Effective Return Prevention Measures in the Post-purchase Stage: A Best-Worst Scaling Approach

Abstract

Within the rather nascent literature stream examining product returns, the authors identify that the vast majority of studies enlightens return avoidance measures (before ordering), whereas return averting measures (after purchasing) showed to increase customer satisfaction the most. Moreover, extant literature is characterized by methodological paucity, which prevents a more diverse view on the problem of product returns. As a result, the authors enrich the literature by conducting a Best-Worst Scaling (BWS) experiment dealing with various product averting measures (including different types of measures with different levels of immediacy). Focusing on the most frequent online shopping segment (Generation Y) and the second most frequently occurring reason for product returns (i.e., consumers did not like the product), the authors exploratively evince that monetary/utilitarian measures are preferred most and are effective, as well as funding of social and sustainability projects. However, substantial differences were detected based on consumers’ green consumption values. Apart from that, the study contributes to the BWS literature by outlining the necessity to include anchor scaling and quality assessment criteria.