Return freight strategies and selling formats in e-commerce supply chain: The perspective of consumer fairness concerns and online shopping returns

Returns and consumer fairness concerns put a huge pressure on manufacturers who sell their products online. The optimal selling format and return freight strategy become particularly important for manufacturers in an e-commerce supply chain. Therefore, we build game models for the following scenarios under different selling formats: the seller bearing the return freight costs or the return-freight insurance premiums, consumers buying insurance for themselves, and no one buying insurance. By comparing the optimal solutions of the game models under reselling and agency formats, several conclusions are derived. In the agency format, if the return-freight insurance premium is higher than a particular threshold, then the optimal strategy of the manufacturer is to decrease the selling price to encourage consumers to purchase the insurance, otherwise, the manufacturer should purchase the insurance. As the level of consumer fairness concerns and platform commission rates increase, the manufacturer should gradually move from the agency to reselling format. In the reselling format, if the return-freight insurance premium is lower than a particular threshold, then consumers will purchase insurance and this will make the platform more profitable, and conversely, the platform should bear the return freight costs.