The Management Of Deshopping And Its Effects On Service: a Mass Market Case Study

Purpose: Deshopping is the return of products, after they have fulfilled the purposefor which they were borrowed. Previous research indicates that deshopping is aprevalent and growing consumer behaviour. This paper examines deshopping from aretail perspective. It is a case study of interviews conducted with a mass-marketretailer, to investigate their awareness and management of this behaviour.Methodology: This paper is a case study of nine interviews conducted with differentlevels of staff at a mass-market retailer in their flagship London store, to investigatetheir awareness and management of deshopping.Findings: The findings demonstrate the beliefs, attitudes and emotions of thedifferent levels of employees towards deshopping and demonstrates their attempts tomanage deshopping and combat the negative affects of this on customer service.Research limitations: The limitation of this research is that it is only conducted withone high street retailer. However, it is important to highlight that this is a largewomenswear retailer which is highly representative of other retailers within thesector. There is little detail given regarding the retailer itself or their fundamentals ofthe actual Customer Service Policy, this is due to the confidentiality agreementbetween the researcher and retailer. It is important to acknowledge the sensitivity ofthis type research to retailers who are reluctant to have this information publicised. Itis also important to acknowledge that many retailers have not made any attempts tomanage this behaviour by restricting their returns policy. So this research case study isconducted with a retailer that is actively introducing change to manage this behaviour.Practical implications: The research concludes with the implications of deshoppingand its management and makes recommendations on how to reduce deshopping whilstmaintaining customer service for the genuine consumer.Originality/value of the paper: This is the first case study with a mass marketretailer highlighting their approaches towards managing deshopping whilst trying tomaintain customer service.