Why bracketing isn’t just a returns problem: It’s a product experience challenge

What is bracketing? 

If you’ve ever ordered two pairs of the same shoes in different sizes or colors — just so you can try them on at home and then return one of them — you’ve taken part in the e-commerce trend known as ‘bracketing’. 

In recent years, it’s become a common shopper behavior; especially within retail categories like apparel, accessories, and footwear. 

In fact, many retailers consider bracketing to be a ‘necessary evil’ for their business, and are somewhat ‘accepting’ of the costs created by all those extra shipping and return requests. But bracketing ultimately chips away at an e-commerce business’s profits, sustainability/ESG goals, and customer satisfaction levels. 

When you look more closely, however, it actually indicates that there’s a much deeper issue at play. Your customers simply aren’t getting the product information they need to make confident buying decisions.

In this blog, we’ll unpack:

• Why bracketing happens, and why it’s bad for your e-commerce business.
• Why it’s not just about getting your customer return levels down — it’s about product experience.
• How your e-commerce business can address bracketing effectively.

Why does bracketing happen?

The real cause of bracketing can be traced back to there being gaps in your product content. This might be down to incomplete data, unclear or incorrect visuals, inconsistent product sizing and specification information, or all of the above! 

One recent study revealed that 58% of shoppers intentionally buy more goods than they intend to keep, with 88% of them saying that they rely on the accuracy of product details to inform their decisions. 

Beyond customer returns, bracketing also indicates a product experience issue. Why? Because when you create the best product experience for your customers, the ‘need’ for them to ‘bracket buy’ suddenly becomes minimized.

In short, businesses that fail to tackle the holes in their product pages are likely to continue fostering bracketing behaviors in their buyers — which harms profits, hinders sustainability efforts, and damages customer trust.

Beyond customer returns, what are the hidden costs of bracketing?

Returns are expensive, but in reality, they’re just the tip of the iceberg. Bracketing can create a negative ‘ripple effect’ across your operations in three different ways:

• Creates extra strain on operations: Every returned item needs to be received, inspected, repackaged, and restocked, meaning that your fulfilment teams can quickly become overwhelmed.
• Damages efforts to work sustainably: Extra shipments mean more carbon emissions from the use of transportation and more waste from packaging, both of which contribute to your brand’s environmental footprint.
• Erodes your margins: Covering the cost of free customer returns, discounting restocked goods, and any lost inventory adds up fast — which eats into already tight margins.

In short, the true cost of bracketing reaches far beyond providing a free shipping label. It actually puts pressure on every link of the retail chain.

How does poor product data lead to bracketing behavior?

As we briefly touched on above, bracketing usually occurs because your customers don’t feel highly confident in what they’re buying. Poor product data is a major contributor:

• Inaccurate or missing sizing or specification information
  When shoppers can’t rely on sizing charts or model information, they’ll ‘hedge their bets’ by ordering more than one.
• A lack of visual information
  Low-resolution photos, a lack of any 360° view, unhelpful video content, or missing lifestyle imagery can leave shoppers guessing about how a product will look, work, or fit.
• Incomplete product descriptions
  Without full usage details, fit descriptions, or care instructions, the path to purchase becomes paved with uncertainty for your customers.

Bracketing is, at its core, a trust issue. And when shoppers aren’t receiving the best product experience at this stage in the customer journey, they choose to compensate by over-ordering.d it helpful to explore how other manufacturers are using PIM to strengthen their traceability strategies.

What does bracketing behavior reveal about product experience?

Brands shouldn’t view bracketing as a logistical nuisance — instead, it should be treated as direct feedback about the shortcomings customers find in the digital product experience. 

For example, if customers are bracketing, it’s a clear signal that they don’t have confidence in the product information you’re providing.

If you’re seeing customers placing many similar products in their cart, you can be sure that they’re treating it a bit like a physical dressing room in a store; comparing and weighing up different options in one place in an attempt to make a decision, because the product information they’re viewing isn’t fully doing its job.

It’s an important user behavior to watch out for, as for every shopper who ‘brackets’, there will be other shoppers who abandon their carts altogether — rather than endure the hassle of returning items.

E-commerce retailers should therefore not regard bracketing as a necessary evil, but as a sign that improvements need to be made to product information.

How can better product content help reduce bracketing?

Reducing the level of bracketing begins with better product content — accurate, rich, and consistent across every customer touchpoint. So, for example, there should be:

• Fit or sizing guides, and if appropriate, model context: Information like visual size/dimension references, body-type fit commentary, and user-generated content helps to set more realistic customer expectations.
  
• Video content and 3D imagery: Dynamic visuals like demo videos and interactive/360° images can bring products to life because they offer angles, perspectives, and the context that static photos simply can’t.
  
• Customer reviews: Clear, honest feedback from previous buyers will help browsing buyers anticipate aspects like ‘fit’, ‘quality’, ‘durability’, and ‘usage’.
  

A centralized Product Information Management (PIM) system makes it easier to deliver all of these improvements at scale, because it unifies your product data and makes it fully accessible. This type of technology empowers different teams from your organization to:

• Identify and fix product data issues easily.
• Add enhanced, rich content.
• Build content campaigns that reduce bracketing and are more likely to convert.

Beyond introducing this technology, product teams have a big role to play. Merchandisers, marketers, and product owners must all work together to ensure that the product data living on their digital sales channels supports shoppers’ needs.

When product teams introduce PIM into the product data management process and take ownership of the full product experience, customer satisfaction is more likely to go up, and returns are more likely to go down.

Can brands really reduce bracketing by making improvements to product data?

Yes, and some brands are already harnessing a modern PIM system like Inriver to achieve this; from using it to standardize and localize product content more quickly and easily across specific regions, channels, and SKUs to updating best-performing product pages with new, engaging visual content. 

The beauty of utilizing a modern PIM platform for your organization is that you can turn bracketing into a manageable behavior, rather than letting it become an operational crisis.

Bracketing isn’t just a returns problem

It’s time to reframe how we view the bracketing behavior of buyers. Instead of viewing it as an occupational hazard that brands just need to live with, it should be treated as an opportunity to improve and optimize the product experience.

By focusing on accurate, rich, relevant, and consistent product content, brands can proactively reduce bracketing, drive higher levels of customer confidence, and protect their margins. 

And, with a centralized, modern solution like Inriver PIM, managing that complexity suddenly becomes scalable.se internal feedback and customer data to refine the experience, improve data accuracy, and expand integrations.