Retail: Less returns when return period is longer

Researchers examined existing studies on return policies to quantify the effect on consumers’ purchase and return behavior. The study challenges the assumption that all return policies affect purchases and returns in a similar manner. It suggests that this is not the case, as retailers tend to impose restrictions to dissuade returns or offer leniency to encourage purchases by manipulating 5 return policy elements: time, money, effort, scope and exchange. They found that lenient policies positively affect purchase and return decisions. Leniency in time reduced return rates. An article about the research is published in the Journal of Retailing (News Item UT Dallas, 19 January 2016).
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