How do I reduce my return rate on OTTO?

What a return on OTTO costs

Your customer registers the return in their OTTO customer account. Unlike on Amazon, you don't approve it first. OTTO generates the return label from the return tracking number you send along at shipping. It runs through your own contract with DHL, Hermes or GLS. The number itself costs nothing, you only pay once your customer uses the label. OTTO doesn't state an amount per label, as it depends on your contract.

Garden furniture and other large items often go by freight. Under your contract with OTTO, you have these freight goods collected free of charge for your customer, by a carrier of your choice and at your expense. You tell the customer the collection date within 24 hours of them registering the return, and you report to OTTO within 7 working days of collection whether you accept it.

For a return you accept, these items add up for you.

In practice, the refund, the return shipping and the warehouse handling are exactly what's missing from many sellers' calculations. The EHI Retail Institute asked sellers in Germany in 2026 what processing costs. For about a third it's up to 5 € per return, for about a fifth each 5 to 10 € and 10 to 20 €. With furniture, the loss of value comes on top. Furniture that has been assembled and taken apart again usually can't be sold as new in practice and goes out as B-grade goods or gets disposed of.

What OTTO gives you back on a return

If you accept a return, OTTO gives you back the OTTO commission it charged on the sale. Depending on the assortment that's between 7% and 22% of the price. The refund comes as a „Rechnungskorrektur“ (invoice correction) by email, as PDF and CSV, and is due within 14 days. OTTO doesn't state any fee it keeps on a return.

The OTTO commission rate contains the payment fee of 2.7%, which OTTO Payments bills on a separate invoice. OTTO Payments refunds that too on a return, according to OTTO “partly or in full”. OTTO doesn't say when it's in full and when only in part.

If your customer pays shipping costs, OTTO takes a separate OTTO commission of 16% on them. Whether OTTO gives that back on a return isn't stated in any OTTO document.

Partial refund instead of a return: OTTO keeps the fees

If a customer complains, you can refund part of the price and they keep the goods. OTTO calls this „Preisnachlass“ (price reduction) or „Teilgutschrift“ (partial credit). You agree it with the customer first, and it only works for orders that have already shipped.

On a partial refund, OTTO keeps the OTTO commission and the payment fee in full, and you get nothing of it back, not even pro rata. In practice, a partial refund of around 20% can often avoid a return. Whether that pays off is shown in the worked example below. If you refund the full price, OTTO also gives your customer the shipping costs back, and OTTO keeps the OTTO commission in that case too.

Report every return to OTTO within 2 working days

Once the return has arrived at your place, you report to OTTO within 2 working days, Monday to Friday, whether you accept or reject it. Only then does OTTO refund your customer. If you reject it, they get nothing back, and OTTO doesn't tell them why. OTTO doesn't provide for a deduction on acceptance. You accept or you reject.

OTTO measures per calendar month what share of your returns you report late. That share has to stay under 15%. If you don't process a return in time, OTTO can book a „Sondergutschrift“ (special credit) for your customer itself and charge it to you. Then OTTO commission and payment fee stay charged in full, and the return can't be processed any more afterwards.

What a normal return rate on OTTO looks like

OTTO doesn't publish a return rate for the marketplace or for individual product categories. Numbers only exist from the EHI for online sellers across Germany. For furniture, about 93% of sellers in the 2025 survey were below 10%. For fashion, two thirds of sellers in the 2026 survey had more than 20%.

In the partner portal, OTTO shows you your return rate per item in two calculation methods. If you want to know how many of an item's sold units come back, use „Absatzbezogen“ (Sales-based). This method assigns each return to the day you shipped the goods. For the last few weeks it can still rise, because your customer has 30 days. „Standard“, by contrast, divides a day's returns by the units you shipped that same day. It shows how much comes back on a given day and can exceed 100%.

Why OTTO delists items with too many quality returns

How satisfied customers are with an item is measured by OTTO in the Produktzufriedenheitsscore (product satisfaction score). Half of it comes from ratings and half from complaints and quality returns over the last 6 months. Only four reasons count as quality returns, namely wrong description, defect, poor quality and missing parts. A return because the item is too big doesn't count.

OTTO rates each item month by month. After 1 critical month it counts as slightly at risk, after 2 as highly at risk, and after 3 critical months in a row OTTO takes it offline. You can reactivate it after 3 months at the earliest. OTTO doesn't state a limit for the return rate alone above which it delists an item.

