The growth of e-commerce brings with it a new environmental challenge: product returns. Based on the self-determination theory (SDT), we investigate whether digital nudging is a useful tool to lower return rates. We study how nudging affects consumer’s autonomy (A), competence (C), and relatedness (R) need satisfaction and how consumers’ environmental consciousness (EC) influences the effects of nudging. A survey-based online experiment with online shoppers from the US (n=988) is analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). We show, for instance, that nudging has a strong direct effect on return motivation (RM), suggesting that it serves as an extrinsic motivator. However, we also found that nudging has unintended side effects on intrinsic motivation, resulting in lower purchase motivation (PM). Our results show that nudging can be a promising tool to avoid product returns, but that it also bears risks.