Product Return Handling

In this article we focus on product return handling and warehousing issues. In some businesses return rates can be well over 20% and returns can be especially costly when not handled properly. In spite of this, many managers have handled returns extemporarily. The fact that quantitative methods barely exist to support return handling decisions adds to this. In this article we bridge those issues by 1) going over the key decisions related with return handling; 2) identifying quantitative models to support those decisions. Furthermore, we provide insights on directions for future research.