Analysis of Reverse Logistics in e-Commerce

Moving goods from their point of origin towards their final destination represents forward logistics while reverse logistics is the movement of products or materials in the opposite direction. Against this background, this paper examined and analyzed the various reasons for products return from the point of consumption to the point of sale, various sources of buyers/ service provider conflicts and the acceptable return policies of service providers by buyers in the e-commerce environment. The study used both primary and secondary data. The primary data was collected using structured questionnaires to obtained information from e-buyers about various reasons for returning already bought products, their level of satisfaction etc. The secondary data was obtained from a third party courier and logistics company to provide insight on the various categories of selected e-commerce service providers products that had the highest level of returns, also on the extent of adoption of and barriers to reverse logistics. Results showed that customers have not been fully satisfied with the level of adoption of reverse logistics in e-commerce. Also, it showed that Effective reverse logistics in e-commerce environment could enhance product improvements and efficient delivery of products to customers. It was therefore recommended that service providers put in place an efficient and effective reverse logistics operation in order to conform to customer’s requirement, also to gain competitive advantage in the electronic commerce environment.

Keywords: Reverse Logistics  (RL), E-commerce, Returns, E-buyer, E-retailer