Product returns

Product returns are an increasing problem in multichannel retail. The project facilitated collaboration between the academic team and retailers (manufacturers) to explore ways to streamline returns processes, assess returns' true costs, influence customer behaviour, and make returns more sustainable using circular economy concepts.

The research streams include:

• Drivers of product returns on consumer and retailer side
• Returns fraud
• The unsustainability of product returns
• More circular business models
• Communication with customers to influence their behaviour.

• The work within the project caught the attention of the media: BBC One, BBC Radio 4, BBC, The Guardian, DeliveryX,  Internet Retailing, the Southern Daily Echo and Medium.
• The latest research on fraudulent product returns: "Consumer perspectives on interventions to combat fraudulent product returns in omnichannel fashion retail" (Felipe Merlano, Regina Frei, Danni Zhang, Ekaterina Murzacheva, and Steve Wood).
• Research funded by CIMA, the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants in 2023-24 investigates how companies can assess circular business opportunities. As part of this work, a paper was published (October 2024) that explores how to guide organisations in exploring and assessing their transition to more sustainable and circular business models: The circularity radar: a digital tool for SMEs to assess circular opportunities.