What Are Product Return Rates at Amazon?

Amazon does not publish a public list of return rates. However, they do publish “Return Rate Thresholds” for third-party sellers.

These thresholds determine when a seller gets charged extra fees for having too many returns. This is effectively the best “official” data available on what Amazon considers a “normal” versus “high” return rate for each category.

Amazon Return Rate Benchmarks (2024–2025 Data)

The following percentages are the specific thresholds Amazon uses. If a product’s return rate is below this number, it is generally considered safe/standard.

High Return Categories (Above 10%)

These categories are the most volatile, often due to sizing, compatibility, or “taste” issues.

• Clothing & Apparel: ~24.5% (Industry avg; Amazon does not cap this with a fee threshold because high returns are expected).
• Bags, Handbags & Luggage: 12.8%
• Compact Appliances: 12.6%
• Eyewear: 12.1%
• Watches: 12.0%
• Computers: 11.4%
• Consumer Electronics: 11.2%
• Jewelry: 10.8%
• Video Game Consoles: 10.7%
• Pet Products: 10.2%
  

Medium Return Categories (6% – 10%)

• Furniture: 9.6%
• Baby Products: 9.3%
• Musical Instruments: 9.2%
• Automotive: 9.1%
• Sports & Outdoors: 8.7%
• Tools & Home Improvement: 8.7%
• Home & Kitchen: 8.1%
• Video Games: 6.5%
  

Low Return Categories (Under 6%)

These are the “safest” categories for sellers and usually indicate high customer satisfaction.

• Office Products: 4.4%
• Toys & Games: 4.7%
• Beauty, Health & Personal Care: 5.5%
• Fine Art: 5.6%
• Books, Media & Music: ~2–5% (Historically the lowest return rate category on Amazon).
  

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Why This Matters to You

Since you have an interest in selling used books and items on Amazon/eBay, this data is favorable for you:

1. Books are “Safe”: Books consistently have one of the lowest return rates (often under 5%) because buyers know exactly what they are getting.
2. The “Frequently Returned” Warning: For buyers, Amazon recently started displaying a “Frequently Returned Item” badge on product pages. This usually triggers when a specific item’s return rate significantly exceeds the category averages listed above (e.g., if a pair of headphones has a 25% return rate when the category average is 11%).
3. New Fees: As of mid-2024, Amazon charges sellers a “Returns Processing Fee” if their products exceed the thresholds listed above. Since you primarily deal with books/used media, you are largely immune to these specific penalty fees.