Ferreira D 2014 PDF

CRANFIELD UNIVERSITY
Diana Ferreira Galindo
How Retailers Manage Deshopping
Cranfield School of Management

MSc in Retail Management 2013-2014
MSc Thesis
Academic Year: 2013-2014
Supervisor: Tamira King

September 2014
CRANFIELD UNIVERSITY
Cranfield School of Management

MSc in Retail Management 2013-2014
MSc Thesis
Academic Year: 2013-2014
How Retailers Manage Deshopping
Supervisor: Tamira King

September 2014
This Thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the

degree of MSc in Retail Management
© Cranfield University 2014. All rights reserved. No part of this

publication may be reproduced without the written permission of the
copyright owner.
Abstract
Purpose:
“Deshopping” is the practice of buying garments with the intention of returning them
after used. Prior studies have shown the negative impact that this behaviour causes to
retailer’s profitability. This study aims to investigate how managers and sales assistants
from different retailers prevent and combat deshopping. The research focuses on
exploring the awareness that staff have of deshopping, inspecting the policies and
procedures aimed to inhibit the behaviour and its effectiveness, as well as to investigate
the role of Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) variables (attitude, subjective norm,
perceived behavioural control, and past experience) in managing deshopping conduct.
Methodology:
A qualitative approach was used to explore staff awareness of deshopping and retailers’
policies and procedures to combat the misconduct. Ten semi-structured individual
interviews were conducted among different levels of employees from different fashion
and food retailers in London, to investigate their awareness and strategies used to
manage deshopping, showing their perception of the effectiveness of the actual policies
and procedures, as well as their experiences in dealing with deshopping where the
variables of TPB are found and illustrated.
Findings:
The findings demonstrate the high awareness that staff have of deshopping, as well as
the different tactics used to prevent the behaviour, showing their perception of the low
effectiveness that actual policies have to combat this behaviour and the positive attitude
and social acceptance that consumers show to the deshopping behaviour.
Value of the work:
This thesis is particularly original because it has explored the practices used among
several retailers to combat deshopping. This study is also unique because it is the first in
using the variables of the TPB to highlight the awareness and the different perceptions
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that distinct levels of staff own towards fraudulent consumer behaviour and its
management.
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Keywords
Deshopping, consumer behaviour, consumption, fraud, retail, return policies, customer

service.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my supervisor, Tamira King, for all the support that she has given
me since the moment I first met her. I truly appreciate her willingness for always being
open to share her knowledge with me, especially in her expertise field—deshopping.
Thanks for all your valuable guidance and advice.
I also want to thank my husband, Martin and my beloved daughter, Valentina for
always believing in me, thank you for all your support and love.
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Table of Contents
Abstract ...............................................................................................................................................1
Keywords .............................................................................................................................................3
Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................................4
Table of Contents ................................................................................................................................5
List of Figures......................................................................................................................................8
List of Tables .......................................................................................................................................9
1 Research Background .............................................................................................................10
1.1 Chapter Introduction ...................................................................................................10
1.2 The Dark Side of Consumer Behaviour ....................................................................10
1.3 Deshopping ..................................................................................................................11
1.4 Business Implications ..................................................................................................11
1.5 Aim and Objectives ......................................................................................................14
1.6 Chapter Conclusion .....................................................................................................14
2 Literature Review .....................................................................................................................15
2.2 Apparel Retail ..............................................................................................................16
2.3 Deshopping ..................................................................................................................19
2.6 Customer Service Experience .....................................................................................24
2.8 Chapter Conclusion ....................................................................................................29
3 Methodology..............................................................................................................................30
3.2 Aim and Objectives ......................................................................................................30
3.3 Research Design ...........................................................................................................30
3.4 Nature of the Research Design ....................................................................................31
3. 5 Research Philosophy ....................................................................................................32
3.6 Research Approach ......................................................................................................34
3.7 Methodological Choice ................................................................................................34
3.7.1 Semi-structured Interview...........................................................................................37
3.7.2 Pre-notification Stage ..................................................................................................38
3.7.3 Piloting the Interview Questions .................................................................................38
3.7.4 Interview Structure and Ethical Considerations.......................................................40
3. 8 Sampling .......................................................................................................................43
3.9 Methodology Limitations............................................................................................45
3.10 Chapter Conclusion ..............................................................................................................45
4 Data analysis .............................................................................................................................47
4.2 Method of Analysis for the Interviews ......................................................................47
4.3 Chapter Conclusion .....................................................................................................54
5 Findings and Discussion ...........................................................................................................55
5.1 Employee’s Awareness ................................................................................................55
5.1.1 Patterns .........................................................................................................................55
5.1.1.1 Demographics ..............................................................................................................55
5.1.1.1.2 Culture ..........................................................................................................................55
5.1.1.1.3 Socioeconomic levels ....................................................................................................56
5.1.1.1.4 Gender and age.............................................................................................................56
5.1.1.2 Frequency and seasonality ..........................................................................................57
5.1.2 Customer’s High Power Perception ...........................................................................58
5.1.3 Customer’s Risk-perception........................................................................................58
5.2 Exploring Retailer’s Policies and Procedures to Manage Deshopping ...................59
5.3 Exploring the Effectiveness of Policies and Procedures ...........................................65
5.3.1 Effective Policy Enhancing Customer Service, but Ineffective Preventing
Deshopping ....................................................................................................................................66
5.3.2 Lack of Systems to Track Returns Frequency ..........................................................67
5.4 Exploring Variables of Theory of Planned Behaviour in the Management of
Deshopping ....................................................................................................................................68
5.4.1 Examples of Attitude ..................................................................................................68
5.4.2 Examples of Subjective Norm .....................................................................................69
5.4.3 Examples of Perceived Behavioural Control .............................................................69
5.4.4 Examples of Past Experience ......................................................................................70
5.4.5 Examples of Actual Control .......................................................................................70
5.4.6 Examples of Intention ..................................................................................................71
5.5 Chapter Conclusion ....................................................................................................72
6 Conclusions and Recommendations........................................................................................74
6.1 Final Conclusions ........................................................................................................74
6.1.1 Store Managers’ and Sales Assistants’ Awareness of Deshopping ..........................74
6.1.2 Retailer’s Policies and Procedures to Manage Deshopping .....................................75
6.1.3 Effectiveness of Policies and Procedures...................................................................76
6.1.4 Exploring the Theory of Planned Behaviour in the Management of Deshopping..76
6.2 Concluding Statement..................................................................................................77
6.3 Recommendations for Future Research.....................................................................77
6.4 Limitations ....................................................................................................................77
6.5 Reflections .....................................................................................................................78
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References ..........................................................................................................................................79
Appendix 1. Pre-notification letter ..................................................................................................85
Appendix 2. Transcript of the interview to the Head of Returns at Tesco’s ...............................86
List of Figures
Figure 1: UK Apparel Retail Value, Source: MarketLine (2013) p.11 .......................... 12
Figure 2: Consumption Expenditure in the UK (EUR), Source: FashionUnited (2013)

p.1 ............................................................................................................................ 12
Figure 3: Area of Research ............................................................................................. 15
Figure 4: Apparel Retail Industry EU % Share by Value, 2012, Source: MarketLine

(2013) p.10 .............................................................................................................. 16
Figure 5: UK’s Apparel Retail Industry Category Segmentation % Share by Value,

