Search: An Expense or an Experience? Exploring the Influence of Search on Product Return Intentions

Maity, Devdeep; Arnold, Todd J.

doi:10.1002/mar.20629

Cited by 30 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 62 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Third, in line with previous research on product returns (e.g., Bonifield et al., ; Maity & Arnold, ), the dependent variables in this study, order and keep, were operationalized as intentions, and served as a proxy for customers' actual behavior. Psychology research demonstrates the inherent link between intention and behavior (Ajzen, ; Fishbein & Ajzen, ) because intentions refer to individuals' motivation (in the form of conscious plans or decisions) to engage in the respective behavior (Conner & Armitage, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…At the same time, however, customers are more motivated to return a delivered product at decision stage 2 if it does not fully meet their expectations (Wood, ). Accordingly, prior psychological research demonstrates that customers return products for a number of motivations (Maity & Arnold, ; Powers & Jack, ), such as reducing purchase dissonance (Lee, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Rewarding customers who keep a product: How reinforcement affects customers' product return decision in online retailing

Gelbrich

Gäthke

Hübner

2017

Psychology and Marketing

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A lenient product return policy represents the status quo of current return management practice in online retailing because it increases customers' order tendency. However, at the same time, many customers tend to return products under this policy, which incurs considerable costs for retailers. The present research introduces a keep reward (i.e., providing incentives to keep a product) as a new promotion strategy to improve the conventional lenient policy. Drawing on operant conditioning, the authors propose and test the reinforcing effect of a keep reward on customers' keep decision, compared to the conventional lenient policy. Results of a qualitative pilot study suggest that a keep reward is generally feasible in online retailing practice, especially in the low-to midprice segment and with rewards that are linked to future purchases. Two experimental studies verify the positive effect of a keep reward. Study 1 shows that it substantially increases keep intention compared to a conventional lenient policy. Study 2 shows that the effect on keep intention is moderated by customers' online shopping frequency, and this moderating effect is mediated by repurchase intention. In particular, the keep reward is most effective among frequent shoppers because they are more inclined to repurchase and thus, benefit from the reward. In summary, both studies support the keep reward as a valuable add-on to the conventional lenient policy because order intention remains comparably high, while keep intention is higher. Theoretical implications and recommendations for online retailers on how to implement a keep reward in different industries are discussed. K E Y W O R D S online retailing, operant conditioning, product returns, return policies, rewards Psychol Mark. 2017;34:853-867.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rewarding customers who keep a product: How reinforcement affects customers' product return decision in online retailing

Gelbrich

Gäthke

Hübner

2017

Psychology and Marketing

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Moreover, the scenarios were tightly controlled so that there were no critical issues regarding the product quality itself but the postpurchase product satisfaction was somewhat below expectations. Next, respondents rated their product return intentions on three items ( unlikely/likely, improbable/probable, keep/return ; each on a 7‐point scale; α = 0.93) adapted from Schlosser, White, and Lloyd () and Maity and Arnold (). The ratings from the items were averaged to represent product return intention.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, a field study shows that a product return policy can affect consumer repurchase behavior as well (Bower & Maxham, ). However, most research to date has approached product returns from a firm's perspective along with analytical modeling (see Bechwati & Siegal, ; Maity & Arnold, ; Wood, , for exceptions). This means that very few researchers have tried to take a consumer‐oriented approach and to examine consumers’ psychological reasons for deriving product return intentions.…”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Seize the Deal, or Return It Losing Your Free Gift”: The Effect of a Gift‐With‐Purchase Promotion on Product Return Intention

Lee

2017

Psychology and Marketing

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The current article sheds light on an important issue in marketing: how marketers can prevent consumers from returning previously purchased goods. This research examines the relationship between a gift-with-purchase promotion and consumer product returns, hypothesizing that consumers who purchase products that come with a free gift will be less likely to return the products. Evidence shows that a gift-with-purchase promotion reduces consumer product returns and that this relationship is mediated by perceived loss in returning a product. Then, the results indicate that the choice of free gifts reduces product return intention and that this relationship is serially mediated by perceived ownership and perceived loss. The findings further suggest that when consumers with high product involvement can select free gifts among alternatives, they tend to perceive more ownership and loss and thereby are less likely to return the promoted product. Overall, the current research proposes that consumers prefer to seize the deal rather than to return it when they get a gift-with-purchase, have a chance to select a free gift, and are highly involved with the product.

show abstract

“…The first stream pertains to the legitimacy of consumers’ return requests and fraudulent return practices (Harris, ; Wang, Beatty and Liu, ). The second focuses on antecedents of returns, including psychological drivers (Powers and Jack, ) and return policy leniency (Maity and Arnold, ; Wood, ). This stream also considers shipping and handling costs and re‐stocking fees tools for preventing returns (Petersen and Anderson, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relationship between Online Retailers’ Reputation and Product Returns

Walsh

Albrecht

Kunz

et al. 2015

British J of Management

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Customer product returns are key cost drivers that eat into online retailers' profits. However, management research has neglected to examine ways of reducing return rates without causing a concomitant decrease in sales. Drawing from signalling and dissonance theories, we investigate the relationship between online retailers' reputation and product return rates. Two experiments designed to produce causal conclusions show that reputation reduces return rates (Studies 1 and 2) and that return motivation is a boundary condition for that relationship (Study 2). A field study based on an online consumer panel demonstrates the robustness of the negative impact of online retailer reputation on product returns in a setting that emphasizes external validity (Study 3), in comparison withStudies 1 and 2, which maximize internal validity. Study 3 also examines managerially important contingencies of the causal relationship by considering three variables: purchase frequency; retailer type; and customer gender. Overall findings indicate that an online retailer's reputation is a powerful means of reducing product return rates. The findings also show that the strength of the relationship between reputation and product returns is influenced by return motivation and the three variables investigated in the field study.

show abstract

Search: An Expense or an Experience? Exploring the Influence of Search on Product Return Intentions

Cited by 30 publications

References 62 publications

Rewarding customers who keep a product: How reinforcement affects customers' product return decision in online retailing

Rewarding customers who keep a product: How reinforcement affects customers' product return decision in online retailing

“Seize the Deal, or Return It Losing Your Free Gift”: The Effect of a Gift‐With‐Purchase Promotion on Product Return Intention

Relationship between Online Retailers’ Reputation and Product Returns

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About