, or fit notes rather than “missing a table.”

A 30-day plan to cut size-related returns

Week 1: Audit. List the ten products with the most size-related returns. Open each product page. Note whether a chart exists, whether it matches that product type, and whether the link sits near the size selector.

Week 2: Re-measure. Measure sample garments (or bodies, if that is how you grade) for those SKUs. Replace guessed numbers. Starting tables live in the templates hub.

Week 3: One chart per fit block. Merge duplicates. Assign by product, collection, tag, or vendor in Honest Size Charts (Free: 3 published charts; Pro: $8.99/month or $89/year). Setup steps: how to add Honest Size Charts.

Week 4: Fit notes and review. Add short “runs small / true to size / relaxed” notes where returns show a pattern. In Zalando’s 2017 A/B tests (SizeFlags, arXiv 2106.03532), showing that advice cut size-related returns by 3.8% for shoes and 4.3% to 6.6% for textiles (relative). In a newer Zalando A/B test (Nov 2023 to Jan 2024, published as MultiFlags at KDIR 2025), adding flags to textile items that the older system had not flagged cut the size-related return rate by 4.5% (relative). That test had more than 132,000 customers per group. The same test saw 4.4% more orders with several sizes of one item, so flags do not end bracketing. Both were data-driven systems, not hand-written notes, but they support flagging items that run small or large. Re-check return reasons. Spot-check the popup on mobile.

What we will not claim

You will see blog posts that say size charts “cut returns by 30%” or that “53-70% of returns are size-related.” We could not trace those ranges to a primary study. Survey figures such as Rithum’s 61% (2025) and Coresight’s 53% (2023) count how many shoppers or retailers named size/fit as their top reason, not the share of returned items. Academic work such as SizeFlags (arXiv 2106.03532) and MultiFlags (KDIR 2025) is Zalando’s item-level “too small / too big” size advice built from return data, not a plain measurement table. Related research is fine to mention; it is not a size-chart ROI number.

If a vendor promises a return-rate drop without sharing method and sample, treat it as marketing.

FAQ

See the FAQ block below for quotable answers on returns data, chart contents, bracketing, and how to know if a chart is working.

Fix the information gap first: clear, product-specific charts on every product page. Install on Shopify.

Next: Size chart vs size guide · Templates · How to add a size chart · Pricing