2012, Source: Marketline (2013) p.9 ....................................................................... 17
Figure 6: Theory of Planned Behaviour, Source: Ajzen (1991) p. 182 .......................... 27
Figure 7: Theory of Planned Behaviour Model Predicting Deshopping, Source: King et

al. (2006) p. 290 ....................................................................................................... 28
Figure 8: The “Research Onion”, Source: Saunders et al. (2009) p.138 ........................ 31
Figure 9: Nature of Research Design, Source: Saunders et al. (2012) p. 171-172 ......... 32
Figure 10: Introductory Phase ........................................................................................ 40
Figure 11: Interview´s Ethical Consideration ................................................................. 41
Figure 12: Key Questions and Themes .......................................................................... 42
Figure 13: Categories and Subcategories Map ............................................................... 52
Figure 14: Categories and Subcategories Map Reviewed .............................................. 53
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List of Tables
Table 1: Areas of Perceived Risk, Source: Mitchell (1992), Vol. 30 No.3 p. 27 ........... 18
Table 2: Factors of the Theory of Reasoned Action, Source: Wright (2006) p.292 ...... 26
Table 3: Comparison of Four Research Philosophies, Source: Saunders et al., (2012)

p.140 ........................................................................................................................ 33
Table 4: Advantages and Disadvantages of Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches and

Techniques, Source: Saunders (2012); Oppenheim (2000); Bell (2010) ................ 35
Table 5: Attributes of the Qualitative and Quantitative Methods, Source: Reichardt et al.
(1979) p.10 .............................................................................................................. 36
Table 6: Changes to the Interview´s Questions .............................................................. 39
Table 7: Interviewee’s Data............................................................................................ 45
Table 8: Example of Coding Process ............................................................................. 48

1 Research Background
1.1 Chapter Introduction
This chapter will familiarise the reader with deshopping, providing research background
of inappropriate consumer behaviours and the impact that this phenomenon causes
within retail industry. It will also provide the aim for this study as well, as the three
main objectives of the research.
1.2 The Dark Side of Consumer Behaviour
In today’s world in which technological development enables consumers to be aware of

what is occurring in the different industries and organisations and also to spread by
word of mouth both good and bad practices among large numbers of people in short
periods of time, scandals are triggered relating to ethical misconducts so that companies
find themselves commonly involved in incidents that might ruin their image. However,
corporations are not the only element in the Business-to-Consumer model that can fall
into unethical practices (Callen-Marchione et al., 2007). In fact, there is a dark side of
consumer behaviour which involves a number of misconducts, such as price-tag
switching, shoplifting, and deshopping among others in which consumers are breaking
the company’s policies (Callen-Marchione et al., 2007).
Yagil (2008) pointed out that customers exploit their role as “king” abusing of this
position, intimidating and sometimes even attacking employees.
Shoplifting is one of the most troubling aspects of the consumer behaviour and despite
there being not enough literature about this misconduct, Binshan et al. (1994) claimed
that this form of robbery represents up to 40 per cent of the total stock losses of retailers
in the USA. Another common dark practice among consumers is the return of products
that have been used and have already served the purpose for which they were
purchased. This phenomenon is known as “retail borrowing” or “deshopping” and it has
been found that younger people are more involved in this kind of behaviour (Piron and
Young, 2000; Jolson, 1974). Undoubtedly, there are major financial consequences for
businesses as a result of negative consumer behaviour. Not surprisingly this subject
matter has been researched in the past and will continue attracting the attention of
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executives and academics. This thesis will attempt to generate more insight into of one
the most prevalent dark practices—“deshopping”, viewed from the retailers’
perspective.
1.3 Deshopping
Deshopping is the ‘... deliberate return of goods for reasons other than actual faults in
the product, in its pure form premeditated prior to and during the consumption
experience’ (Schmidt et al., 1999, p. 2). Such behaviour is illustrated by King et al.
(2006) as ‘customers utilising retailers as a clothing library’ (p. 2) or like ‘food without
nutritional value’ (Schmidt et al., 1999, p. 292).
The competitive environment that all the industries have been facing in the recent
decades has driven retailers to change their strategies and policies used in the attempt to
attract, satisfy, and engage their customers and thus gain a competitive advantage. For
instance, retailers have introduced generous return policies, giving the opportunity for
customers to return goods for refunds and exchanges (Mitchel et al., 1996; Schmidt et
al., 1999). However, some customers have taken advantage of such concessions by
‘borrowing’ items from retailers (Piron et al., 2000). This misconduct could be the
example of a consumer who buys a suit for certain special occasion, using this item, and
then returning it afterwards claiming a refund for the total purchase amount, or
requesting an exchange for a cheaper article (Piron et al., 2000).
Although it is well known and documented that deshopping significantly affects the
financial performance of companies (King, 2004), the ethical nature of this issue makes
it difficult for researchers to understand the extent and depth of the problem.
1.4 Business Implications
The UK apparel retail is a leading and healthy industry that has been showing positive
results. It showed sales of £47,328.8 million in 2012, growing 6.2% in the period of
time 2007–12 and its performance is expected to accelerate by 3% Compound Annual
Growth Rate (CAGR) between 2012–17. The next figure shows the value of the apparel
industry in the UK from 2012–17.
Figure 1: UK Apparel Retail Value
Source: Adopted from MarketLine (2013) p.11.
According to fashion statistics, the total UK consumption expenditure in clothing and

footwear is €59 billion, which means that British consumers spent about €900 on
clothing per year, being slightly above that of the EU average of €700 per year
(FashionUnited, 2013). Moreover, the UK represents the third largest employer in the
EU, exceeded only by Italy and Germany (FashionUnited, 2013). The next figure shows
the UK consumption expenditure.
Figure 2: Consumption Expenditure in the UK (EUR)
Source: Adapted from FashionUnited (2013) p.1.
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Despite the fact that groceries retailers are not particularly well known for the quality of
the clothing they also sell, supermarket fashion has significantly increased its market
share and performance within the apparel industry by offering clothing with a private
label. For example, Asda and Tesco have used their own brands, “George” and “F & F”
respectively, aiming to offer high street fashion designs, but at a much lower price. This
price-driven strategy has resulted as a successful way to attract customers and to have
impacted the apparel industry, underpinning its competitiveness, accelerating their sales
and making them strong players in this trade (Passport, 2013).
Whereas store-based retailing is revealed to be the format with the highest amount of
sales in apparel (81.2%), grocery retailers own clothing brands are indicated as being
the largest players by their market share in the UK (Passport, 2013, p. 9). The UK’s
apparel retail leaders are the Arcadia Group Ltd., Marks and Spencer Group plc,
Mothercare and Next plc, among others (Marketline, 2013).
Bamfield (2004, p. 237) found that customer theft is one of the most concerning issues
that retailers face, ‘producing 48.4 per cent of the total shrinkage’. By applying a self-
report questionnaire in around 476 European major retailers within 16 European
countries, the study demonstrated that retail crime costs retailers €30,407 million
(Bamfield, 2004; p. 239) Also, through that study it was possible to know which are the
most stolen items in both food and department stores, finding that in department stores
the item suffering the highest rate of theft was the designer fashion and accessories
(Bamfield, 2004).
Moreover, a study conducted by King et al. (2007) demonstrated that about 50 per cent
of returned clothes in certain retailers had been previously used. In the same way, Jolson
(1974) who studied the retail borrowing phenomenon in three department stores in the
USA, pointed out that 22 per cent of purchasers were performing such a behaviour.
To have a clear idea about the financial impact that unethical consumer behaviour
causes to retail industry, the National Retail Federation pointed out that fraudulent
returns cost retailers about $16 billion per year (Guy, 2004; Kang et al., 2008).
Moreover, King (2004) highlighted that fraudulent returns reduce profitability by up to
ten per cent, and hence constitute a key issue that needs to be addressed.
1.5 Aim and Objectives
The aim of this research is to investigate how store managers and sales assistants from
different retailers prevent and control deshopping. In order to address the aim, four
objectives have been developed:
Objective 1. To investigate Store Managers’ and Sales Assistants’ awareness of

deshopping
Objective 2. To explore formal policies and procedures aimed to prevent and combat
deshopping and how they are implemented on daily operations
Objective 3. To investigate the effectiveness of the policies
Objective 4. To investigate the role of the variables of TPB (attitude, past experience,
subjective norm, perceived behavioural control, actual control, and intention) in
managing deshopping behaviour
1.6 Chapter Conclusion
In conclusion, the retail industry is facing major challenges associated with fraudulent
consumer behaviour, particularly in deshopping. Such abusive practice is damaging the
profitability of companies across the industry. This underlines the need to understand
the drivers of deshopping in order to develop strategies to combat the practice whilst
maintaining a satisfactory customer service.
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2 Literature Review
This chapter will describe previous studies about apparel retailing, the influence that
purchasing risk-perception has on customers’ decision-making, examining deshopping
from a retail perspective, and exploring the current policies and strategies that retailers
are implementing to manage deshopping. The chapter also reviews the TPB, providing a
detailed description of each of its variables.
The following literature comprises three different fields interrelated together. The three
domains are: retail management return policies; the dark side of consumer behaviour—
deshopping; and apparel retail illicit returns. According to the aim and objectives, the
essence of this study lays in the intersection of the three domains, where the research
question is created, and is as follows:
How do retailers manage deshopping?
Figure 3: Area of Research
Source: The author

