While Money-Back-Guarantee (MBG) return policies are common in practice, the academic literature provides little guidance on the value, if any, that consumers assign to such a policy. For online retailers, both shipping charges and seller reputation may influence the perceived value of MBGs. A non-refundable forward shipping charge is likely to be perceived by consumers as an implicit restocking fee and hence, decreases the value of an MBG policy. On the other hand, good customer feedback may signal that MBGs will be handled easily, thus increasing their value in the eyes of consumers. To investigate the value of MBGs in the online context, we collect the final selling prices of identical consumer electronics products offered by different vendors (with different return policies) on eBay auctions. We estimate that offering an MBG policy for online consumer electronics increases a customer's valuation of a product by an average of 5.2%, which is significantly influenced by both seller reputation and shipping charges. Our results provide an empirical measure of the value of an MBG that can be weighed against the cost implications of providing such a policy. Mark Ferguson, Professor of Management Science, University of South Carolina

Expanding on the traditional stratified recovery channel based approaches to disposition of product, the DDM approach considers various input factors like volumes, quality and warranty costs, age of product, expected recovery and infrastructure requirements to determine the most optimal combination of channels to maximize recoveries. The different channels may be internal use, high margin / online re-sales, offline broker /retail channels or alternate regional markets Ramswaroop Boddu, Supply Chain Consultant, Dell, Inc.

Companies make money selling things, not taking them back. But companies automating the reverse logistics process have discovered a nontraditional but relatively easy way to move dollars to the bottom line. (4 pages)

Authors: Lee Norman and Warren Sumner, ClearOrbit

There are some unmistakable truths about top corporate execs. CEOs and EVPs love to walk the aisles of their stores, which are shiny and freshly waxed in anticipation of their "surprise" visit. Yet, on such field trips, they rarely see the stock rooms, and they are often hustled past the return counter. Likewise, they ride around the distribution center, seeing "neatness" on parade - rack after rack of new merchandise. But they are not afforded the same "royal treatment" when they tour their firm's return processing area. (3 pages)

Author: David C. Wyld, Southeastern Louisiana University

How do you monitor the pulse of your Reverse Logistics operations? How do you monitor your Returns processing activity? What measurements do you use to benchmark and improve your performance?

Successful Reverse Logistics performance requires more than a few month end reports. In this article we look at ways to maximize your Reverse Logistics performance. (3 pages)

Author: Paul Rupnow, ReverseLogisticsProfessional.com

The ready availability of retail-ready packaging and multiple trip packaging systems is taken for granted across the multiple retail sectors. However, significant inefficiencies impact upon the Reverse Logistics phases for these systems creating multiple barriers to reverse logistics efficiencies. This research reveals the reasons beneath the barriers and proposes three alternative Reverse Logistics strategies to overcome the barriers and add value into the reverse streams.

THE TOP 5 CHARACTERISTICS OF SUCCESSFUL REPAIR DEPOT OPERATIONS FOR PRODUCT-BASED SERVICE BUSINESSES BY TOM DEVROY, SENIOR PRODUCT EVANGELIST, SERVICE MANAGEMENT, IFS

2018: 4 REVERSE LOGISTICS SOFTWARE CHALLENGES YOUR SOFTWARE MUST DEAL WITH, BY TOM DEVROY, SENIOR PRODUCT EVANGELIST, IFS