Abstract：The generosity of returns policy is usually a sign of quality that consumers receive in traditional "bricks-and-mortar", where high quality is defined as a low likelihood of product return. Existing literature, based on signaling theory, suggests that money-back guarantees (MBGs) will be utilized by high-quality firms. But nowadays, almost all the e-tailers offer MBGs, that is to say, the story of "clicks-and-mortar" goes not the same way as the traditional "bricks-and-mortar". To understand this phenomenon, we develop a stylized two-segment market setting, to find in which situation MBGs can greatly improve the profit. Our model captures important features of MBGs sales including demand uncertainty, consumer valuation uncertainty, consumer returns and so on. We show that selling with MBGs increases e-tailers' sales and profit. Furthermore, MBGs is the best returns policy for mid-quality e-tailers under certain technical cost and returns hassle. In addition, adding compensation for MBGs returns policy is usually the strategy of low-quality e-tailers to reduce returns rate.
李建斌, 李赟. 无理由退货政策下的在线定价及补偿优化策略[J]. 系统工程理论与实践, 2016, 36(11): 2811-2819.
LI Jianbin, LI Yun. Optimal online pricing and compensation strategy in MBG returns policy. Systems Engineering - Theory & Practice, 2016, 36(11): 2811-2819.
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2016, Vol. 36 
