Avoiding high return rates in retail. An explorative study under the aspect of customer acceptance

Along with the development of e-commerce, product returns have developed to a common perk. The actions a retailer can take to reduce them can either be by adjusting the return policy or by identifying and analysing return reasons. According to Ratchford et al. [9], there has been a need to investigate how online retailers can reduce returns. Besides that, it has been interesting to have a look at the age of customers, since young customers tend to be major drivers of online re-tailing [2] survey in Germany was applied to generate data. According to the results measures suggested by literature are not accepted by customers. Further-more, the results show no correlation between the age of customers and the acceptance of certain return tools. The results allow a derivation of suggestions regarding the measures online retailers can take if they strive for a reduced return rate.