The part that doesn't make the headlines
Return rates for online purchases hit 16.9% in 2024, and they climb during sale events. Items bought on impulse are significantly more likely to come back than ones bought with intention. Not because people are careless, but because a lower price makes it easier to say yes before the thinking catches up. 🔗 NRF ReturnPro Returns Report 2025
The average American spends $314 on impulse purchases every month. Much of it during sale events. Most of it is on things that get used once, sit in a drawer for a year, and quietly disappear.🔗 LendingTree Emotional Shopping Study
Around 25% of returned goods end up in landfill. Not because they're broken. Just because the economics of repackaging and restocking don't always work out. The return feels like the responsible move. For a quarter of those items, it doesn't quite land that way. 🔗 Optoro: Think Before You Return That Gift
None of this is about guilt. Everyone buys something impulsively sometimes, Prime Day or not.
It's just useful context for the moment before checkout. The things that tend to hold up after the sale ends are the ones that were already part of the routine before it started. The restock that was coming anyway. The replacement for something already worn out. The item that earns its place every single day.
Those purchases feel different on Saturday morning. Quietly right, rather than quietly regretted.
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