2.2 Apparel Retail
The United Kingdom apparel retail is a highly valuable industry, currently representing
13.8% of the total European Apparel Industry occupying the third place after Germany
and Italy in 2012 (MarketLine, 2013). Its value reached over $59 billion in 2012 and its
performance is forecast to accelerate (MarketLine, 2013). Figure 4 shows the apparel
retail industry geography segmentation.
Figure 4: Apparel Retail Industry EU % Share by Value, 2012
Source: Adopted from MarketLine (2013) p. 10.
There is a large number of clothing retailers, partly because of the lower regulations
imposed by the government. Apparel retailers can differentiate by the product’s style
offer and the price range, establishing themselves as luxury brands or price competitive
(MarketLine, 2013).
The apparel retail industry consists of three segments: womenswear, menswear, and
childrenswear, womenswear being the largest segment (MarketLine, 2013).
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Figure 5: UK’s Apparel Retail Industry Category Segmentation % Share by Value, 2012
Source: Adopted from MarketLine (2013) p. 9
Clothing retailing is a competitive business in which consumer’s buying decision is

influenced by external factors such as fashion trends, price, and seasons. Additionally,
apparel items are perceived as status symbols that represent the lifestyle of the person.
Despite the apparel industry consumers’ being represented by individuals who are not
integrated, and therefore may appear in its power as not as high, according to
MarketLine (2013):
‘The position of retailers at the end of the value chain makes it impossible to
integrate forwards. This means that they are obliged to offer buyers what they
demand, in a market often subject to unpredictable and rapid changes in fashion’.
(p. 13).
According to Davis (1987), several fashion consumers have a great need for variety and
are also seeking to experiment before deciding to keep the purchased items. For this
reason this type of consumer tends to buy several articles, with the intention of returning
them if the experience is not as pleasant as they imagined.
Mitchell (1992) explained the power that risk-perception can have in consumers’
purchasing behaviour—for example, the consequences that a failed purchase might
cause in different areas such as financial, psychological, social, time, and performance,
among others (Mitchell, 1992). Additionally, Cunningham (1967) highlighted the two
elements that risk encompasses: uncertainty and consequences.
Table 1 shows the different types of perceived risk and a brief description of each of
these.
Table 1: Areas of Perceived Risk
Perceived Risk Description
Social Risk The risk of how the selection of the service

provider will affect in a negative way the
perception of other individuals about the
purchaser.
Financial Risk The risk that the service purchased will not
attain the best possible monetary gain for the
consumer.
Physical Risk The risk that the performance of the service

will result in a health hazard to the consumer.
Performance Risk The risk that the service purchased will not
be completed in the manner which will result
in customer satisfaction.
Time Risk The risk that the consumer will taste time,
lose convenience, or waste effort in getting a
service redone.
Psychological Risk The risk that the selection or performance of

the producer will have a negative effect on
the consumer’s peace of mind or self-
perception.
Source: Adopted from Mitchel (1992) Vol. 30 No.3 p. 27
In addition Mitchel (1992) describes the phases in the consumer decision process; these
are:
 Pre-purchase information search

 Evaluation of alternatives
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 Purchase decision
 Post-purchase behaviour
Risk-perception can be reduced during the pre-purchase phase by increasing the

certainty that the purchase will be satisfactory. However, in the attempt to reduce the
psychological and financial loss involved in the unsatisfactory purchase, consumers
tend to seek the opinions of others (Mitchell, 1993) which occurs in the post-purchase
stage, when consumers tend to be more sensitive to these opinions and also tend to seek
strategies to reduce the consequences of an unsatisfactory purchase. One of the
strategies is to return the product to the store and demand a refund or exchange,
reducing with this action the psychological risk and also the social risk by justifying
with family and friends the unsatisfactory purchase (Mitchell, 1992).
Apparel retailers are suffering significant consequences due to negative consumer

behaviours, such as fraudulent returns. Kang (2004) claimed that 9 per cent of total
refunds are fraudulent. Moreover, Richardson (2004) pointed out that because of routine
returns the retailer’s profitability is reduced by 4.3 per cent.
2.3 Deshopping
Deshopping is a fraudulent form of product-return which affects negatively retail

businesses causing losses from returns among other results (King, 2004). As was
mentioned in the background section, deshopping is a dishonest consumer behaviour
defined as: ‘The deliberate return of goods for reasons other than actual faults in the
product, in its pure form premeditated prior to and during the consumption experience’
(Schmidt et al., 1999, p. 2). An example of deshopping would be buying a dress for a
Christmas dinner and returning it after use, requesting either exchange or refund or both
for the total sale amount (King et al., 2006).
There are some previous studies of deshopping, analysed from different perspectives.
For example, Piron et al. (2000) and Harris et al. (2013) explored the insights of
consumers’ emotions and motivations for their unethical actions and on the other hand,
(retail perspective) the negative financial impact that this phenomenon causes to
retailers, highlighted by King (2004). Thereafter, a study realised by King et al. (2007)
pointed out the actions that retailers are taking to decrease this issue.
Previous researchers have found that fraudulent returns are quite common (Piron et al.,
2000; King et al., 2001; and King et al., 2006) claiming that there is little research
regarding the drivers of deshopping as well as little research about the measures that
retailers are taking in order to reduce deshopping behaviour. In this sense, it is vital for
this study to understand the retailer’s perspective towards illicit returns and the actions
that managers are implementing to balance this phenomenon. It is also critical to
understand the main reasons that drive customers to perform this type of misconduct. It
is crucial for retailers to understand the post-purchasing consumer behaviour and then
prevent and counteract deshopping and other methods of illicit return.
Ford et al. (2005) highlighted that culture is a key factor in understanding how people
perceived the appropriate or inappropriate conduct. The author also pointed out that
values are deeply correlated with culture, governing attitudes, and behaviours.
Supporting this theory, Piron et al., (2000, p. 28) indicated that ‘despite there not yet
being a profile for the typical retail borrower’, demographics are a key factor in
understanding and quantifying the deshopping behaviour. This study identified that
females tend to borrow items more frequently than men—four times as much as men—
motivated by ego-related social needs, etc. The authors also revealed the relationship
between retail borrowings and customer levels of income and that younger people also
tend to engage in this behaviour. Supporting this theory, Huefner et al. (2000) found
that misbehaviour is often performed by the young less educated person. Fullerton et al.
(1996) indicated that there is a link between low levels of income, age and education,
and unethical behaviours. Additionally, King et al. (2006) demonstrated that deshopping
is a significant problem in the UK where it was found that within the 528 individuals
answering a questionnaire, 266 were identified as deshoppers.
2.4 The Management of Deshopping

