Return for Free or Charge a Fee? - An experimental study of how a free return policy influences Swedish consumers' product quality perception and return intention in e-commerce

Abstract: As the e-commerce market is rapidly growing and the number of retailers offering a free return policy is on the rise, the issue of increased customer returns and their effects on consumer cognition and behavior needs to be addressed. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to gain insights on how a free return policy affects the product quality perception of Swedish consumers in an e-commerce setting, both in the pre-purchase and the post-purchase stage. Furthermore, it also aims to investigate whether the product quality perception will significantly affect the return intention. The study was designed as an experiment conducted through a self-completion questionnaire, which was physically distributed to students at Swedish universities. The results were that free returns in an online retail setting does not significantly affect the Swedish consumer's product quality perception in neither the pre- nor the post-purchase stage. However, the results showed a significant negative correlation between product quality perception and return intention for Swedish consumer in an online retail setting.