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AN EMPIRICAL STUDY ON EFFECT OF BRANDS ON PRODUCT RETURNS

Over the last couple of decades India has been the epicentre of consumer demand fuelled by a phenomenal GDP growth. Due to the burgeoning demand of Mobile Phones, the Indian industry is finding it difficult to meet the domestic demand and hence the import of Mobile Phones is increasing at a rapid rate. There by, the Indian consumer is provided with a variety of choices in terms of availability of brands, affordable prices and so on facilitating faster pre-purchase decisions. In the past few years, there has been a significant change in the shopping pattern of consumers from In store shopping to Online shopping in which returns are more likely due to a lack of “touch and feel” experience with the product prior to purchase. In both the processes, Product return is a necessary part of the exchange process between companies and customers. Industry data suggests that returns account for approximately 12% of total sales in India and that a significant portion of products are returned for reasons other than product failure – e.g., change of mind, found a lower price elsewhere, or fraudulent and unethical reasons. Thus, Product returns are no small part of the firm-customer exchange process (J. Andrew Petersen (University of North Carolina) and V. Kumar (Georgia State University) as product returns impose significant financial costs to retailers and to consumers alike. "However, these same returns create long-term value because customers who feel there is little risk in making the wrong purchase keep coming back”. This Empirical study focuses on understanding the interplay between the brand and consumers’ return behaviour, and also the relation between product performance and product return behaviour.