Appriss Retail Benchmark Report Uncovers $796B in Total Retail Loss

Industry-changing data finds 21% of retail loss is preventable, including $86 billion lost to returns abuse, 6X more than returns fraud

IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Appriss Retail, the total loss solution provider for omnichannel retailers, today released The 2026 Total Retail Loss Benchmark Report, the first benchmark study to connect shrink, fraud, returns abuse, and operational leakage into one enterprise-wide view, totaling $796 billion lost to returns and shrink in 2025. The report studies returns and shrink from both the consumer’s and retailer’s perspectives by surveying more than 1,000 consumers and analyzing in-store and online returns across 250 million unique customer identifiers.

Expanding on Appriss Retail’s longstanding Consumer Returns Report, the benchmark study provides retail executives with a credible way to compare and prioritize loss drivers, emphasizing that total loss is a company-wide problem, requiring collaboration across teams in loss prevention, finance, operations, and customer experience. Key findings and action items from the report include:

• $706 billion in total merchandise was returned in 2025; of that total, 14.2% or $100 billion was preventable loss from fraud and abuse.
• 12% of returns-related loss was attributed to returns abuse, while fraud made up only 2%.
• $90 billion in losses due to shrink, 73% of which was preventable due to employee theft ($26 billion), inventory errors ($19 billion), operational errors ($12 billion), and organized retail crime ($9 billion).

“Returns overwhelmingly power the majority of financial loss that retailers endure,” said Michael Osborne, CEO of Appriss Retail. “Every dollar lost to returns is a dollar straight off the bottom line. To stop the bleeding, leaders must look at returns, fraud, and shrink through the lens of Total Retail Loss, build a system of collaboration, and implement cross-functional muscle. Retailers that continue to work in silos will continue to erode profits.”

Omnichannel Returns Data: Visibility Matters

Central to the report is returns data, and the study identifies why siloed data costs retailers billions. Case in point: Retailers lost $4 billion to cross-channel fraud from BORIS (buy online, return in-store).

Visibility across channels is imperative for retailers to cut down on losses. The data shows a breakdown of the $706 billion in total returns:

• $367 billion (52%) from BISRIS (buy in-store, return in-store), still the dominant channel.
• $208 billion (29%) from BORIS (buy online, return in-store), representing the fastest-growing fraud and abuse vector.
• $131 billion (19%) from BORO (buy online, return online).

Consumer Survey Insights: AI-Powered Decisions Can Improve Margins and Loyalty

The 2026 Total Retail Loss Benchmark Report also provides detailed survey results on consumer preferences when returning goods, what impacts their loyalty, and their feelings of AI being used in the returns process. What’s found is that data analytics and AI, when used as a precision tool and not a blunt instrument, can warn shoppers engaging in abuse patterns without losing them entirely. The data reveals:

• 90% of consumers will buy again after receiving a warning, saving retailers $75 billion in retained revenue.
• 80% of consumers in the survey want transparency in how AI makes return decisions.
• 71% trust human associates more than AI for approvals; only 10% trust AI outright.

Retailers with unified omnichannel data and clear communication paths can confidently use AI to identify abuse patterns, warn repeat offenders, and approve legitimate returns, all without doing harm to loyal shoppers.

To see more results and learn more on how to build a complete view of total loss, Appriss Retail has released the study as an interactive online report.

For more information on how Appriss Retail helps retailers reduce returns, fight abuse, and protect profits, schedule a meeting.

About Appriss Retail

Appriss Retail is the total retail loss solution for omnichannel retail, unifying high-quality data across stores, online, and customer service to reduce returns, cut shrink, and manage incidents. Our products — Engage to reduce returns, Secure to cut shrink, and Incident to centralize visibility — help retailers move from reactive loss control to strategic profit protection. Together, they empower organizations to make better operations decisions, strengthen accountability, and put hundreds of millions back to the bottom line. Covering 40% of all U.S. transactions and active in 45 countries, Appriss Retail is trusted by 60+ of the top 100 U.S. retailers to deliver lasting performance improvement. Learn more at apprissretail.com.