The Impact of COVID-19 on Product Returns Management in Multichannel Retail

Purpose: The Covid-19 pandemic affected customers' shopping and returns behaviours and significantly aggravated the problem of high product returns rates and returns fraud. Measures for public health and safety resulted in retailers modifying their returns processes. This study describes the changes observed and experienced by retailers as well as consumers and concludes what lessons retailers can learn from the experience. Design/methodology/approach: 18 semi-structured interviews were conducted with multichannel retailers and retail experts. This was complemented with a consumer survey focusing on returns behaviour (497 valid responses). Findings: Our project outputs include a list of recommendations for retailers to mitigate the effects of the pandemic on returns and related fraud and what they can learn from the experience with the goal of reducing returns rates and fraudulent returns in non-pandemic situations.Originality: The effects of the observed returns process changes on returns management were unclear; very little was known about what retailers experienced in terms of product returns during the pandemic. We shed light on this and identify opportunities for improvement in multichannel returns management.