E-Commerce Literature Review

LITERATURE REVIEW

The product returns in an e-commerce company is at a very high rate of about 20-25 percent, the companies are facing a huge loss due to the reverse operations. The issues that e-tailing companies that are facing is due to the lack of touch and feel by the customers, the view it online and later they face issues such as size and colour mismatch. In anarticle,“e-commerce-returns an Achilles heels” the authors (Luton and Dave,2000) talks about how severe is the case of returns for a e-tailing company . A range of 20-30 percent for an e-commerce company is a potentially threatening scale.

In a paper “e-business : Issues and challenges in Indian perspective”, (Bhavya,2014) talks about why the return rate is more now, she states

In another article on the returns on e-commerce “Returns reverse logistics management starting in e-commerce B2C model, (Yang Ho) it talks about the barriers to the implementation of the returns reverse logistics management strategies:

(a) Starting point management

Just as the idiom “Take away the firewood under the cooking pot & the boiling will be stopped” same way it just means controlling the returns at the roots. Firstly the customer should be fully aware of the return policies and the sellers should provide complete and true information. Secondly to work for the extension of the policies such as extending the Date of cancelling the order so that the customer that may have impulsively bought the product should have a choice of cancelling It before it is delivered at customer’s doorstep.

(b) Process management

In the reverse logistics the process management plays a a major role, the most important is to optimize the handling of returns, so as to achieve the goals of shortening return handling cycles , increase the rate of reselling and improving operational

The return reasons may help you identify how to handle the returned product, such as DOA (dead on arrival) that may require testing rather than re-stocking. The customers may also indicate if they seek a credit or an exchange. • Return labels – that include shipping address and an identifier number or bar code for the receiving team to quickly match the returned items to the original purchase so a credit can be issued. • Pre-paid shipping identifier on the shipping label – if the return qualifies, the retailer pays the shipping otherwise the shipping cost will be deducted from the customer credit. Offering to arrange the shipping and to deduct if from the customer’s credit can be an advantage to the customer who do not wish to stand in line at the post office to ship the package. You can also offer the customer a lower shipping and insurance cost since you can pass on your shipping volume