Abstract
The advent of online shopping brought convenience to customers and bigger markets to retailers. It did however create a backwash of negative environmental effects, and inflated transaction costs. A big part of this is overpackaging and fast shipping. Customer is king however, and the trend toward more and more online buying is unlikely to reverse. This chapter discusses a data-driven way in which both the environmental impact and the costs associated with online retail can be reduced: preventing product returns.
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References
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Khusainova, G. There is no such thing as a free return. https://www.forbes.com/sites/gulnazkhusainova/2019/03/28/there-is-no-such-thing-as-a-free-return/. Accessed 22 Jan 2021.
Schiffer, J. The unsustainable cost of free returns — vogue business. https://www.voguebusiness.com/consumers/returns-rising-costs-retail-environmental. Accessed 22 Jan 2021.
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Kerkhove, LP. (2022). Managing Product Returns. In: Data-driven Retailing. Management for Professionals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12962-9_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12962-9_6
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Online ISBN: 978-3-031-12962-9
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