Although lenient return policies can drive sales and customer loyalty, they have also resulted in enormous returns volumes and reverse logistics costs. Online retailers often feel compelled to offer free returns, but are then faced with numerous operational challenges, ranging from accurately...

Livestream e-commerce features live social interactions that enable real-time, face-to-text communications among a streamer and many customers. We posit such live social interactions generate persuasion effect that eventually leads to higher product returns. Using data from a leading livestream...