ShopRank recently published an analysis of 324,000 new ecommerce stores launched across seven European markets in 2025. Of those, 148,044 chose Shopify, compared to 99,140 on WooCommerce and 9,747 on PrestaShop.
The growth is consistent across every market studied. In the Netherlands, 54% of all new stores launched on Shopify. In Germany, Shopify's share of new stores reached 40.5%, up from 29.1% of the overall installed base. And in the UK, where Shopify was already dominant, it captured 54.9% of new store launches.
What makes the ShopRank data interesting for returns specifically: 52% of new Shopify stores in Europe sell clothing, accessories, or beauty products. These are the categories where return rates are highest. According to the EHI Retail Institute, fashion ecommerce return rates in Germany range between 30% and 50% depending on subcategory. Ingrid's Return Economics 2026 report confirms similar ranges across the UK, with the average return initiation happening within 12.4 days of order placement.
So there's a wave of new European fashion and beauty stores, built on Shopify, entering markets with high return rates – and the vast majority of them have no Shopify returns management infrastructure beyond the default admin.
The gap between checkout and everything after it
Shopify's onboarding experience is excellent. You can go from zero to live store in a weekend. The checkout is world-class. Payment processing is built in. The app ecosystem covers everything from reviews to upsells.
But after the customer places an order, the operational stack thins out quickly. Returns are a good example of this. For a brand doing a few hundred orders a month, handling returns via email or Shopify admin is manageable. Someone on the team processes the return request, creates a label in a separate carrier portal, issues the refund manually, and updates a spreadsheet.
When volume picks up – say 500, 1,000, or 2,000 orders a month – that manual process starts consuming serious time. At GOT BAG, a sustainable accessories brand using 8returns, the team was spending over four hours per day just on returns processing before they automated it. That's not unusual for mid-market DTC brands dealing with fashion or apparel.
The problem goes beyond time. Without a structured returns process, every return defaults to a refund. There's no mechanism to offer an exchange, no path to store credit, no data on why products are coming back. Revenue leaves the business on every return, even when the customer might have been happy with an alternative.
What a working post-purchase returns stack looks like
Here's what the returns piece of the post-checkout infrastructure typically includes for European DTC brands once they move beyond email-based processing:
Self-service returns portal
A Shopify returns portal where customers initiate returns themselves – selecting the items, choosing a return reason, getting a return label or QR code, and tracking the status of their return without contacting support. This is table stakes for any brand processing more than a few dozen returns per month. According to Thuiswinkel.org (the Dutch ecommerce association), Dutch consumers rate self-service return portals as one of the top three factors in their post-purchase experience.
Exchange and store credit workflows
The default return outcome for most brands is a refund. But for a customer who ordered the wrong size or wants a different color, an exchange keeps both the revenue and the customer relationship. Store credit – with or without a bonus incentive – offers another path that retains revenue while giving the customer flexibility.
The difference between brands that retain 10% of return revenue versus 30% usually comes down to whether these alternatives are built into the return flow or not. If the customer has to email support to ask about an exchange, it won't happen at scale.
Automated return labels and carrier routing
For brands selling within DACH, this typically means DHL, GLS, DPD, or Hermes. But as Ingrid's Netherlands delivery research demonstrates, carrier preferences vary significantly by country. PostNL controls roughly 60% of Dutch domestic parcel volume, with DHL at about 35%. If you're a German brand expanding into the Netherlands, your customers expect a PostNL return label, not a DHL one.
The returns system needs to route the right carrier label automatically based on the customer's location. Manual label creation doesn't scale and doesn't adapt to cross-border complexity.
Return analytics and return rate reduction
Every return contains data: which product came back, which variant, what reason the customer gave, and (if you have warehouse inspection) what the actual condition was. Aggregated over hundreds or thousands of returns, this data becomes a product improvement tool.
One pattern we see repeatedly with our merchants: a specific product variant drives disproportionate returns, but nobody knows because the data isn't tracked at the SKU level. A brand might discover that 40% of returns for a specific item cite "too small" – and the root cause turns out to be a sizing guide using US measurements on a German storefront. Fix the size guide, and the Shopify return rate for that SKU drops within weeks.
Without structured return reason analytics, product teams rely on gut feeling. With it, they can prioritize the exact changes that reduce returns.
Return lifecycle communication
Most Shopify brands build Klaviyo flows for the forward journey – browse abandonment, cart abandonment, post-purchase follow-up. Far fewer build flows for the return journey. When a customer initiates a return, completes an exchange, or receives store credit, those are meaningful lifecycle moments that deserve their own communication sequences. A customer who exchanges should get different messaging than one who refunds.
The DACH-specific considerations
Germany isn't going all-in on Shopify the way the Netherlands or France are. The ShopRank data actually shows WooCommerce growing in Germany, from 24.7% to 29.2% of new store share. Shopware also maintains a meaningful presence, especially among B2B sellers.
This platform fragmentation means DACH brands need a returns solution that works across shop systems. A brand starting on Shopify might later add a Shopware B2B channel. A WooCommerce brand might adopt a Shopify storefront for a new market. The returns infrastructure shouldn't be locked to one platform.
Beyond platform choice, Shopify returns in Germany and the broader DACH region have operational requirements that US-centric tools don't handle well:
- DATEV-compliant accounting for exchanges, store credit, and partial refunds – German tax advisors and accountants expect a structured export format, not a CSV export you have to restructure manually
- German-language returns portals with proper informal "Du" form and localized communication
- EU consumer protection compliance – the 14-day withdrawal right under the EU Consumer Rights Directive is distinct from voluntary return policies, and your system needs to distinguish between the two
- Local carrier networks – DHL, GLS, DPD, Hermes, and increasingly DHL Packstation and InPost lockers, rather than the US carrier landscape of UPS and FedEx
Where to start with Shopify returns management
If you're running a Shopify store in DACH and still handling returns through email or basic Shopify admin:
Start with Shopify returns automation. Set up a self-service returns portal. Let customers initiate returns, choose reasons, get labels, and track status without emailing your team. This alone typically reduces the time your team spends on returns by 80% or more.
Then add retention. Once the return flow is automated, introduce exchange options and store credit. The goal isn't to make refunds harder, it's to make the alternatives equally easy. At Olakala, introducing store credit through the returns portal generated additional retained revenue within the first month. The exact percentage varies by brand and category, but the principle holds: if the alternative to a refund is frictionless, a meaningful share of customers will take it.
Then build on data. Start tracking return reasons at the product and variant level. Look for patterns: which products, which variants, which reasons. Feed that back into your product descriptions, sizing guides, and merchandising decisions.
148,000 new Shopify stores in Europe, and the majority of them are in high-return categories. The ones that build returns management into their operations early are the ones that will scale without returns eating their margin.
Automate and manage your returns easily starting now
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