Product returns
Overview
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.
Achieved outcomes
- The work within the project caught the attention of the media: BBC One, , , , , , the and .
- The latest research on fraudulent product returns: "" (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:
Related sustainable development goals
Team
Principal investigator
Dr Regina Frei
Principal investigator
Project members
Lecturer in Business Analytics, University of Southampton
Emeritus Professor, University of Leicester
Emeritus Professor of Accounting Management, University of Sheffield
Professor of Computer Science, University of Southampton
Professor of Accounting, University of Portsmouth
Lecturer, Solent University
Associate Professor of Management Accounting, University of Southampton
Lecturer in CSR and Ethics, De Montfort University
Felipe Merlano
Research Fellow
Felipe Merlano
Research Fellow
Dr Ekaterina Murzacheva
Head of Digital Economy, Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Senior Lecturer in Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Lecturer in Logistics and Operations Management, Cardiff University