Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

acceptedVersion

Publication Date

3-2017

Abstract

A common dilemma a consumer faces during product return pertains to the decision of exchanging the product or obtaining a refund. This issue becomes even more salient for durable goods, when the initial purchase involves complementary products from different categories. This research examines consumer’s trade-off decision between returning and keeping complementary products by exploring various retail actions (using umbrella branded products (UBP)) and customer characteristics. We also investigate the trade-off between product exchange and refund when consumer returns a product. We find interesting extensions to past research wherein UBP are returned less and result in greater exchange than refund. Furthermore, an interesting caveat is that higher degree of complementarity between UBP intensifies the impact of various factors on exchange as opposed to refund of products. Implications for retail managers and sales teams are explored.

Keywords

Product return, Product exchange and refund, Umbrella branding, Nested logit, Multinomial logit

Discipline

Marketing | Sales and Merchandising

Research Areas

Marketing

Publication

Marketing Letters

Volume

28

Issue

1

First Page

113

Last Page

125

ISSN

0923-0645

Identifier

10.1007/s11002-015-9393-7

Publisher

Springer Verlag (Germany)

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11002-015-9393-7

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