A study of online shopping habits of 4,700 Web users by Massachusetts-based Burst! Media in August bodes well for the upcoming holiday shopping season (http://www.burstmedia.com/release/press.asp). The study found that 77% of those surveyed plan to make some of their holiday purchases online.

As the Internet becomes a more common method of transacting business, shoppers are becoming more savvy about the actual costs of buying and looking more closely at the merchant's terms of sale. The study found that nearly 1 out of 4 of those surveyed are concerned about an online store's return policy. With that in mind, AuctionBytes ran a poll of readers to find out what types of return policies they offer - if any.

Interestingly, nearly 1 out of 4 respondents to the AuctionBytes survey did not have a return policy, and over 18% of those who did have a return policy did not publish it. Of those sellers that did have return policies, nearly 40% responded that they would take merchandise back for any reason. On a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being "very important," 24% of the respondents thought having a return policy ranked a resounding 5.

More highlights from the survey:

The number of days buyers are allowed to return the item
12.7% - 3 days from receipt of item
22.6% - 7 days from receipt of item
15.8% - 10 days from receipt of item
11.2% - 30 days from receipt of item

Nearly 40% of those that were asked this question chose "Other" as a response and qualified their answer. You can view the results online; (click on the word "Other" to see comments): http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/pages/returnsurvey

Here's an online discussion about Return Policies in the AuctionBytes forums: http://www.auctionbytes.com/forum/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=11830