Previous studies have identified the companies’ needs to introduce strategies and tactics
related to customer misbehaviours to form a management framework in order to
minimise the negative effects. For example, Harris et al. (2013, p. 290) revealed that
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‘Head office strategies frequently neither acknowledge nor prescribe means of dealing
with customer misbehaviour, thus requiring branch managers to improvise and submit
informal strategies and coping tactics.’ The study pointed out that by having sufficient
knowledge about the “dark side” of consumer behaviour, ‘organizational frameworks
should be developed accordingly’, improving managers’ awareness and responsiveness
in dealing with the contemporary business environment and its actual issues (Harris et
al., 2013, p. 290).
One of the measures used by retailers to reduce deshopping and at the same time
maintain the quality in customer service is the introduction of new returns policies
(King et al., 2007). The new changes in return policies include stricter deadlines in
returning items as well as setting certain conditions to allow the realising of any refund
or exchange. For example, the customer must provide the purchase receipt together with
the item and this item must be free from any mark or defect (King et al., 2007).
Even though retailers might change the return policies in order to decrease deshopping,
it is also necessary to implement the Customer Service Policy in order to support the
new return norms. It is crucial for companies to maintain the high levels of service.
Based on this affirmation, the changes made to the return policies must avoid damaging
customer service for genuine customers. Customer service must enforce the company’s
return policies at all times, since they are meant to prevent fraudulent returns whilst
protecting customers’ rights. According to the study realised by King et al. (2007, p. 12)
in certain departmental stores evidence demonstrated that ‘In many instances the
Customer Service Policy will override and contradict the returns policy in order to
satisfy the customer’, obstructing the effective management of deshopping.
Another measure implemented by retailers is the use of database systems which can
identify any customers with high rates of product returns (King et al., 2007). Such
systems protect retailers from fraudulent returns by providing sufficient evidence to
support the denial to make a refund or exchange.
Due to the significant number of customers who perform dishonestly, requesting a

refund or exchange even though they have worn or have deliberately damaged the item,
apparel stores are starting to prevent deshopping by providing special training to the
staff members. Part of this training includes carefully examining the item, seeking for
defects or faults before selling the product. Additionally, the selling staff also should
mark the receipt and/or cut one of the item’s tags before sale if the garment should have
any fault or special characteristic (King et al., 2007). These measures allow retailers to
have a great certainty that the product was sold in good condition and therefore have
more confidence in rejecting returns of items in poor conditions.
Typically, retailers, in their quest to reduce the number of illegal returns, have tried to
identify deshopping by visual assessment and also by smelling the items. However,
these tests are not enough evidence to refuse the return of items that have clearly
fulfilled the purpose of their purchase or which have been deliberately damaged (King
et al., 2007). Retailers should complement such tests by other systems such as the
profiling database to monitor shoppers and their returns in order to have substantial
evidence that support the decision of not accepting returns or exchanges when necessary
(King et al., 2007).
Furthermore, it is suggested that for the prevention of deshopping the organisational

levels need to work together and follow the same policies, aligning attitudes towards
fraudulent returns (King et al., 2007).
Previous research suggested that changes in the return policies should go together with a
consumer education policy that shows the negative effects that deshopping causes, as
well as changing the perception of dishonest returns into being seen as crime and
understanding the consequences that deshoppers may face (King et al., 2007).
The management of deshopping and other unethical behaviours not only has an impact
on the financial performance of the retail organisations, but also on the functioning of
organisations and their employees, being the people who must manage incidents face to
face with the customer (Harris et al., 2013). Customer misbehaviours also drive the
employees to job dissatisfaction, high stress levels, and a reduced level of moral among
the organisational personnel (Harris et al., 2013). Customer misbehaviour has an impact
on employees and their strategies. For example, customers may reveal their dark side
when treating the employees with violence, affecting their workplace environment.
Managers are aware of the difficult situations that customers can create, but there are
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not sufficient directions given for customer misbehaviour management (Harris et al.,
2013).
A cluster of different authors intended to categorise the different types of customer

misconduct, recognising and studying that such misbehaviours can help retailers to
better their strategies to prevent and manage deshopping. For example, Grove et al.
(1989) proposed that deviant behaviours may occur across three different stages:
1. Acquisitive: fraudulent activities such as theft

2. Usage: deeds fraud and intentional wastage
3. Dispositional: vandalism and illegitimate waste disposal
Adopting a different perspective, Harris et al. (2004) highlighted the demotivating

experiences with which front-line staff has to deal on a daily basis. Such customers’
misbehaviour categories are: ‘oral abusers’, ‘physical abusers’, ‘undesirable customers’,
‘vindictive customers’, and ‘sexual predators’.
Among the different tactics that managers use to deal with customer misbehaviours,
Belding (2000) recommends, ‘listening, echoing, sympathising, thanking, evaluating
and responding as customer interface tactics’.
2.5 Return Policies

Return policies help retailers to provide better customer service and also to attract and
retain customers. As mentioned previously, the current complex environment forces
companies to offer reduced prices and relaxed return policies in order to diminish the
customer’s perceived risk of dissatisfaction (MarketLine, 2013; Davis et al., 1995;
Mitchel, 1992).
Ha et al. (2004) pointed out that customers prefer to examine physically the apparel
products to ensure the quality and characteristics of them. However, even though the
item has been checked, commonly customers might express discontent with the newly
purchased product and thus employ any of the options that the company’s return policy
offers. Return policies vary across the different retailers, but often retailers offer money-
back guarantees as proof of the high-quality standards of the products (Moorthy and
Srinivasan, 1995) or allow the return of the product regardless of the reason, even when
it is obvious that the product has been used or has been damaged (Che, 1996; Davis et
al., 1995; Davis et al., 1998).
Commonly, return policies are too generous or indulgent, enabling dishonest consumers
to abuse these. For instance, the acquisition of a given product to be used and
subsequently returned (premeditated returns) is costly for retailers due to various
factors, including increased customer service costs, reverse logistics, and stock write-off
(Wood, 2001). In order to avoid excessive product returns, some retailers have started to
modify such policies, making them more stringent (Kang et al., 2008). Some of the
measures that have been taken are, for example, to set shorter time limits to return the
items, requiring the purchase receipt, and requiring the original packaging (Barlyn,
2007; Hamilton et al., 2001; Passy, 2002; Serres, 2005; Singletary, 2006; Stone 2004)
and in some cases, retailers do not give the money back as cash. Instead this money is
deposited as a gift card, ensuring that the customer will use this balance within the store,
preventing profit losses to the company.
2.6 Customer Service Experience
Excellent customer service is of paramount importance to successfully differentiate in

competitive markets and may generate significant benefits to the company. For example
the John Lewis organisation’s customer service is very well known for its high
standards, which motivate customers to pay a higher premium in order to obtain such
customer service experience. For instance, customers who experience a high-quality
service tend to be loyal to the brand, also to spread positive comments by word of
mouth, creating new customers as well as building a better image of the company and
hence improving the business performance of the firm (Macintosh, 2007). To emphasise
the importance of customer-orientation, Hartline et al. (2000, p. 35) pointed out: ‘A
customer-orientated firm is more likely to deliver exceptional service quality and create
satisfied customers.’
Bennett (1997) highlighted the importance of listening to customers’ complaints and

how critical it is to properly manage the interactions between customers and customer
service in order to deliver a satisfactory resolution which may benefit the brand in terms
of increased positive associations. Companies are trying to find the best solution to
24
provide an excellent customer service, but without suffering consequences for abuses.
Nevertheless, it is inevitable that retailers clash with customers who try to manipulate
the system. This behaviour could be a consequence of it being well known that the
‘customer is always right’ and therefore they are the authority (King et al.; 2007).
Pulido et al. (2004) proposed that customer service starts at the point of sale and
concludes with the successful resolution of any issues experienced with the product
and/or its return. The author suggests that customer service is a journey on which the
company supports customers throughout their complete buying experience and in which
customer service is cumulative. He indicated that by maximising the customer’s
satisfaction, the revenues grow up to 15 per cent and at the same time reduce the cost of
serving customers by about 20 per cent (Pulido et al., 2004).
2.7 The Theory of Planned Behaviour

