An Improved Online Return Management with a Photo-Enabled Order Tracking System

This paper proposes a photo-enabled order tracking system for a better product return management outcomes in e-fulfilment. Although online shopping provides time and place utility to consumers, it is does not allow consumers to touch or try on products before purchase. For this reason, product returns in online channels are much higher than the returns in physical channels. Compared to physical channels, it takes longer time to process online return claims, because there is usually no physical location for consumers to directly return products to. They often need to use carrier companies, which increases process duration. Hence, online consumers who make return claim are often inconvenienced by long waiting times, even if their return claim is accepted. In order to address these idiosyncratic difficulties of online shopping, this paper suggests a photo-enabled order tracking system that allows consumers to visualize photos of their orders over the Internet at each e-fulfilment step. This system is proposed to provide two advantages. First, the audit function in e-fulfilment process is partially delegated to consumers, who, if they desire, can monitor their orders, enabling errors to be corrected instantly. This monitoring mechanism would decrease the firms' use of internal resources necessary to control logistics processes to prevent the possible instances of consumer dissatisfaction. Second, although the instant correction may not be possible, the return process would be shorter, because consumers will be able to make their return claims before the product is delivered to the delivery point. This would provide a saving in both the logistics costs of firms and the time-period that consumers need to wait for possessing products physically in the right form. In order to support these propositions, this paper has made a content analysis of the negative text comments posted by online consumers in an e-marketplace. After the identification of major reasons for product return claims with this analysis, this paper discusses how the photo-enabled order tracking system might help address and even eliminate the causes of online return claims. This paper also discusses the operational challenges and limitations of using this system for firms.