Why is a return more expensive than you think?
In the panel a return looks like "undoing the sale": the sale amount drops, the commission is reflected back, as if it nets to zero. In reality three items have come out of your pocket. The outbound shipping has been spent and does not come back even if the return is approved. The return shipping varies by reason, but in seller-caused scenarios it falls on you. If the product comes back unsellable — used, damaged, packaging broken — the full product cost is added on top of the shipping. Your shipping fee depends on desi (volumetric unit); you can find out how many desi your parcel is with the desi calculator.
The commission is refunded — the shipping is not
Confusing these two items leads to two opposite mistakes. If you write the commission into the return cost, you make the return look more expensive than it is: when the return is approved, the commission is reflected back onto your payout statement as a separate line. If you forget the shipping, you make the return look cheaper than it is: the shipping has actually been spent in both directions. We explained step by step how these lines appear on your statement in the payout guide; if there is no commission-refund line on your statement, it means you have a reconciliation problem.
How is the cost of a single return calculated?
The formula used by the calculator above:
Cost of a single return = outbound shipping + return shipping + (unsellable rate × product cost)
Example: for a 300 TL, 1-desi Aras order, assume the standard outbound bracket is 103.49 TL and the advantageous return bracket is 94.99 TL, both VAT included. With a product cost of 150 TL and 10% of returns coming back unsellable, one return is about 103.49 + 94.99 + 15 = 213 TL. At 100 orders a month and a 20% return rate, that means 20 returns × 213.48 TL ≈ 4,270 TL of silent loss per month. Bracket figures are Trendyol's official Seller Information Center amounts (effective 10 August 2026), and the example is an estimate; enter the actual deductions from Seller Center. You can find the item-by-item breakdown and the full monthly-loss table in the return cost article; for how the return process works, see the return process guide from the seller's side.
Lowering your return rate is one of the most profitable investments
The last row in the calculator exists for exactly this: if your return rate drops 5 points, your monthly gain turns out, for most sellers, to have a higher return than a new ad campaign. Practical levers: clarifying the size/measurement chart, keeping the product image and description an exact match to the real product, strengthening the packaging on fragile products and regularly reading the return reasons. Instead of manually scanning the return reasons and reviews one by one for recurring problems, Riseluc's return analysis feature groups the return reasons by product and detects recurring issues. Once you have found the expected per-sale cost of a return, you can reflect its total impact — together with the commission and withholding tax — onto your net profit in the Trendyol profit calculator.