As retailers gear up for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, there’s one stat that should be demanding the attention of all eCommerce brands: 1 in 3 UK shoppers is expected to return items bought during peak promotions. With the average return rate for online retailers climbing to 20% with some categories such as fashion seeing rates as high as 26%. This highlights just how significant of an operational challenge returns can be. To put this into perspective, for every 100 orders processed, 20 need to be re-shelved, repackaged, or written off.

The ability to process a refund payment instantly can transform a potential pain point into a positive brand moment: they reassure customers, build trust, and keep them coming back. In a peak season where every interaction counts, a refund that lands in seconds can be the difference between a one-off purchase and long-term loyalty.

In this article, we’ll explore how instant refunds can help you turn the surge of Black Friday sales — and the inevitable wave of returns — into a driver of customer retention and brand growth.

Why Refund Speed Matters

Because payments are in the control of the consumer and refunds aren’t, consumers are at the mercy of retailers’ (often outdated) systems and operations. 

What if the refund is for a wedding dress, and your customer needs to buy another before a specific tailoring deadline? Waiting a long time for this will cause serious stress, and consumers will remember how a retailer’s payout experience made them feel. A once loyal customer may feel let down and never return, and a first time customer may spread their bad experience far and wide. 

A fast, friction‑free refund keeps them coming back all the way through Boxing Day, January sales, and beyond. The retailers who delay or complicate refunds risk losing any future sales, let alone an opportunity to create a loyal customer base.

What truly instant experiences mean

Imagine this, a customer comes to a physical store to return an item, at the till the sales assistant processes an instant refund, money is in the customers bank account in seconds. With the customer being in-store, they are more likely to spend that money there with you in- store, as in their eyes, the money is already spent. This exact same scenario can be translated to the world of eCommerce. The money goes back in, the customer goes back on your website.

Getting paid quicker with instant settlement means no more waiting on funds. With Pay by Bank, funds settle in seconds, not days. Gone are the days of waiting 1–3 days for card or wallet settlements. For merchants, this means:

• You’re free to reinvest capital immediately into inventory, marketing, or operations.

• You get to release stock faster, ship sooner, or reinvest capital on the same day.

• You can enjoy real-time visibility and reconciliation via API.

• Your customer service teams refund-related queries drop significantly 

In a similar vein, when you offer Instant Refunds you reduce WISMO (where is my money) queries. With refunds being emotional stages in a customer journey, it makes sense that 84% of customers expect their refunds to be in their account within a week or less. With TrueLayer, ecommerce businesses can:

• Send refunds instantly back to customers’ bank accounts to bring customers back and increase customer lifetime value.

• Return funds automatically to the same bank account used at checkout, with no manual input needed.

• Reduce support tickets and WISMO queries that are costly and take up valuable resources.

How do refunds with Pay  by  Bank give you the edge?

Offering real‑time refunds via Pay by Bank reduces friction and strengthens trust. Consumers around Black Friday are potentially making their most considered purchases of the year, and begin considering products to buy weeks in advance. In fact, Temu’s YouGov showed a third (37%) of Brits said they were more willing to wait weeks for sales before buying than they were the year before. Savvy shoppers also said it was ‘very important’ to their well-being that they could find cheaper or lower priced items to buy. 

With well-being in mind, product teams have their work cut out ensuring shoppers feel the wait is worth it, but if they don’t, payment teams need to be there to ensure customers don’t find the wait for their refund to be the straw that broke the camel’s back.

How does Pay by Bank strengthen the return experience?

Pay by Bank simplifies checkout

Multiple steps in the payment provider’s back-end slow down refunds between initiation and processing. Refunds using Pay by Bank with TrueLayer reduces these steps, speeding up the time it takes for the customer to receive one. 

You can scale your approach across currencies

Trading across the UK and Europe is complex. You need your payment providers to be able to wrangle all the nuances of different banking systems into one simple, single API. At TrueLayer, you can get up and running in 22 European markets in GBP, EUR or even PLN (Polish Zloty).

Return inventory to resale faster

The payment experience is key during Black Friday, where shoppers often make back to back purchases. Now more than ever, the payment experience is being evaluated against your competitors. Those with the best overall experience, win.

Handling returns at scale without bottlenecks demands ops resilience. Instant refunds helps brands return inventory to resale faster while maintaining customer goodwill. Combined with Pay by Bank’s reliability, you remain agile even under surging conditions.

To find out if your checkout is up to scratch this BFCM, head to our checkout checklist built to help you thrive this peak season. Or for more information on TrueLayer’s instant refunds and staying ahead of your competition with Pay by Bank, speak to the TrueLayer team today.