Not all omnichannel features are more prevalent, however. For example, only 67.2% of Top 1000 retailers with stores offered in-store returns of online orders in 2021, down from 77.9% in 2019.

Handling online returns may be particularly onerous for small shops with only a few employees working at any time. For example, only 37.1% of primarily online retailers take returns in their stores, which likely tend to be small. That’s down from 48.5% in 2019.

But even for retail chains, whose stores frequently are quite large with many associates working at any time, the percentage was down in 2021 to 76.7% taking returns, compared to 86.5% two years earlier.

One possible explanation is that employers of all kinds, including retailers, are having trouble finding workers, leading store managers to beg off accepting returns because they take store associates away from serving customers who want to buy.

Surveys show customers prefer to return online orders to stores than any other method. Once the labor shortage eases, don’t be surprised to see a larger number of retailers returning to accepting online returns in their stores.