An insight into customers’ product return intentions

Every year, the global retail industry loses billions of dollars due to product returns. Despite this, very little of the marketing literature examines customers’ intentions to return and the associated implications. The present study captures, analyses and interprets a managerially relevant variable, namely product return intentions, and helps retail store managers, retail analysts and marketing managers understand the decision journey behind consumer product returns. Specifically, the study looks at the relationship between the consumer’s cognitive dissonance after purchase and product return intentions in the context of both lenient and strict return policies. The study also looks at the ill effects of such return intentions in terms of negative word-of-mouth feedback about the retailer. The results suggest that cognitive dissonance after purchase positively influences product return intentions, which in turn positively influences negative word-of-mouth intentions; however, the relationship remains unaffected in strict and lenient return policy situations. Besides providing crucial insights into the complex consumer sentiments associated with seemingly simple product returns, the research questions the previously held notion of retailers and store managers controlling product returns by imposing strict return policies—a finding of paramount importance to business.