Why You Can’t Reduce Refunds with Quiz Based Size Finders Only
Let’s be honest.
Most fashion retailers have already tried a quiz-based size finder and almost all of them ended up asking the same question later:
“Why didn’t our refund rate go down?”
If you haven’t tried yet, you’ll likely learn the same thing soon enough.
Quiz based tools will give size recommendations, but they only influence a small fraction of your total sales, typically around 25-30% of all orders.
That’s the first critical flaw.
Let’s break this down with simple math.
Assume your store gets 10,000 monthly orders.
- A quiz based size finder affects ~30% of them → 3,000 orders.
- Let’s say your baseline return rate is 20% (2,000 returns per month).
- Even if the quiz works perfectly (and that’s a big if), it can only improve results on those 3,000 orders.
Now reality:
Not Everyone Follows the Recommendation
Of the 30% who made a purchase after seeing a recommended size, not everyone buys it.
- Around 40% will still order differently (some go one size up, some one down).
- Let’s say ~60% actually order the recommended size. (Do you know what % is with the tool you are using now? Most likely less than 60%)
So, 60% of 30% = just 18% of total sales are even influenced correctly. If size recommendation was accurate in the first place, and often it is not.
Now the math gets worse:
Even if those 18% saw a 30% refund reduction, you’re saving only 108 returns out of 2,000.
That’s at best a 0.5% improvement in overall refund rate, if recommendation was accurate in the first place. If recommendation was not accurate and people placed an order you don’t get even half a percent benefit. This means such size recommendation tool is meaningless.
Would your finance team even notice that on a monthly P&L? Probably not.
The Problem Isn’t Only the Accuracy, It’s the Reach
The Hidden Data Nobody Talks About
Here’s the uncomfortable truth:
Most quiz based tool providers don’t even show you how many shoppers actually ordered the recommended size.
They just show “results with recommendation,” but that’s misleading.
You don’t see the split between:
- Shoppers who followed the recommendation (the only group that matters), and
- Shoppers who ignored it (diluting your results).
At Prime AI, we don’t hide this.
You’ll see exactly:
- How many shoppers received a recommendation.
- How many followed it.
- What the return rate was among those who did.
- And how that compares to shoppers who didn’t follow.
That’s real transparency and that’s how you truly measure impact.
Why Accuracy Alone Doesn’t Matter
Even the most accurate quiz engine can’t move your global refund metric if:
- It only influences a third of your orders, and
- Only half of those follow the suggestion.
The math simply doesn’t allow it.
If you’ve been told a quiz based finder will reduce returns by 20-30% across your business, or even 5% you’ve been sold a dream.
In reality, the tool’s influence is too diluted to change your KPIs.
So How Do You Actually Move the Needle?
To reduce refunds meaningfully, you must influence at least half of your sales volume, ideally more.
That’s where Prime AI’s two-pillar system comes in:
- Zero-Input Sizing (for returning shoppers)
– 100% frictionless, no quiz, no clicks.
– Uses your own transaction data to predict fit with 99% accuracy.
– Covers 40–60% of your returning traffic automatically. - Advanced Quiz Engine (for first-time shoppers)
– Powered by real sales, returns, and fit feedback.
– Learns continuously, down to SKU and even colour level.
Together, these two pillars influence 50–80% of all orders.
That’s when refund reduction becomes measurable, typically 25–35% fewer size related returns, with a meaningful impact to overall refunds rate. Would you like Prime AI to estimate an impact for your overall refund rate reduction?
The Real Lesson
If you’re serious about reducing refunds, the quiz itself was never the bottleneck, the reach was.
Refund reduction isn’t about asking smarter questions. It’s about touching more of your sales with truly predictive logic.
At Prime AI, we deliver the only solution designed for scale, accuracy, and frictionless user experience.
Because you can’t fix returns with “smart visuals” or questions, you fix them by covering more and learning faster.
Before you renew your current sizing tool, ask your provider two simple questions:
- What percentage of my total sales are influenced by your tool?
- Of those, how many actually ordered the recommended size?
If they can’t give you that data, you already know the answer.