How to reduce your return rate on OTTO

Start with the reasons. Your customer picks a return reason when registering, and OTTO shows you the reasons per item in the partner portal. The route is below under the section on OTTO today. Look first at the items that come back most often and which reason leads for them.

• If many customers cite a wrong description, details or images in the listing don't match the item. For its own range, OTTO counters this with accurate product pages with several images and details on material and care.
• If many customers cite missing parts, check what's in the parcel for this item.
• If many customers cite a defect or poor quality, the problem is the item itself.

These four reasons also count towards your Produktzufriedenheitsscore. For fashion OTTO also has the „Größenhinweis“ (size note) attribute, but not for furniture.

If a customer complains about a furniture item, a return is often the most expensive solution, because it comes back assembled. In practice, a partial refund of around 20% can often avoid it. Do the maths first, because OTTO keeps the fees in that case.

How to find the cost of your returns in OTTO's partner portal

1. In the partner portal, open „Aufträge“ (Orders) → „Auftragsübersicht“ (Order overview) and the „Retourniert“ (Returned) tab. Every order that came back is listed there, per position with „Retoure akzeptiert durch Partner“ (Return accepted by partner) or „durch OTTO“ (by OTTO). There's no export.
2. Click an order number. In the „Belege“ (Documents) tab, the refund to your customer appears as „Erstattung für R-…“ (Refund for R-…).
3. Open „Finanzen“ (Finance) → „Marktplatzgebühren“ (Marketplace fees). Every Wednesday, next to the „Rechnung“ (Invoice), you'll find a „Rechnungskorrektur“ with the OTTO commission OTTO gives back for returns, as PDF and CSV.
4. Open „Finanzen“ → „Paymentgebühren“ (Payment fees). Every week there's a separate document for the refund of the payment fee.
5. Get your parcel carrier's invoice. Return shipping is only there, and you match it by tracking number.
6. Open „Analysen“ (Analytics) → „Logistik“ (Logistics) → „Details“, the „Retourendetails“ (Return details) tab and in it „Retourenquote“ (Return rate) and „Retourengründe“ (Return reasons). There you'll find your return rate per item and your customers' reasons, both with „Download“.
7. Open „Marketing“ → „Sponsored Product Ads“ → „Artikel-Report“ (Item report) for ad spend. A return isn't marked there.

Then you combine everything in one spreadsheet. You connect refund, Rechnungskorrektur and payment fee through the order number, and your parcel carrier's invoice through the tracking number. OTTO's three documents arrive on different days, and the Rechnungskorrektur is due within 14 days. What the warehouse handling costs you and how much value used goods lose is something you estimate yourself. OTTO has no ready-made report on the cost of your returns.

What a return of the acacia chair costs

Say you sell an acacia chair for 119 €, with free shipping, and OTTO charges 19% OTTO commission on it, so 22.61 €. Shipping to the customer costs you 4.90 €. Your customer sends the chair back and you accept the return. Return shipping and warehouse handling are example values.

The return reverses the sale. Your customer gets their 119 € back, and you get the chair back. You no longer owe the tax office the 19 € VAT in this price, and OTTO gives you back the 22.61 € OTTO commission. What can't be reversed stays with you as a cost.

The calculation rests on two assumptions. First, you can sell the chair as new again. Otherwise its loss of value comes on top. Second, OTTO Payments gives you back the 3.21 € payment fee in the 22.61 € in full. OTTO doesn't say when it's refunded in full and when only in part, and whatever stays with OTTO is added to the 15.90 €.

The acacia chair came back not once but 6 times in the period, out of 50 chairs sold. Your customers received 714 € in refunds for them. If all 6 chairs can be sold as new again, the returns cost you 6 × 15.90 € = 95.40 €. None of these amounts is shown in one place at OTTO.

Partial refund or return

Say your customer complains about the chair, and you offer them 20% of the price to keep it. They get 23.80 € back. That contains 3.80 € of VAT, which you get back, so the partial refund costs you 20.00 €. The OTTO commission and payment fee stay with OTTO.

The partial refund is cheaper as soon as the chair would lose more than 4.10 € in value after the return. If your customer has assembled and used it, you reach that quickly on a 119 € chair.

Work out what your own returns cost you with the return cost calculator.