The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) will be analysed in this study to explain
employees’ perception of the influential variables on consumers’ behavioural intentions
to perform deshopping, identifying the factors that drive people to do it and how staff
deal with it.
According to TPB, intention to perform a certain behaviour is influenced by: attitude

(AT), subjective norm (SN) and perceived behavioural control (PBC). Fishbein et al.
(1975) explained that ‘Intentions may be predictors of future behaviours’ (cited by
Piron et al., 2000, p. 27). Based on this statement, retailers might prevent or control
undesirable consumer behaviours such as deshopping by understanding the correlation
between behaviour and planned behavioural control (King et al., 2006). Non-
motivational factors such as money, skills, and opportunities, represent ‘people’s actual
control over the behaviour’ (Ajzen, 1991, p. 182). This element plays a remarkable role
given that the more opportunities and resources are available to a person, the more the
likelihood to achieve the behaviour.
TPB by Ajzen (1991) is an extension of the theory of reasoned action which was
published by Ajzen et al. (1980). The theory of reasoned action aimed ‘to improve the
ability to predict people’s behaviours from attitudes held’ (Wright, 2006, p. 292). This
theory explained that the probability of an attitude affecting a behaviour depends on the
combination of the factors presented in the Table 2.
Table 2: Factors of the Theory of Reasoned Action
Factors Example
Belief in strength of outcome Each belief is rated by strength, on

the probability that behaviour will
produce the particular outcome.
Belief: ‘Drinking too much alcohol is

bad for me.’
Strength: ‘I will be ill.’
Evaluation of outcome Each belief is then evaluated on how

good or bad each might be.
Subjective norm The opinions of significant others are

then taken into account., i.e. friends,
parents, girlfriend, etc.
Intention Ask how likely that the person will

engage in the behaviour. Taking into
consideration behavioural influences
such as social upbringing,
personality, and psychographics.
Perceived control Some behaviours are easier to control

than others, i.e. If addiction has set
(This was added in the TPB) there might be little or no control
over giving up alcohol.
Speed of access Some attitudes are nearer to the

surface of memory than others.
Source: Adopted from Wright (2006) p. 292
The central factor in the TPB as well as the theory of reasoned action is: ‘The
individual’s intention to perform a given behaviour’ (Ajzen, 1991, p. 181). Commonly
behaviours can be performed depending on non-motivational factors such as
opportunities and resources, by having these factors plus the intention to perform a
behaviour; the probabilities that this behaviour will succeed are high (Ajzen, 1991). The
differentiator between the theory of reasoned action and the TPB is that this last one
includes the variable: PBC (Ajzen, 1991).
26
The TPB (Ajzen, 1991, p. 182) illustrates the variables of this theory. See Figure 6:
Figure 6: Theory of Planned Behaviour
Source: Adopted from Ajzen (1991) p. 182
In order to simplify the comprehension of TPB, a brief description of each variable is

provided, together with the correlation that each of them has with deshopping.
Attitude refers to ‘the degree to which a person has a favourable or unfavourable

evaluation or appraisal of the behaviour in question’ (Ajzen, 1991, p.188). This can be
illustrated by a customer’s evaluation of the behaviour as a wrong action, or vice versa,
as something easy to do without consequences.
SN is ‘the perceived social pressure to perform or not to perform the behaviour’

(Ajzen, 1991, p. 188). As consumers who perform deshopping are influenced by both,
in a constructive and negative way by people who are important or close to them, if
deshopping was socially disapproved and people were aware of the effects of this
behaviour and the adverse consequences that this misbehaviour can bring to those who
perform it, then deshoppers might discontinue the behaviour (King et al., 2006).
PBC refers to ‘people’s perception of the ease or difficulty of performing the behaviour
of interest’ (Ajzen, 1991, p. 183). In other words, PBC is about how people’s behaviour
is influenced by their confidence in their ability to perform such behaviour (Bandura,
1982).
The variable ‘Past experience’ (PE) was added by King and Dennis (2006) as a crucial
component that influences the behaviour. Their study’s results demonstrated that PE
underpins deshopping behaviour, as through previous experiences consumers learn and
become more experienced.
King et al. (2006) demonstrated the high importance of the ‘actual control’ (AC) that
customers have over the behaviour. It can be illustrated by a customer who in advance
plans the responses to return an item, or by a customer who deliberately damages the
garments to claim for a faulty garment, or seeks marks that could seem to reveal that the
item has been worn, fixing them to make it look genuine.
Intention is defined in terms of ‘trying to perform a given behaviour’ (Ajzen, 1991, p.

182). Previous studies demonstrated that the return of a product may not be
premeditated from the beginning at the time of purchase, but it is intentional at the point
of return (King et al., 2006). Intention can be illustrated by a customer who keeps the
tags on the garments in order to return it after using it.
Figure 7 shows the additional elements added to the TPB model by King and Dennis
(2006).
Figure 7: Theory of Planned Behaviour Model Predicting Deshopping
Source: Adopted from King et al. (2006) p. 290
28
In conclusion, the UK’s apparel industry is heavily affected by deshopping as a result of

relaxed returns policies and a lack of formal management of the practice. Previous
research found that most deshoppers are young females and people from unprivileged
backgrounds. However, there is insufficient information to generate a standard profile.
Moreover, there are opportunities to further the understanding of the customers’ attitude
and social perception towards deshopping, which could be gained by applying the TPB.
Definitely, the prevention and management of deshopping can be substantially
improved by furthering the profiling of deshoppers and the understanding of their
motivations.
3 Methodology
The purpose of this chapter is to explain in detail the research design, discussing a range
of methods of data collection and analysis. The chapter starts with the statement of the
research aim and objectives, followed by the evaluation of methodological approaches
and data collection techniques, justifying the reasons for using one instead of another.
After that, the structure of the interview will be provided as well as the ethical
considerations, ending with the description of the sample.
3.2 Aim and Objectives
The aim of this research is to investigate: how retailers prevent and control deshopping.
In order to address the aim, three key objectives have been developed:
Objective 1. To investigate Store Managers’ and Sales Assistants’ awareness of

deshopping
Objective 2. To explore formal policies and procedures aimed to prevent and combat
deshopping and how they are implemented on daily operations
Objective 3. To investigate the effectiveness of the policies
Objective 4. To investigate the role of the variables of TPB (attitude, PE, SN, PBC, and
AC and intention) in managing deshopping behaviour
3.3 Research Design
The metaphor of the “Research Onion” is a helpful tool to illustrate the way in which
the present research was developed (Saunders et al., 2012). The following sections will
explain and integrate the research topic: management of deshopping into the stages that
compose this “onion” approach, deepening in the follow stages: philosophies,
approaches, and methodological choices.
30
Figure 6: The “Research Onion”
Source: Adopted from Saunders et al. (2009) p. 138
3.4 Nature of the Research Design
Based on the aim and objectives of this research, as mentioned in Section 3.2, it is
possible to conclude that the present study is an exploratory piece of research. This
affirmation is supported by the main purpose of this investigation, which is to explore
how retailers manage deshopping and the answers that this study is aiming to address.
The nature of the research question and objectives is to understand and gain insights
about the management of deshopping rather than to describe the phenomenon.
In-depth individual interview is the most suitable tool to conduct this exploratory study,
because it is crucial to interview experts in the subject, obtaining a deep understanding
of the management of deshopping and also having the flexibility to change the course of
the questions according to the appearance of new insights.
A brief description of each type of study is provided in Figure 9 (see below).

