Which retailer introduced the first money-back guarantee in 1875?

Which retailer introduced the first money-back guarantee in 1875? Montgomery Ward did—more precisely, it pioneered the guarantee in national mail-order retailing.

Aaron Montgomery Ward founded his company in Chicago in 1872 to sell goods directly to rural customers through catalogs. His first catalog was a single sheet listing 163 items, helping farmers bypass local middlemen and access merchandise that was difficult to find in small towns.

In 1875, Ward adopted a “satisfaction guaranteed or your money back” policy. That promise reduced the risk of buying unseen goods by mail and helped build trust in a new form of shopping. The catalog expanded rapidly, listing about 3,000 items by 1876.

A common mix-up is treating Ward as the first merchant ever to offer refunds. Department stores had used similar promises earlier; Ward’s distinctive achievement was making the guarantee a national mail-order selling tool. Sears, founded in 1886, later became Ward’s major catalog rival, not the originator of this 1875 innovation.