Marketing Ideas

Marketing Ideas

The refund glitch that's *secretly* printing money 💵

65% of refunded customers will buy again (if you do this).

Tom Orbach's avatar
Tom Orbach
Oct 02, 2025
∙ Paid
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Let me cut to the chase:

There’s a psychological loophole in how humans spend money after refunds. It’s backed by brand-new research, and most marketers have NO CLUE it exists.

  1. You can exploit this glitch today.

  2. It costs $0 to implement.

  3. And it might be the easiest quick win you’ll ever find…

Here’s the glitch: People spend refunded money faster and more freely than regular money.

Researchers call it “Refund Psychology”. I call it a money printer. 🤑

The billion-dollar discovery 🍿

In 2024, researchers at Washington University published a bombshell study in the Journal of Consumer Research.

They discovered that refund money feels more “spendable”. People spend it faster, feel less guilty about it, and treat it as bonus money.

The researchers ran experiments with 600 people. Those given money framed as a “refund” were significantly more likely to make immediate purchases than those given the exact same amount as regular income.

🧠 This is the refund “glitch” in action:

Customer gets a refund → Brain tags this money as “already spent” → Spending it again feels free from normal budget constraints → Purchase resistance drops dramatically!

But most companies completely miss this opportunity.

How companies turn refunds into profit 🌀

Companies like Amazon, Chewy, and StitchFix are really good at this - they’re converting 30-65% of refunds back into sales.

💰 Here are their 5 proven tactics to convert refunds back into sales (steal this):

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