caa a22 4500 606223274 CHVBK 20210128101137.0 cr unu---uuuuu 210128e20150901xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s11129-015-9161-2 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s11129-015-9161-2 Consumer mending and online retailer fit-uncertainty mitigating strategies [Elektronische Daten] [Zheyin Gu, Giri Tayi] This study examines how online retailers operating in consumer markets characterized by consumer fit uncertainty such as apparel and accessories can mitigate such uncertainty through effective designs of return policies. We find that when consumers have the option to self-mend a product to assure a proper fit, an online retailer can devise its return policy to encourage or suppress consumer mending as a fit-uncertainty mitigating mechanism. First, our analysis shows that an online retailer benefits from easing the return policy and lowering the consumer return cost if the value of a good fit product is low, but benefits from tightening the return policy and maintaining a reasonable return cost for consumers if the value of a good fit product is high. Second, we find that in the parameter region where the value of a good fit product is high but not too high, a tightened return policy leads to a greater consumer surplus in addition to an increased retailer profit, suggesting a win-win situation and improved social efficiency. And even beyond this win-win region, the social welfare may still increase with tightened return policy when the gains in retailer profit or consumer surplus exceeds the loss of the other party. Finally, we show that when the value of a good fit product is sufficiently high, the capability of manipulating consumer mending as a fit-uncertainty mitigating mechanism allows a pure online retailer to earn a greater profit than a dual channel retailer that sells the product through both the online and the offline channels. Our theoretical insights provide explanations to many interesting practices in the online retailing industry. Springer Science+Business Media New York, 2015 Fit uncertainty nationallicence Mending nationallicence Online retailing nationallicence Return policy nationallicence Gu Zheyin University of Connecticut, 2100 Hillside Rd, Unit 1041, 06269, Storrs, CT, USA aut Tayi Giri State University of New York at Albany, 1400 Washington Avenue, 12222, Albany, NY, USA aut Quantitative Marketing and Economics Springer US; http://www.springer-ny.com 13/3(2015-09-01), 251-282 1570-7156 13:3<251 2015 13 11129 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11129-015-9161-2 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11129-015-9161-2 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Gu Zheyin University of Connecticut, 2100 Hillside Rd, Unit 1041, 06269, Storrs, CT, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Tayi Giri State University of New York at Albany, 1400 Washington Avenue, 12222, Albany, NY, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Quantitative Marketing and Economics Springer US; http://www.springer-ny.com 13/3(2015-09-01), 251-282 1570-7156 13:3<251 2015 13 11129