Figure 7: Nature of research design
Exploratory studies
Explanatory studies Descriptive studies
 Applied to ask open
questions, to gain insights  Applied to explain the  Applied to describe
about certain topic relationship between the picture of the
 It is very useful to clarify variables or, in other phenomenon as it
the understanding of a words, to explain why exists
problem or how a phenom-  It involves a danger
 It can be conducted by: enon is occurring of poor data -
interviewing experts in the evaluation
subject, in-depth individual
interviews, or conducting
focus-group interviews
 Interviews tend to be
relatively unstructured
 It is flexible and adaptable
to change
 May commence with a
broad focus becoming
narrow as the research
progresses
Source: Adapted from Saunders et al. (2012) pp. 171, 172
3. 5 Research Philosophy
The philosophy adopted for this research is interpretivism, relying heavily on

naturalistic methods—in-depth interviews and analysis of existent literature—in order
to establish ‘trust, participation, access to meanings and in-depth understanding’
(Saunders et al., 2012, p. 673).
Supporting this decision, Denzin et al. (2005) pointed out that qualitative research is
more linked to an interpretive philosophy. This is because the researcher has to analyse
subjective information coming from the point of view, in this case, of the staff and the
social norms involved in the management of the deshopping phenomenon (Saunders et
al., 2012). Furthermore, interpretive philosophy is often used for studies in which the
sample is small and requires in-depth investigation (Saunders et al., 2012), a feature that
is fully consistent with the actual research in which 10 interviews were conducted.
32
In order to understand the characteristics of the different types of research philosophies
and also to justify the philosophy adopted for this research, Table 3 is provided.
Table 3: Comparison of Four Research Philosophies
Philosophy Pragmatism Positivism Realism Interpretivism
Ontology: the External, External, Is objective. Socially

researcher’s multiple, view objective and Exists indep- constructed,
view of the chosen to best independent of endently of subjective,
nature of enable answer- social actors human may change,
reality or ing of research thoughts and multiple
being question beliefs of
knowledge of
existence
(realist), but is
interpreted
through social
conditioning
(critical
realist)
Epistemology: Either or both Only Observable Subjective

the observable observable phenomena meanings and
researcher´s phenomena phenomena can provide social
view regard- and subjective provide credible data, phenomena.
ing what meanings can credible data, facts. Focus upon the
constitutes provide facts. Focus on Insufficient details of
acceptable acceptable causality and data means situation, a
knowledge knowledge law-like inaccuracies in reality behind
dependent generalisations, sensations these details,
upon the re- reducing (direct subjective
search phenomena to realism). meanings
question. Fo- simplest Alternatively, motivating
cus on pract- elements phenomena actions
ical applied create sensa-
research, int- tions which are
egrating open to misint-
different per- erpretation
spectives to (critical
help interpret realism).
the data Focus on
explaining
within a
context or
contexts
spectives to realism).
help Focus on
interpret the explaining
data within a
context or
contexts
Axiology: the Values play a Research is Research is Research is

researcher’s large role in undertaken in a value laden; value-bound,
view of the interpreting value-free way, the researcher the researcher
role of values results, the the researcher is is biased by is part of what
in research researcher independent of world views, is being
adopting both, the data and cultural researched,
objective and maintains an experiences cannot be
subjective objective stance and upbring- separated and
points of view ing. These will so will be
impact on the subjective
research
Data Mixed or Highly Methods Small samples,

collection multiple structured, large chosen most in-depth
techniques method samples, fit the subject investigations,
most often designs, measurement, matter, qualitative
used quantitative quantitative, but quantitative or
and can use qualitative
qualitative qualitative
Source: Adopted from Saunders et al. (2012) p. 140
3.6 Research Approach
The present study will be built following an inductive approach. It will start by
conducting individual interviews with store employees and managers from different
retailers, in order to explore how they manage deshopping and to analyse the role of
TPB variables in their attempts to combat this phenomenon. Hence, this study moves
from specific data and observation of patterns to the development of general
conclusions.
An inductive approach was selected for this study, due to its characteristics of being
more recommendable for small samples and for topics for which there is little existent
literature, being more likely to work with qualitative data (Saunders et al., 2012) which
perfectly matches with the features of the present research.
3.7 Methodological Choice
Previous researchers have addressed deshopping from the retailer’s perspective by using
qualitative approach (King et al., 2007). There are also previous studies that have
34
analysed deshopping from the consumer’s perspective, demonstrating how this
behaviour can be prevented and managed, by using both qualitative methods by
conducting interviews and also quantitative methods by the use of questionnaires (King
et al., 2006).
In order to understand the reasons why qualitative research is the most suitable method
for this study, it is necessary to analyse the characteristics of each approach to
understand its advantages and disadvantages. Table 4 shows the advantages and
disadvantages of the quantitative and qualitative techniques.
Table 4: Advantages and Disadvantages of Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches and Techniques
Approach Quantitative (Numbers) Qualitative (Words)
Technique Questionnaires Interview, Observation, and

group discussion.
Advantages  It is one of the  It gives the

most used methods to opportunity to explore a
collect data (Saunders , subject deeply
2012)  Data collection is
 Provides answers non-standardised
from a large sample.  Is more
(Saunders., 2012) naturalistic and
 Good tool for interactive
explanatory or descriptive  Is recommended
research (Saunders., 2012) for small samples
 Questionnaires can  Suitable for
be complemented by other inductive research.
methods, like interviews to
get a better understanding
of consumer behaviour
(Saunders., 2012)
Disadvantages  Is hard to design a  Words’ meanings
questionnaire which can are ambiguous and
provide the precise data complex.
required to achieve the aim  It is difficult to
of the study. (Oppenheim, obtain quality due to this
2000; Bell, 2010) dependence on the
 It is not possible to interpretation of the data
have more than one collection.
opportunity to collect the  Large in volume
data (Saunders., 2012) and complex in nature.
 Not the best option
for research which requires
open questions (Saunders.,
2012)
Sources: Adapted from Saunders (2012); Oppenheim (2000); Bell (2010)

Furthermore, the differences between quantitative and qualitative methods are
illustrated in Table 5.
Table 5: Attributes of the Qualitative and Quantitative Methods
Qualitative Quantitative
 Emphasis on testing and

 Emphasis on verification
understanding  Focus on facts and/or
 Focus on reasons for social events
understanding from  Logical and critical
respondent’s/informant’s approach
point of view  Controlled measurement
 Interpretation and  Objective “outsider view”
rational approach distant from data
 Observations and  Hypothetically deductive;
measurements in natural focus on hypothesis testing
settings  Result-orientated
 Subjective “insider  Particularistic and
view” and closeness to data analytical
 Explorative orientation  Generalisation by
 Process-orientated population membership
 Holistic perspective
 Generalisation by
comparison of properties and
contexts of individual
organism
Source: Adapted from Reichardt et al. (1979) p. 10
The main difference between quantitative and qualitative methods is that the
quantitative approach is more numerically data-orientated and is recommended for large
samples. Furthermore, a quantitative approach is more rigid in its structure being more
suitable for explanatory and descriptive research. On the contrary, qualitative approach
is orientated to data such as words and phrases (Babbie, 2001). Qualitative method
allows flexibility to interact with the interviewee in order to collect as much information
as possible about the participant’s experiences and knowledge of the subject matter; the
method is suitable for exploratory and inductive researches. Hence, qualitative approach
36
is ideal for this thesis due to the characteristics of the present research, which is
exploratory, inductive, and more naturalistic and interactive.
There are few literature sources about the management of deshopping in the apparel
industry. Since qualitative research is a combination of ‘the rational, explorative and
intuitive’ (Gahuri et al., 2002, p. 86) this type of method is recommended to uncover
and understand phenomena about which there is limited information, which is
explorative and process-orientated (Ghauri et al., 2002). Thus, the most suitable method
for the actual study is qualitative.
Through qualitative research it is possible to ‘study the participant’s meanings using a

