Product returns have often been viewed by customers as a necessary evil, a painful process and, usually, unavoidable. For retailers, manufacturers and distributors, returns have often been seen as a nuisance, a cost center and an area of potential customer dissatisfaction. As long as products are being sold, there will always be some returns. And, for many sellers, the process of handling product returns has been mostly on an ad hoc basis. However, many successful organizations have realized that the returns process incurs significant costs (See “Returns by the Numbers,” p. 58) and that an effective product returns strategy, which is a major aspect ofreverse logistics (the term that encompasses returns as well as a number of other activities related to items moving “backwards” in the supply chain) can provide a number of benefits.1,2 (See “About the Research,” p. 59.) Product returns can be categorized into two groups: (1)controllable returns, which can be avoided or eliminated by actions taken by the company, and (2)uncontrollable returns, which companies can do little or nothing about in the short term.
Controllable Returns.
Controllable returns result from problems, difficulties or errors of the seller or customer and can be mostly eliminated with the proper strategies and programs by the company or its supply chain partners. Every controllable factor... To read the complete article, login or sign-up using the form below.
Become a premium subscriber today to read this and all MIT Sloan Managmeent Review articles.
Buy this article. Purchase one or more copies of this article in PDF form.
Become a premium subscriber today to read this article and the entire archive of MIT SMR articles.
Upgrade your existing subscription to premium
Sign in if you are a premium subscriber.
Do you subscribe the MIT Sloan Management Review in print? Enter the email address and password you used when ordering. Don't remember? Lookup your subscription account information
- Register for free access to recent articles and the current issue of MIT Sloan Management Review.
- Subscribe and read articles from the past three years online.
- Premium subscription give you access to the entire archive of articles.
