The Royal Mail predicted that on January 2, which was dubbed ‘Takeback Thursday’, returns of online purchases would have spiked by as much as 72% compared to the average number of returns per day in December.

As consumers seek to return a mountain of unwanted Christmas purchases, the costs of processing goods and paying out the refunds predominantly fall on retailers.

Data from third-party returns processing firm B-Stock indicates that as much as £60bn of products are returned to UK retailers every year, and about £21.2bn of that is sent back between January and March following the Christmas period.