variety of data collection techniques and analytical procedures to develop a conceptual
framework’ (Saunders et al., 2012, p. 163). Although it is possible to standardise the
data collection technique in qualitative analysis, for the purpose of this study it was
decided to adopt a non-standardised technique, given the high levels of flexibility
required to build the natural and interactive environment needed to gather an in-depth
understanding of this phenomenon (Saunders et al., 2012).
3.7.1 Semi-structured Interview
In order to collect the data necessary to achieve the aims and objectives of this study,
semi-structured interviews will be used. This type of interview was selected mainly
because it is the most suitable for exploration of the perceptions and opinions of
respondents, especially for complex topics such as deshopping (Barriball et al., 1994).
Furthermore, in comparison to questionnaires, personal interviews have high response
rates (Saunders et al., 2012).
Semi-structured interviews allow the researcher to have more flexibility to adjust the
order and type of questions depending on the flow of the conversation (Saunders et al.,
2012). Since interpretivim epistemology has been adopted for this thesis, semi-
structured interviews were highly helpful because through this type of interview,
participants could explain and build on their answers, providing a deep exploration and
meaningful understanding of the management of deshopping and staff’s experiences
from which the TPB variables were illustrated.
Since the time range of the interview was from 25 to 35 minutes, a medium amount of
questions were set, and open questions were also used to explore the thesis subject. The
logic and order of questions varied, depending on the answers provided by the
interviewee.
Interviews were conducted on a one-to-one basis by phone, face to face, and by Skype.
One of the main advantages of conducting face-to-face interviews was that the
researcher could adapt the questions as necessary, as well as ensure that the responses
were clear. Moreover, face-to-face interviews allowed the researcher to gather non-
verbal cues from the interviewee, permitting major comprehension of the subject.
After obtaining participants’ permission, all the interviews were audio-recorded

allowing a deeper analysis of the data collected.
3.7.2 Pre-notification Stage
A pre-notification stage was conducted before the actual interview in order to invite
store managers and sales assistants to participate in the study, and an invitation letter
(see Appendix 1) supported and signed by Dr Tamira King and the researcher,
respectively, was distributed among 40–50 different fashion retailers. Such a letter
explains the purpose of the research, highlighting the ethics that this research involves
as well as contact details of the researcher and the supervisor. In order to maintain the
retailer’s interest and willingness to participate in the study, the interviews were
arranged shortly after distributing the invitation letter.
The pre-notification stage also promoted ‘reliability and validity’ because interviewees
were informed about the research topic giving them time to prepare themselves and
‘reducing their uncertainties about sharing information’ (Saunders et al., 2012 p. 385).
3.7.3 Piloting the Interview Questions
The preparation for the interview can help to avoid or reduce problematic circumstances
that could potentially occur during the data collection process (Turner, 2010). One of
the elements to the interview’s preparation is the implementation of a pilot test which
38
helps the researcher to determine whether there exist limitations or weaknesses in the
interview design (Kvale, 2007).
Following this literature, a pilot of the interview was conducted to ensure that questions
were clear and suitable to collect the required information. This interview pilot allowed
the researcher to make the necessary revisions and changes prior to the implementation
of the formal interviews. The pilot test was conducted with participants who had similar
interests to those who would participate in the study.
The following table exemplifies the changes made to the interview questions in order to
make them clear, and the objectives without putting words into the participant’s mouth.
Table 6: Changes to the interview´s questions
Before-interview Pilot After-Interview Pilot
Have you ever noticed customers Have you ever noticed customers trying
trying to return worn garments? to return worn garments? Can you
please provide some examples of this?
Do you believe deshopping occurs If you do not have enough evidence that
because of lack of evidence? deshopping is occurring, do you feel
confident in rejecting the return?
Are you afraid to upset customers Can you give an example of when your
because they might complain with supervisor has or has not supported your
your supervisor? decision to refuse a return when you
detect that the garment has been
used/worn?
Sources: The author

3.7.4 Interview Structure and Ethical Considerations
The interview consisted of an introductory phase in which the definition of deshopping

was explained briefly, providing an example of such a phenomenon, making the
interviewee familiar with the thesis subject. In this introductory phase the researcher
sought to create the friendly and professional atmosphere necessary to successfully
perform the interview (Saunders et al., 2012). Figure 10 illustrates the introduction of
the interview used in the data collection.
Figure 8: Introductory Phase
MSc in Retail Management

MSc Thesis
Source: The author
Once the purpose of the interview had been explain to the participant, the interviewee
was informed about the ethics and confidentiality that this involved, for instance by
informing the participant before starting with the interview that it would be recorded
only with their permission, as well as the anonymity of employees’ name and personal
data, based on the Data Protection Act 1998 (Stationery Office, 1998) which enhanced
the protection of personal data in the UK. It was also mentioned in this phase that all the
information and data provided would be used exclusively for the purpose of the present
40
research. Figure 11 illustrates the ethics and confidentiality mentioned through the
interviews.
Figure 9: Interview´s Ethical Consideration
The information provided through

this interview will remain
anonymous and confidential
according to the Data Protection
Act 1998 which enhance the
protection of personal data in the
UK. No personal data will be
requesting or mentioned in the
thesis including name.
All the information and data

Ethical providing will be used exclusively
Considerations for the purpose of the present
research.
In order to have better analysis

and to minimise the length of this
interview, the interview will be
recorded and will be transcribe
later on. The respondent is free to
abandon the interview at any
moment if they wanted or needed
to do it.
Source: The author
After the introductory phase, the format of the interview is explained, highlighting the
four objectives to address throughout the interview and indicating how long the
interview usually took. After that, the main body is presented, which included the
questions aligned to the aim and objectives previously set out in Section 3.2. Such
questions can be seen in Figure 12 (see below). These questions were created to dig
deeply into the experiences and knowledge of the participants in order to obtain as much
information as possible from the interviewee. The questions for this study consisted of
open questions that allowed respondents to use their own terms, which were extended in
their response, being as neutral as possible, avoiding words or affirmations that could
influence the respondent’s answers (Turner, 2010).
In order to avoid misunderstandings in the questions that could result in receiving
answers that were not necessarily addressing the questions asked, the researcher used
the suggestion of Creswell (2007) by building clear questions in such a manner that
helped to reduce misunderstandings and also could keep the participants’ focus on their
responses by constructing effective follow-up questions and prompts.
The interviews were based on key questions or the theme guide (see Figure 12). Some
questions were omitted or added in particular interviews, depending on the level or
position of the interviewee, e.g. manager or sale assistant. Before starting the interviews
the researcher asked the participants if there was any doubt or question and also if the
participant agreed with the terms of the interview.
The concluding phase was provided at the end of the interview, to close the interview in
the appropriate manner, thanking the participants for the opportunity to hear about their
experiences and for their expressing their insightful contribution to the research,
offering the opportunity to have access to the results of the study, providing the
researcher’s contact details to keep in touch if they wished to. Figure 12 (see below)
shows the key questions and themes.
Figure 10: Key Questions and Themes
Key Questions and Themes
Q1. Have you ever heard about deshopping before?

