Research on Cross-Channel Return Strategies under Consumers' Impulsive Buying Behavior

Considering that consumers may engage in impulsive buying behavior due to cognitive dissonance when shopping online, and the uncertainty in product quality and valuation can potentially lead to dissatisfaction, thereby triggering return behaviors. Therefore, this paper addresses the issue of returns in a cross-channel environment by establishing consumer utility functions under no-return, same-channel return, and cross-channel return strategies, respectively. It investigates the impact of consumer disappointment and product valuation uncertainty on retailers' market demand, pricing, profits, and return volumes. The results indicate that when consumers make impulsive purchases, demand and pricing under return strategies are always higher than those under no-return strategies; however, return strategies do not always benefit retailers. The profits of retailers under the three return strategies largely decrease as consumer disappointment increases.