Managing Consumer Returns in a Competitive Environment
研究两家销售水平差异化产品的竞争企业如何制定定价和退货手续费，发现竞争下的退货手续费可能高于垄断情况，且消费者对产品匹配度越不确定、越重视匹配度时手续费越高。
This paper investigates the pricing and restocking fee decisions of two competing firms selling horizontally differentiated products. We model a duopoly facing consumers who have heterogeneous tastes for the products and who must experience a product before knowing how well it matches with their preferences. The analysis yields several key insights. Restocking fees not only can be sustained in a competitive environment, but also are more severe when consumers are less informed about product fit and when consumers place a greater importance on how well products' attributes fit with their preferences. We compare the competitive equilibrium prices to a scenario in which consumers are certain about their preferences and find conditions defining when consumer uncertainty results in higher equilibrium prices. Comparison to a monopoly setting yields a surprising result: Equilibrium restocking fees in a competitive environment can be higher than those charged by a monopolist. This paper was accepted by Jagmohan S. Raju, marketing.