IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/proeco/v230y2020ics0925527320301717.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Managing customer returns strategy with the option of selling returned products

Author

Listed:
  • Wan, Xing
  • Li, Dan
  • Chen, Jing
  • Lei, Yongqin

Abstract

Managing customer returns is a crucial issue for the retailing industry. In this paper, we develop a model to investigate a monopolistic retailer's customer returns management strategy. The retailer should determine its returns policy: a money-back guarantee (MBG) or no-refund. If an MBG returns policy is offered, the retailer must also decide whether or not to sell the returned products as open-box products. We derive the optimal pricing strategy for each of the returns strategies and identify the retailer's optimal customer returns management strategy. We show when the retailer should implement each of the returns policies, and when it should sell the returned products as open-box products. We also show that even when the retailer cannot handle customer returns efficiently, it could choose to offer an MBG returns policy and sell returned products as open-box products, if the cost of inspecting returned items is low. Finally, we show that the retailer can simplify the choice of returns management strategy based on identifiable quantities and threshold values. The implications of this study are also discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Wan, Xing & Li, Dan & Chen, Jing & Lei, Yongqin, 2020. "Managing customer returns strategy with the option of selling returned products," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 230(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:proeco:v:230:y:2020:i:c:s0925527320301717
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpe.2020.107794
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925527320301717
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ijpe.2020.107794?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Guo, Xiaolong & Zhou, Qiang & Bian, Junsong, 2022. "Online retailers’ platform-based Worry-Free-Shopping: Retailing strategy considering consumer valuation bias," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    2. Guo, Xiongfei & Chen, Jing, 2023. "Manufacturer’s quality improvement and Retailer’s In-store service in the presence of customer returns," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    3. Juan Tang & An‐Lin Song & Chang‐Yi Liu & Zhi Liu, 2023. "Optimal decisions in a remanufacturing supply chain under money‐back guarantees," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(4), pages 2254-2277, June.
    4. Li, Dan & Chen, Jing & Liao, Yi, 2021. "Outsourcing strategy in the presence of the customer returns," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 240(C).
    5. Priya, Bhawna & Biswas, Indranil & Agrawal, Anupam, 2023. "The over-ordering problem in trade credit: Role of return policies," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 309(2), pages 731-744.
    6. Wang, Lisha & Chen, Jing & Song, Huaming, 2021. "Marketplace or reseller? Platform strategy in the presence of customer returns," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    7. Liu, Jiqiong & Yuan, Rui & Feng, Shuai, 2023. "Whether to offer return-freight insurance or open a physical showroom: A strategic analysis of an online retailer’s decisions," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    8. Li, Dan & Chen, Jing & Chen, Bintong & Liao, Yi, 2022. "Manufacturer’s contract choice and retailer’s returns management strategy," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    9. Wang, Junbin & Wang, Shanshan, 2022. "Revisiting the showrooming effect on online and offline retailers: The strategic role of in-store service," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    10. Zhang, Qiao & Chen, Jing & Chen, Bintong, 2021. "Information strategy in a supply chain under asymmetric customer returns information," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    11. Guo, Xiongfei & Chen, Jing & Wu, Jie & Zhang, Tinglong & Zhang, Hui, 2024. "Returns policy, in-store service, and contract strategies in the presence of customer returns," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:proeco:v:230:y:2020:i:c:s0925527320301717. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ijpe .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.