Lenient return in brazilian fashion e-commerce: the role of social exchanges

Abstract

With the growth of e-commerce, the return policy and become a strategic role in companies establishing relationships with consumers. This study aims to investigate how large Brazilian e-commerce companies seek to form relationships with their consumers through lenient return policies, from the perspective of social exchanges. Therefore, a basic interpretive qualitative study was used, based on the knowledge of nine managers who work in three companies. Data collection was carried out through public documents and semi-structured interviews and the data were submitted to content analysis. The results reveal that retailers' efforts to develop social exchanges with consumers, based on trust, reciprocity and commitment, result in more tolerant return policies. Companies that have the capacity to meet the demand for returns develop practices to increase satisfaction and reduce the risks perceived by the consumer, encouraging trust, and seek to create a reciprocal and committed relationship, which contributes to positive evaluations and repurchase intention. As contributions, this study investigates e-commerce, highlighted on the world stage, and a phenomenon that reflects on the performance of companies, but needs investigation: the return of products. It adds to the management literature, it shows how theory is applied in the return policy and in the relationship between retailer and consumer.