The influence of return channel type on the relationship between return service quality and customer loyalty in omnichannel retailing

Abstract

PurposeThis study investigates the impacts of return channel type on the relationships between return service quality (RSQ) and customer loyalty (CL) in an omnichannel retailing environment.Design/methodology/approachData comes from Chinese customers having a return experience in omnichannel retailing that uses the channel type of both buy-online-return-in-store (BORIS) and buy-in-store-return-to-online warehouses (BSROW). The authors use the structural equation modeling to test the hypotheses and the bootstrapping method to test the mediation and moderation effect.FindingsFor BORIS channel, satisfaction of customer returns (CRS) partially mediates the relationship between convenience and CL, and fully mediates that between CL and responsiveness, transparency and competence, respectively. For BSROW channel, CRS partially mediates the relationship between responsiveness and CL, and fully mediates that between CL and convenience, transparency and competence, respectively. The mediation effects indicate that omnichannel customers may feel more satisfied due to higher omnichannel fulfillment (responsiveness and convenience) and omnichannel trust (transparency and competence) provided by retailers. Return channel type moderates the relationship between RSQ-convenience and CL. The results show the different expectations between BORIS and BSROW customers in the return process.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper serves as a pioneering study to apply cognition-affect-behavior paradigm into the field of return management in omnichannel retailing.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest retailers develop their strategies on customer returns and post-sales service quality improvement in the omnichannel. Also, retailers should develop an integrated return system across channels to provide convenient service to BORIS customers and quick response to BSROW customers.Originality/valueStudying return service management in the omnichannel from customer's cognition appraisal, this study contributes to the literature of the reverse service management by bringing in the effect of omnichannel type to explore the relationship between RSQ and CL.

Evaluation of consumer technology experience: The mediation role of customer satisfaction and its impact on customer loyalty and word of mouth.

“…This finding is in line with Azhari et al (2023), Chen et al (2023), and Lee and Li (2023), who argued that satisfied customers who are driven by positive experiences with chatbot apps will exhibit higher levels of loyalty. This emphasizes the pivotal role of customer satisfaction in shaping continued usage (Xie et al, 2023). Further, findings affirmed that customer satisfaction positively affected word-of-mouth, accepting H3.…”

“…As a result, a causal relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty is frequently cited in the marketing literature (Camilleri & Filieri, 2023;Felix & Rembulan, 2023;Pavone et al, 2023), emphasizing the impact of service satisfaction on customer loyalty (Chen et al, 2023). Numerous studies support the idea that happy online service customers are more likely to return, influencing their loyalty (see Azhari et al, 2023;Xie et al, 2023;Zaato et al, 2023). In this context, Venkatakrishnan et al (2023) provided evidence of a positive correlation between customer satisfaction and loyalty.…”

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