New data from Paymentsense has discovered just how much small businesses have to fork out each year in refunds to customers.
It has been reported that pre-pandemic shoppers were returning a huge £7 billion purchases every year. On top of this, cash use declined by 60%, and Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) adoption grew by 39% since the start of the year, set to double by 2023.
Small businesses are at most at risk, being hit with up to £1,000 of fraudulent refunds per MONTH. Bolton businesses refunded the most to customers per month, averaging total returns of £1.3k.
The fintech company analysed their own data from over 80,000 businesses in the UK to discover which industries and cities across the UK refunded transactions the most.
The hotel industry is one of THE biggest for serial refunding!
The data has shown that shoppers who were refunding the most from hotel businesses were refunding up to an average of £672 a month. Healthcare unsurprisingly experienced the least returns, with businesses in this sector averaging just shy of £120 in refunds per month during Coronavirus.
The top 10 small business industries shoppers refunded from in 2020!
| Rank | Industry | Amount refunded Per Month |
| 1. | Home Furnishings | £787 |
| 2. | Hotels | £672 |
| 3. | Hospitality | £604 |
| 4. | Retail | £413 |
| 5. | Garden & DIY | £399 |
| 6. | Automotive | £333 |
| 7. | Business services | £238 |
| 8. | Professional services | £238 |
| 9. | Clothing | £215 |
| 10. | Healthcare | £118 |
Jon Knott, Head of Customer Insights at Paymentsense said:
“With the pandemic still restricting access to high street stores, consumers have turned to online shopping. With this increase, naturally, we’ve seen more refunds.
Many e-commerce retailers have made their returns process easier– through couriers, drop off points and signing up to Buy Now, Pay Later schemes. So shoppers could be buying more, knowing that they can send items back at the click of a button.
However, refunding isn’t without its pitfalls. Shoppers need to be aware that refunds aren’t processed and deposited straight away. It’s always worth giving a company’s refund policy a read before purchasing, to avoid overspending before payday, or being left with unwanted vouchers.”