IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlogis/v8y2024i3p82-d1456666.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Investigating Returns Management across E-Commerce Sectors and Countries: Trends, Perspectives, and Future Research

Author

Listed:
  • Anthony Boyd Stevenson

    (Institute for Business Administration and Information Systems, University of Hildesheim, Universitätsplatz 1, 31141 Hildesheim, Germany)

  • Julia Rieck

    (Institute for Business Administration and Information Systems, University of Hildesheim, Universitätsplatz 1, 31141 Hildesheim, Germany)

Abstract

Background : The systematic literature review with additional descriptive analysis at hand focuses on analysing returns management in e-commerce, which is an increasingly critical issue as the volume of online shopping is rising. Methods : Drawing from a comprehensive search of academic databases and a manual review of Google Scholar, 54 articles dating from 2007 onwards were collected and fully read. Results : The review reveals a main research effort emerging mainly from Germany and other countries, with a notable focus on fashion retail. The bulk of these studies aim to understand and reduce the frequency of customer returns, addressing a substantial operational challenge for online retailers. The findings provide multiple research streams extracted from the collected literature and combined to an overview. Conclusions : Through this, there are tendencies which can be interpreted to derive the evolution of the research field. The illustrated results in this review paint a detailed picture of the existing research landscape. This highlights the importance of ongoing research, which, e.g., holds potential benefits for customer satisfaction and environmental sustainability. The review also lists future research directions, recommending the continued investigation of areas such as predictive analytics and customer behaviour to further refine returns management practices.

Suggested Citation

  • Anthony Boyd Stevenson & Julia Rieck, 2024. "Investigating Returns Management across E-Commerce Sectors and Countries: Trends, Perspectives, and Future Research," Logistics, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-37, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlogis:v:8:y:2024:i:3:p:82-:d:1456666
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2305-6290/8/3/82/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2305-6290/8/3/82/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Xu, Xun & Jackson, Jonathan E., 2019. "Investigating the influential factors of return channel loyalty in omni-channel retailing," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 216(C), pages 118-132.
    2. Overstreet, Robert E. & Morgan, Tyler R. & Laczniak, Russell N. & Daugherty, Patricia J., 2022. "Stemming the tide of increasing retail returns: Implications of targeted returns policies," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 551-562.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kong, Ruixiao & Luo, Li & Chen, Liuxin & Keblis, Matthew F., 2020. "The effects of BOPS implementation under different pricing strategies in omnichannel retailing," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    2. Amir Heiman & Bruce P. McWilliams & David Zilberman, 2022. "Adoption of Innovations: Comparing the Imitation and the Threshold Models," Foundations and Trends(R) in Marketing, now publishers, vol. 17(1), pages 1-57, June.
    3. Sonia Bendimerad & Oussama El Khalil & Asma Khelifi, 2023. "E-commerce and returns management: the other side of the show [E-commerce et gestion des retours : l'envers du décor]," Post-Print hal-04413401, HAL.
    4. Yang, Lu & Li, Xiangyong & Xia, Ye & Aneja, Y.P., 2023. "Returns operations in omnichannel retailing with buy-online-and-return-to-store," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    5. Nourhan Ah. Saad & Sara Elgazzar & Sonja Mlaker Kac, 2022. "Investigating the Impact of Resilience, Responsiveness, and Quality on Customer Loyalty of MSMEs: Empirical Evidence," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-20, April.
    6. Junxia He & Jian Liu & Fan Yang & Xia Zhao, 2022. "Returns Freight Insurance Policy and the Impact from a BOPS Retailer," SN Operations Research Forum, Springer, vol. 3(1), pages 1-36, March.
    7. Xu, Xun & Zeng, Shuo & He, Yuanjie, 2021. "The impact of information disclosure on consumer purchase behavior on sharing economy platform Airbnb," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 231(C).
    8. Yongbo Sun & Binbin Shi, 2022. "Impact of Greenwashing Perception on Consumers’ Green Purchasing Intentions: A Moderated Mediation Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-15, September.
    9. Jaroslav Nenadál & David Vykydal & Eva Tylečková, 2021. "Complex Customer Loyalty Measurement at Closed-Loop Quality Management in B2B Area—Czech Example," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-20, March.
    10. Park, Joonyong & Kim, Renee B., 2022. "Importance of offline service quality in building loyalty of OC service brand," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    11. Kamarin Merritt & Shichao Zhao, 2020. "An Investigation of What Factors Determine the Way in Which Customer Satisfaction Is Increased through Omni-Channel Marketing in Retail," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-24, October.
    12. Mandal, Prasenjit & Basu, Preetam & Saha, Kushal, 2021. "Forays into omnichannel: An online retailer’s strategies for managing product returns," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 292(2), pages 633-651.
    13. Ahmed Dabees & Mahmoud Barakat & Sahar Sobhy Elbarky & Andrej Lisec, 2023. "A Framework for Adopting a Sustainable Reverse Logistics Service Quality for Reverse Logistics Service Providers: A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-16, January.
    14. Mitxel Cotarelo & Teresa Fayos & Haydeé Calderón & Alejandro Mollá, 2021. "Omni-Channel Intensity and Shopping Value as Key Drivers of Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-17, May.
    15. Chen, Xingli & Zhou, Jianheng, 2021. "The complexity analysis and chaos control in omni-channel supply chain with consumer migration and advertising cost sharing," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    16. Goedhart, Joost & Haijema, René & Akkerman, Renzo, 2023. "Modelling the influence of returns for an omni-channel retailer," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 306(3), pages 1248-1263.

    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:gam:jlogis:v:8:y:2024:i:3:p:82-:d:1456666. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.