1. Building Customer Loyalty for Online Retailers Through Product-Return Service Operations
Mingfang Li
Department of Logistics Engineering
College of Economics & Management
Hebei University of Science & Technology
Askar Choudhury
Department of Management & Quantitative Methods
College of Business
Illinois State University
Illinois State University

2. Return Service Operations Customer Relationship
Research Issue
A company's resolution of a problem from a dissatisfied customer, converting them into a loyal customer. It is the action a service provider takes in response to service failure
Service
Recovery
Return Service Operations
Customer Relationship
Return process
Interaction supports
Satisfaction
Trust
Loyalty

3. Treat Return Service as a Service Recovery
Post purchase
dissonance
Consumer returns
Dissatisfaction
Service failure
Illinois State University

4. Background
Research concerning the effect of return service on customer relationship
Positive influence on satisfaction, future purchase, and loyalty intention
Aflaki & Popescu, 2014; Ertekin, 2018; Walsh & Brylla, 2017;
Jain et al., 2017; Russo et al., 2017; etc
Treat return service as service recovery
Mollenkopf et al., 2007; Griffis, et al., 2012
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5. Background
Two issues for further exploring from the perspective of service recovery
Return service elements
E-S-QUAL: efficiency, fulfillment, system availability, and privacy
E-RecS-QUAL: responsiveness, compensation and contact
Fairness of return service: interaction, procedure, and outcome.
The role of consumer trust for loyalty
Rebuilding loyalty after service failure depends primarily on the recovery of trust. (La & Choi, 2012, 2013 )
Interaction
Parasuraman,
et. al., 2005
Ahsan &
Rahman, 2016
Trust
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6. Modification for Current Research1
Return
Process
Satisfaction
Loyalty
Interaction
Supports
Trust
Return Service 2
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7. Conceptual Model Return Service H2 H4 H8 H1 H6 H3 H9 H5 H7
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8. Hypotheses H1
Perceived Interaction Supports is positively related to Return Process Experience. H2
Perceived Interaction Supports is positively associated to Return Satisfaction. H3
Return Process Experience is positively associated to Return Satisfaction. H4
Perceived Interaction supports is positively associated to Consumer Trust. H5
Return Process Experience is positively associated to Consumer Trust. H6
Return Satisfaction is positively associated to Consumer Trust. H7
Return Process Experience is positively associated to Loyalty Intention. H8
Return Satisfaction is positively associated to Loyalty Intention. H9
Consumer Trust in E-retailer is positively associated to Loyalty Intention.
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9. Design & Methodology Data Collection
Electronic questionnaire distributed through WeChat and QQ
442 valid responses out of 550 total responses
Source ratio of respondents' shopping experience
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10. Design & Methodology Data Analysis
Structural equation modelling was conducted via MPLUS 7.0.
Measurement model fitness: 𝜒 2 /𝑑𝑓=2.331, CFI =0.938, TLI=0.933, RMSEA =0.055, SRMR =0.033; Structural modeling fitness: 𝜒 2 /𝑑𝑓=1.449, CFI =0.999, TLI=0.993, RMSR=0.013, RMSEA=
Latent variables 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Mean SD
1. Access Supports
0.798
3.875
0.953
2. Friendly Interaction
0.670
0.852
3.834
0.924
3. Communication Supports
0.600
0.689
0.864
3.940
0.915
4. Convenience of Return
0.502
0.575
0.623
0.738
3.798
0.900
5. Ease of Return
0.618
0.704
0.682
0.733
0.836
3.867
0.843
6. Return Satisfaction
0.579
0.673
0.662
0.712
0.831
0.871
3.824
0.879
7. Consumer Trust
0.506
0.596
0.628
0.601
0.701
0.758
0.849
3.835
0.810
8. Loyalty Intention
0.590
0.621
0.663
0.725
0.818
0.858
3.833
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11. Design & Methodology Measures RPE PIS Access Supports
Return Satisfaction
Convenience
of Return
Friendly Interaction
Consumer Trust
Ease of Return
Communication
Supports
Loyalty Intention
RPE
PIS
Illinois State University

12. Results
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13. Results
1. Return process plays an important role within the effect of interaction supports.
63.4%
66.3%
Estimate
P-Value
97.5%CI
Effect of Perceived Interaction Supports
Total Indirect effect
0.617***
0.000
[0.535, 0.691]
PIS-RPE-LI
0.116*
0.008
[0.034, 0.205]
PIS-RS-LI
0.035
0.088
[-0.001, 0.085]
PIS-CT-LI
0.103*
0.020
[0.030, 0.207]
PIS-RPE-RS-LI
0.075*
0.045
[0.001, 0.151]
PIS-RPE-CT-LI
0.071*
0.037
[0.001, 0.137]
PIS-RS-CT-LI
0.070**
0.001
[0.034, 0.118]
PIS-RPE-RS-CT-LI
0.147***
[0.099, 0.212]
Total effect
0.544***
[0.415, 0.665]
Effect of Return Process Experience
Direct effect
0.154**
0.007
[0.044, 0.268]
Total Indirect
0.390***
[0.269, 0.513]
RPE-RS-LI
0.100*
0.042
[0.001, 0.198]
RPE-CT-LI
0.094*
0.034
[0.002,0.179]
RPE-RS-CT-LI
0.196***
[0.133, 0.280]
2. Consumer trust act as a vital antecedent for loyalty intention in return service.
74.4%
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14. Contributions
For return service, consumer trust is more suitable as an immediate determinant of customer loyalty, which has been ignored in existing literature
In addition to return process, interaction supports also needed to be included in return service, and its effect on customer relationship is primarily through return process, which improved the return service system
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15. Implications
Positive effect of return service on customer relationship
→ Return Service Operations should be paid more attention in building long-term customer relationships
Consumer trust play as a more important mediating role than return satisfaction
Return process is a necessary operation for the interaction supports, because it act as the effect transmitter for interaction supports
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16. Thanks
Q & S
Mingfang Li
Askar Choudhury
Illinois State University