Abstract
The constantly growing online trade offers various opportunities for companies, but is also associated with the issue of an increasing number of customer returns. Since these are both economically and ecologically problematic, policymakers are currently discussing strategies to avoid these returns and the associated disposals. In a game theoretic model, different options of state intervention in the supply chain are investigated and compared with each other, i.e., the prohibition of disposal, the remission of value added tax on donations and a state-imposed return fee. For the resulting complex optimization problem, a solution approach is first presented to determine the Stackelberg equilibrium of the game. A comprehensive numerical analysis shows that above all the remission of the value added tax on donations as well as a state-imposed return fee for customers can lead to promising results. Nevertheless, the analysis also reveals that even without intervention in the market, members of the supply chain always have a personal interest in avoiding returns and disposal whenever possible.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abdulla, H., Ketzenberg, M., Abbey, J.: Taking stock of consumer returns: a review and classification of the literature. J. Oper. Manag. 65, 560–605 (2019)
Chen, J., Bell, P.C.: Implementing market segmentation using full-refund and no-refund customer returns policies in a dual-channel supply chain structure.Int. J. Prod. Economics 136, 56–66 (2012)
Choi, T.-M.: Optimal return service charging policy for a fashion mass customization program. Serv. Sci. 5(1), 56–68 (2013)
Fashionunited. https://fashionunited.uk/news/business/amazon-criticised-for-disposal-of-returned-and-unsold-items-in-germany/2018062130340. Accessed 16 Apr 2020
Gecker, R., Vigoroso, M.W.: Revisiting Reverse Logistics in the Customer-centric Service Chain: Benchmark Report. Aberdeen Group, Boston (2006)
Guo, H., Li, C., Zhang, Y., Zhang, C., Lu, M.: A location-inventory problem in a closed-loop supply chain with secondary market consideration. Sustainability 10(6), 1–20 (2018)
Kessler, M.: Neu oder nicht? Online-Händler verkaufen Rückläufer als Neuware. https://www.teltarif.de/ online-shop-shopping-neuware-retoure-ruecklaeufer-verbraucherzentrale/news/47455.html. Accessed 16 Apr 2020
Hua, Z., Hou, H., Bian, Y.: Optimal shipping strategy and return service charge under no-reason return policy in online retailing. IEEE Trans. Syst. Man Cybern.: Syst. 47(12), 3189–3206 (2017)
Huang, X., Gu, J.W., Ching, W.K., Siu, T.K.: Impact of secondary market on consumer return policies and supply chain coordination. Omega 45, 57–70 (2014)
Li, G., Li, L., Sethi, S.P., Guan, X.: Return strategy and pricing in a dual-channel supply chain. Int. J. Prod. Econ. 215, 153–164 (2019)
Maiti, T., Giri, B.: Two-way product recovery in a closed-loop supply chain with variable markup under price and quality dependent demand. Int. J. Prod. Econ. 183, 259–272 (2017)
Mostard, J., Teunter, R.: The newsboy problem with resalable returns: a single period model and case study. Eur. J. Oper. Res. 169, 81–96 (2006)
Mukhopadhyay, S.K., Setaputra, R.: Optimal return policy for e-business. In: Proceedings of Technology Management for the Global Future PICMET, Istanbul, Turkey, 2006, vol. 3, pp. 1203–1209 (2006)
Parsopoulosa, K.E., Konstantaras, I., Skouri, K.: Metaheuristic optimization for the single-item dynamic lot sizing problem with returns and remanufacturing. Comput. Ind. Eng. 83, 307–315 (2015)
Radhi, M., Zhang, G.: Pricing policies for a dual-channel retailer with cross-channel returns. Comput. Ind. Eng. 119, 63–75 (2018)
Retourenforschung Uni Bamberg. www.retourenforschung.de/info-hintergruende-der-retourenentsorgung--studie-ausgewertet.html. Accessed 16 Apr 2020
Retourenforschung Uni Bamberg. www.retourenforschung.de/info-praeventives-retourenmanagement-und-ruecksendegebuehren--neue-studienergebnisse.html. Accessed 16 Apr 2020
Saleh, K.: E-commerce product return rate - statistics and trends [infographic]. https://www.invespcro.com/blog/ecommerce-product-return-rate-statistics/. Accessed 16 Apr 2020
Vlachos, D., Dekker, R.: Return handling options and order quantities for single period products. Eur. J. Oper. Res. 151, 38–52 (2003)
Yang, F., Hu, P., Zhao, F.: Customer returns model in a dual-channel supply chain. J. Model. Manag. 10, 360–379 (2015)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Beranek, M. (2020). Game Theoretic Analysis of State Interventions to Reduce Customer Returns in E-Commerce. In: Lalla-Ruiz, E., Mes, M., Voß, S. (eds) Computational Logistics. ICCL 2020. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12433. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59747-4_43
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59747-4_43
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-59746-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-59747-4
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)