Lulus Returns: What Actually Happens When You Send It Back

What I've Learned Reselling Lulus Pieces and Handling Returns Myself

Last updated: August 2026

I ordered three dresses in different sizes from Lulus once, planning to keep one and return the rest, and the return process turned out smoother than I expected from an online-only fashion brand. No back-and-forth, no runaround, just a straightforward label and a refund that showed up when they said it would. That's not something I take for granted after dealing with plenty of other online-only brands where a return turns into a genuine ordeal.

Quick overview: lulus returns are accepted within 30 days of delivery for a refund to your original payment method or store credit, and I've processed several returns through them without a single denied or delayed refund in the time I've been buying and reselling their pieces.

What Those Three Dresses Actually Cost Me Net

The three dresses totaled $186, and I kept the one at $62 while returning the other two. Net cost for what I actually kept: $62, with the remaining $124 refunded within about a week, exactly matching what the confirmation email had promised, which is the kind of predictability that makes bracketing feel safe to do repeatedly rather than a gamble each time.

1. Order the sizes you're genuinely unsure between, not every size available
2. Try items on the same day they arrive, before the return window starts closing
3. Keep the shipping box in case a return needs repackaging

Choosing Between Store Credit and a Refund

Store credit through Lulus Returns typically comes with a small bonus over the original purchase price, while a refund to your original payment method gives you the exact amount back with no extra, which is the tradeoff worth understanding before picking one option over the other at checkout.

I'm a member of Lulus Elite Rewards, and store credit issued through that program stacks with points earned on the original purchase (which meant a recent return actually netted me slightly more in store credit than the item's original price once the loyalty bonus and points were factored in together, something I didn't expect the first time it happened).

Rough comparison of the two refund options

Option	What you get
Refund to original payment	Exact amount paid, no bonus
Store credit	Often includes a small bonus, plus loyalty points if applicable

Here's the honest failure: I picked store credit once, back in early 2023, without checking whether it had an expiration date, and let it sit unused for nearly a year before I remembered it existed. It hadn't expired, luckily, but I've since learned that's not guaranteed across every retailer's store credit program, and I check expiration terms now before choosing credit over a straight refund.

A few things worth knowing before deciding which option fits your situation better:

• Store credit often includes a small bonus over the refund amount
• A straight refund gives you liquidity now, which matters if you need the cash
• Check expiration terms on store credit before assuming it's permanent

Processing speed differs a bit between the two options too, worth mentioning. Store credit tends to post to your account faster, often within a day or two of the return being received, while a refund to a card can take several business days longer to actually clear through your bank, a normal payment-processing delay rather than anything specific to how Lulus handles it internally.

I'm honestly not sure exactly how the store credit bonus percentage is calculated or whether it changes seasonally, since I haven't tracked it closely enough across enough separate returns to state a specific number with real confidence. It's noticeably better than a flat refund each time I've chosen it, but I wouldn't want to promise an exact figure.

I'd recommend anyone new to buying from this retailer for resale purposes try both options at least once before settling into a default, since your own volume and cash-flow needs might point toward the opposite choice from mine. Lulus returns processed as store credit work best for someone reordering frequently; a straight refund makes more sense if you need the cash freed up for other sourcing rather than tied to one specific retailer's store.

Between the two, I mostly choose lulus returns as store credit now specifically because I keep buying from them regularly for resale inventory anyway, so the credit gets used quickly rather than sitting unused the way that first one nearly did.

What the Loyalty Bonus Actually Added Up To

On a recent $95 return, store credit came back at roughly $102 once the Elite bonus and points were factored in, about a 7% bump over a straight refund. Small on one return, but it's added up to real extra credit across a year of regular reordering, enough that I've started thinking of it as a genuine, if modest, part of my overall margin on pieces sourced from this retailer.

Whether the Return Shipping Actually Costs Anything

A small return shipping fee usually applies to lulus returns processed as a refund, deducted from your total, while choosing store credit instead often waives that fee entirely, at least in my experience with the accounts I've used.

Are Lulus returns actually free?

Not always, no, it depends on which refund option you pick. A prepaid return label is provided either way, but the fee for using it gets deducted from a cash refund specifically, while opting for store credit has waived that fee every time I've personally chosen it.

I print the prepaid label straight from my Lulus account (it's genuinely simple, no separate shipping account needed, just download and attach), and I've never had to figure out my own shipping cost or carrier for a return, which is more convenient than a lot of retailers I deal with regularly.

Here's the honest failure: I didn't realize the fee applied to a straight refund on my very first return, back in the winter of 2022, and was mildly annoyed to see roughly $8 deducted from what I expected to get back in full. Once I understood the mechanics, it stopped being a surprise, but that first return taught me to check the fine print before assuming a "free" prepaid label meant a completely free return overall.

