And return them just as quickly. My wife will go through 4-5 online orders to find clothing that fits as advertised, returning a majority of each purchase.

Hard for anyone but Amazon to maintain that kind of return throughput.

I learned recently that even Amazon is banning people for returns. My first thought was that they must have returned a ton of products, but after a quick "banned from amazon" search online it showed that many people with a return rate as low as 9% have been banned. Which doesn't seem like a lot especially if we're talking about clothing. Here's one example, but there's plenty more if you do a quick search:

http://cbs4indy.com/2016/03/21/amazon-bans-customer-for-retu...

Apparently the cut-off lies somewhere around 10%, they ban you for life though.

One-in-ten is a pretty high rate of returns.

I don't know that it is for online purchases. My wife is buying clothes and shoes off Amazon lately and we are on our third return for one pair of shoes because their size guide online doesn't correspond to what they send us at all. That's a 200% return rate on a single item, and that's only if we get the correct one shipped to us this time. Non commodity items have turned into a major crapshoot online.

Online shopping has spoiled me for convenience compared to shopping in person though. What's happened is that I've just ended up not buying as many things because I was trained to expect convenance and then it was taken away

I buy on Amazon a lot and I don't think I return more than one or two things in a year, typically. Even buying shoes online (I usually use Zappos) I haven't returned that many.

Do you buy clothes or shoes? Ive never had to return toilet paper, but we got a pair of boots that were a different size from the listing when they arrived

Plus most of us don't feel that returning five orders is more convenient than going to the store.

Also depends on how often you can find your size. The return packaging is usually pretty easy and a label is inside too.

Is that typical behavior though? I have to imagine no. Personally I can hardly be bothered to return defective merchandise

Sure, to a degree, but these are different. And people that really care about clothes and/or furniture probably don't buy them sight unseen. For a lot of people, any good couch or shirt is probably good enough. But a guitar needs to be right for the individual. The difference between the right and wrong guitar can be significant, and is also something that will bother you every day.

Furniture is probably, next to a house and a car, among the most expensive things most people will purchase. And frankly I'm sure a lot of people just buy whatever guitar anyway, especially thinking back to the never-used one I used to have.

>> And frankly I'm sure a lot of people just buy whatever guitar anyway, especially thinking back to the never-used one I used to have

Surely you recognize that your mindset while purchasing that guitar was different than that of a serious musician investing a substantial sum in an instrument they'll play for thousands of hours.

Yes, my (well, my dad's, actually) mindset was different, but what percentage of people buying a musical instrument are actually serious musicians?

Things I won’t buy without trying on or looking at in person, unlesss as a last resort:

- Wetsuits - Ski gear - Shoes - Bikes

I think the key point here is that that set is probably small for most people and also differs from person to person. Someone else might insist on trying their keyboard but be happy to buy a bike online. And that's before we take into account people trying out goods in-store and then buying them online.