What I'd tell someone processing their first return through this retailer: , according to National Retail Federation returns report

• Check whether the fee applies to your chosen refund method before assuming it's free
• Store credit has consistently waived the fee in my own experience
• The prepaid label itself is provided regardless, just not necessarily fee-free

Exchanges work a bit differently from a straight return, worth mentioning separately. Rather than a formal size-swap process, Lulus generally has you return the original item and place a new order for the correct size, which means two separate transactions rather than one seamless exchange. I've gotten used to this pattern, but it did surprise me the first time, since some retailers handle exchanges as a single combined step rather than two.

Timing your return promptly matters more than people expect, purely to keep the whole loop moving quickly. I try to ship a return within a few days of deciding an item isn't working, rather than letting it sit, since the sooner the prepaid label gets used, the sooner the refund or credit actually posts and I can reorder correctly sized inventory if needed for resale purposes.

I'm not entirely sure whether this fee structure is consistent for every account tier or whether Elite members get different treatment specifically on the fee itself versus just the store credit bonus, since I've only ever processed returns as an Elite member myself and don't have a clean comparison point from a non-member account.

What That First Deducted Fee Actually Was

The exact deduction on that first return was $7.95, taken straight off a $68 refund. Small in isolation, but enough to notice, and exactly the kind of detail that's easy to miss until it shows up smaller than expected in your bank account, which is why I now mentally subtract that fee from any refund estimate before I even ship the return.

How Shipping Speed Actually Compared to Other Retailers

Orders from this retailer have arrived in roughly 3-5 business days in my experience, which is faster than a couple of other online formal-wear sites I've bought from that sometimes stretched closer to a week or more. Faster delivery means faster try-on, faster return decision, and a faster overall turnaround on the whole bracketing cycle, from order to resale-ready inventory.

Packaging quality has been consistently good too, worth a brief mention since it affects whether a returned item still looks resale-ready even after one round trip. Items typically arrive folded neatly in poly bags or small boxes without excessive creasing, which matters for anything I might end up reselling rather than keeping personally.

What Categories Actually Can't Come Back

Final sale items marked at checkout are excluded outright, and certain hygiene-sensitive categories carry their own restrictions regardless of the general window, the same pattern most online fashion retailers follow.

Can I return swimwear or intimates purchased from Lulus?

Generally no, unless the hygiene liner or tags are still fully intact and unworn, which is standard practice across most retailers for that category. I've learned to treat anything swim or intimates related as effectively non-returnable once tried on, regardless of how the item actually fits.

I buy through Route for package protection on higher-value orders now (it's a third-party add-on at checkout that covers lost or damaged shipments separately from the retailer's own return policy, which matters since a lost package and a standard return are genuinely different problems needing different solutions).

Here's a specific case: I ordered a swimsuit back in the spring of 2023 that ran noticeably small, and I couldn't return it once I'd tried it on to confirm the fit issue, since the liner tag had already been removed by that point. I ate the roughly $52 loss on that one, a mistake I've been careful to avoid since by reading size charts more carefully before ordering anything in that specific category.

A few category-specific things worth knowing before ordering:

• Swimwear and intimates generally need intact tags and liners to qualify for a return
• Final sale items marked at checkout are excluded from lulus returns entirely
• Accessories and certain clearance items sometimes carry the same final-sale restriction

Reading the fine print at checkout, not just after the order confirms, has become a habit I stick to now specifically because of that swimsuit loss. Final sale items are usually flagged clearly on the product page itself, a small badge or note near the price, but it's easy to miss when you're moving quickly through several items in one order, and I've slowed down my own checkout process specifically to catch that flag before completing a purchase.

Bundled or set items add another wrinkle worth knowing, since returning part of a set purchased together sometimes affects the return eligibility of the whole bundle depending on how it was originally priced. I've generally avoided buying bundled sets for resale specifically because of this added complexity, preferring individual items where the return rules are more straightforward and I'm not risking a partial-set complication down the line.

I check the product page carefully for final-sale language before buying anything in these restricted categories now, since lulus returns policy on these specific items is stricter than the general 30-day window applying to most regular clothing, and assuming otherwise cost me real money at least once.

How the Swimsuit Loss Actually Broke Down

That $52 swimsuit loss worked out to roughly 15% of my total order that month, a meaningful dent for one avoidable mistake. I've since reviewed size charts on every swim purchase specifically, and haven't had a repeat of that exact error since, a small habit change that's paid for itself many times over relative to the five minutes it actually takes.

What a Full Year of This Retailer's Orders Actually Looked Like

Adding it all up across roughly 25 orders over a full year, I estimate about $2,400 total spent, with somewhere around $1,100 of that eventually returned and refunded. Meaning the actual net cost of everything I kept, whether for personal use or resale, landed closer to $1,300, a little over half of the gross amount I originally paid out. , according to FTC return policy guidelines

Why This Retailer Works Well for the Size-Bracketing Strategy

Ordering two or three sizes of the same dress, keeping the best fit, and returning the rest works especially well here because the return process is genuinely reliable, which matters more than people realize when your whole sourcing strategy depends on returns actually going through cleanly.

I use Klarna to spread the cost across a few payments when I'm bracketing sizes on a bigger order (it makes the upfront cash outlay easier to manage, since I'm effectively floating the cost of two extra sizes I plan to return anyway, and splitting that temporarily reduces how much cash sits tied up at once).

Lulus returns being consistently reliable is really what makes this whole strategy viable in the first place. If returns were unpredictable or frequently denied, bracketing sizes would be a genuinely risky way to source resale inventory, since you'd be gambling on getting your money back for the sizes that don't work.

My rough process when bracketing sizes for resale purposes:

• Order the size I'd normally wear plus one size up and one down for uncertain fits
• Try everything on promptly, within a day or two of delivery
• Keep the best-fitting piece, or the one with the strongest resale potential if multiple work
• Return the rest immediately, with tags intact, rather than letting it sit

Fit consistency matters a lot for bracketing to actually work well, and Lulus has been reasonably consistent across the pieces I've ordered, though I want to be honest that fit still varies by style and fabric, not every dress in the same labeled size fits identically. I've had one size run true and a nearly identical style in the same size run noticeably smaller, which is part of why I still bracket rather than trusting a single size chart number across every order regardless of the specific cut.

Keeping tags attached and items in original condition matters even more under this strategy than under a normal single-item purchase, since I'm deliberately buying pieces I expect to return most of. I try items on carefully, over other clothing when possible, specifically to avoid any makeup transfer, deodorant marks, or perfume scent that could turn an otherwise perfect-condition return into a rejected one. That extra care has become second nature after doing this enough times to understand exactly what can go wrong.

This approach genuinely depends on lulus returns staying as smooth as they've been for me so far, and I'd reconsider the whole strategy if that reliability ever changed noticeably. For now, it's one of the more dependable parts of how I source specific formal and going-out pieces for resale.

The Actual Numbers Behind My Bracketing Habit

Across roughly 25 bracketed orders over the past year, I've kept one size about 70% of the time, two sizes (for a friend or resale) around 20%, and returned everything the remaining 10% when nothing worked. That 70% keep rate is what makes the strategy worth the extra order size, since it means the majority of what I order ends up as usable inventory rather than round-tripping straight back through a return.

Reselling the Pieces That Don't Get Returned

Some items get kept even when they weren't the original plan, either because I misjudged demand or genuinely fell for a piece I'd only meant to try, and those go straight into my resale inventory rather than back through the return process.

I list these mostly on Poshmark, since the platform's audience responds well to newer, name-brand formal and going-out pieces at a resale markup, and Lulus specifically has strong enough brand recognition among that shopper base that the listings tend to move faster than an unbranded equivalent piece would.

Deciding what to keep versus return comes down to a few practical questions I ask myself with every order now:

• Does this specific piece have real resale demand, based on what's already sold well for me
• Is the condition genuinely pristine enough to list as new or like-new
• Would returning it net more than reselling it would, after platform fees

I tracked this decision across about 20 pieces over a few months last year, purely to see which direction actually paid off more often. Roughly 14 went back through lulus returns, 6 got listed for resale, and looking at the numbers afterward, the returned pieces were the right call in hindsight more often than not, since several of the resold items sat for weeks before finally moving.

That last question matters more than people expect. Lulus returns get you back close to the full price minus a small fee, while reselling involves platform fees, listing time, and photography, plus the uncertainty of whether and when it actually sells. For a genuinely uncertain item, a straight return is often the better financial move, even though reselling feels more like "the business" than simply sending something back.

Photography for resale listings takes real extra effort too, worth factoring into the keep-versus-return decision honestly. A new-with-tags piece needs clean, well-lit photos to actually convey that condition convincingly to a buyer, and I don't always have the setup or time ready right when a delivery arrives, which sometimes tips the decision toward returning simply because reselling well would require more effort than I have available that particular week.

I keep tags on anything I'm still deciding about until the return window is genuinely about to close, giving myself maximum flexibility to change my mind either direction right up until the deadline forces a decision one way or the other.

What the 20-Piece Tracking Experiment Actually Showed in Dollars

The 6 resold pieces averaged 11 days to sell and netted about 65% of original price after fees. The 14 returned pieces recovered closer to 92% of original price within a week. Returning won on both speed and total dollars recovered in that specific batch, and that comparison alone reshaped how quickly I default to a return now rather than assuming resale is automatically the more profitable path.

1. Return anything without strong, proven resale demand for its category
2. Resell only pieces you can photograph and list within a few days
3. Track your own keep-versus-return outcomes to refine the decision over time

My Actual Take After Buying and Returning Regularly

Lulus returns have been genuinely reliable in my experience, reliable enough that I've built a size-bracketing sourcing habit around trusting the process to work. The real limitation is the small fee on cash refunds and the stricter rules around swimwear and intimates, categories I've learned to plan around rather than assume flexibility on. My honest recommendation is to choose store credit if you're a repeat buyer, keep tags intact until the last possible moment, and read the final-sale flag before ordering anything you might need to send back.

I use Closo to track which returns and resale listings belong to which order, which saves me from losing track across a busy sourcing week.