Objective 1. To Q2. How often this phenomenon occurs?
investigate store Q3. How do you identify that a garment has been worn?
managers’ awareness Q4. Have you identified any pattern on this phenomenon?
about deshopping
Q5. In your opinion what is the profile of customers who perform deshopping?
Q6. Does the Company for which you work has a standard procedure to manage
returns?
Objective 2. To Q7. Does the company for which you work has a system to identify customers with high
explore formal rates of product returns?
policies and
Q8. Have you confronted customers who try to perform deshopping? How this affects to
procedures aimed to you?
prevent and combat
Q9. Can you give an example of when your supervisor has or has not support your
deshopping and how decision to refuse a return when you detect that the garment has been used/worn?
they are implemented
Q10. Do you think that refusing returns in cases of deshopping may impact customer
on daily operations service standards?
Objective 3. To Q11. What has been the results using this process?
investigate the Q12. Do you consider that the return policies of the company you work for, helps to
effectiveness of the prevent deshopping?
policies Q13.How do you think the phenomenon of deshopping will evolved in further years?
42
Objective 4. To Q14. Have you ever noticed customers trying to return worn garments? Can you please
investigate the role of provide some examples of this?
Theory of Planed Q15. Are previous attempts to perform deshopping, successful or not, likely to influence
Behaviour’ variables the future deshopping behaviour of customers?
(attitude, past Q16. In your opinion how deshopping is perceived from a social perspective?
experience, Q17.Do you think that family or Friends can influence the decision of perform
subjective norm and deshopping?
perceived Q18. In your opinion do customers buy to keep’ or ‘buy to try’?
behavioural control) Q19. In your opinion what are the main reasons driving customers’ deshopping
in managing behaviour?
deshopping
behaviour
Source: The author
3. 8 Sampling
Creswell (2007) pointed out the importance of selecting the appropriate candidates for
interviews who are willing to provide credible and reliable information to the study.
There are two types of sampling techniques: probability or representative sampling and
non-probability sampling. As the sample for the present study was not selected at
random from a sampling frame as well as not required to estimate statistically the
characteristics of the population in order to answer the research questions, the most
suitable sampling technique for this study was purposive sampling, which is a non-
probability sampling method, since there was not a sampling frame and it was more
suitable for exploratory research. Moreover this was more time- and cost-effective and
time was a crucial element for this research. Furthermore, this technique was likely to
work with small samples and the individuals selected to participate in the interview
fitted a specific purpose or description (Saunders et al., 2012).
The samples who would be participating in the individual interviews were managers
and sale assistants from different retailers in London, UK. The purpose for choosing
different apparel retailers was to show the different ways in which different brand stores
manage the phenomenon of deshopping. The period of data collection was set to be two
weeks, starting on 14 July 2014 when the letters of invitation to participate in the study
were distributed on the High Street of Richmond, London. About 40 invitation letters
were distributed, and the researcher’s mobile phone and e-mail address were provided
to the recipients. Some recipients agreed to provide their mobile numbers to the
researcher in order to get in touch.
In order to increase the number of participants who agreed to be part of the study, an
incentive of a free Starbucks coffee (paid by the researcher) was offered to the letter
recipients—it was an effective way to start to perform interviews. One day after the
distribution of the invitation letters, the researcher contacted the recipients by phone in
order to arrange the interview’s details and also to choose a suitable and convenient
location for this. The interviews were conducted one by one. Six were conducted face to
face in coffee shops and at store facilities, one was conducted by Skype, and the
remaining three were conducted by phone. It is important to mention that senior
managers of two of the UK’s largest retailers—Tesco’s Head of Returns and
Sainsbury’s Logistics Manager, respectively, were contacted by Dr King and then
directed to the researcher to take part in the study. Despite that, it was not possible to
conduct the interview with Sainsbury’s Logistics Manager due to time constraints.
However, the interview performed with Tesco’s Head of Returns was the most relevant
and outstanding due to the vast knowledge and experience that the participant was
shown to have, sharing information of paramount importance that gave the researcher a
clear view about the deshopping phenomenon analysed by a senior manager responsible
for the returns in the UK and across Europe. The researcher considered that the
transcript of this interview should most be included in this research due to the high
value that those responses had, due to word capacity constraints. The transcript of such
can be seen in Appendix 2.
Table 7 provides the interviewees’ data.
44
Table 7: Interviewee’s data
No. Company Position Length Interview Interview Interview
in the conducted conducted conducted
position by phone face to by Skype
face
1 M&S Sales assistant 5 years x
2 Kate Kuba Store Manager 10 years x
3 H&M Sales assistant 1 year x
4 H&M Sales assistant 2 years x
5 House of Fraser Sales assistant 3 years x
6 Joy Sales assistant 2 years x
7 Joy Store Manager 5 years x
8 H&M Sales assistant 4 years x
9 Tesco Head of returns 4 years x
10 M&S Sales assistant 3 years x
Source: The author
3.9 Methodology Limitations
Due to the complex nature of deshopping, it was a challenge to find managers or sales
assistants who were willing to participate in the interviews. Of the 40 letters delivered
only 10 people agreed to take part in the study, which is not highly representative. Some
of the employees let the researcher know that they were afraid about having problems in
their jobs if they accepted participation. 2 of the 10 interviewees did not agreed to be
recorded during the interview, and thus the researcher had to write notes immediately
afterwards in order to not forget important facts mentioned during the interview.
Based on the literature discussed, the qualitative research method was the most suitable
in approaching the topic of deshopping. The nature of the present research was
exploratory and the interpretivism philosophy was applied throughout the paper. Semi-
structured interviews were used to collect data from a sample of two store managers,
seven sales assistants, and one corporate head of returns from different companies
across the retail industry.
46
4 Data analysis
This chapter explains the method adopted to analyse the qualitative data obtained from
the interviews.
4.2 Method of Analysis for the Interviews
The method used to analyse the data obtained from the interviews was Thematic
Analysis, which helped the researcher in identifying and organising patterns within the
data (Braun et al., 2006, p. 79). This approach was composed of six phases:
1. Becoming familiar with the data
In this initial phase the researcher prepared the data for analysis by transcribing the
audio-recorded interviews using the actual words, and then implementing ‘data
cleaning’ (Saunders et al., 2012) by correcting mistakes through the transcription,
making it more accurate. Although transcription of interviews was extremely time-
consuming, this exercise resulted as extraordinarily useful in familiarising the
researcher with the data.
2. Generating initial codes
In this phase the researcher assigned specific labels or codes to the most relevant data
that might answer the research questions. A code is a word or phrase that captures the
essence of a primary content (Saldana, 2009). Strauss (1987, p. 27) highlighted the
importance of coding stating: ‘The excellence of the research rests in large part on the
excellence of the coding.’
The first step was to transcribe the audio recordings and subsequently it was located in
the CAQDAS NVivo. Later on, the researcher started to assign labels to each statement,
choosing names that expressed the main content or meaning of each transcript
statement. However, such names were changed many times during this process, as new
information was emerging and the researcher’s ideas were taking new form.
Table 8 explains how the coding process was conducted in this study.
Table 8: Example of Coding Process
Codes Data Extract

 Actual Control ‘There was a customer who returned an item
which was obvious that it had been worn at least
twice, in the part of the underarm part, could be
seen balls denoting the wear and tear. It was
obvious that the person had tried to fix this area
by removing some imperfections on that. At the
end the return was accepted and the dress was
put back on the sales floor as item on sale’
(Interview 3, Sales Assistant, H & M)
 Attitude ‘A woman tried to return a dress that obviously
had been worn so I said, “No, I won’t take this
item in this condition because I didn’t sell it like
that.” Then she started to cry on the shop floor
and it was embarrassing for her. We declined
and she came back and tried to return the same
dress to a different member of staff. She didn’t
learn the lesson.’ (Interview 7, Store Manager,
Joy)
 Past Experience ‘So I think if they were able to do it they will do it

again. I think if they tried one time and someone
says you cannot do it then probably they
wouldn’t try again. Or if they try again they will
try in different times and with a different
person.’ (Interview 9, Head of Returns, Tesco)
 Intention ‘It happens mostly in occasional wear. Customers

buy an item for a party, wedding, and then they
damage it and they return it as faulty.’ (Interview
5, Sales Assistant, House of Fraser)
 Subjective Norm ‘If a person doesn’t do it and she notices that all
her friends are doing it and talking about that,
then she will start to copy them to remain part of
that group and to have their acceptance. In
general we are very influenced, especially from
people who are important for us.’ (Interview 8,
Sales Assistant, H & M)
 Awareness ‘I know that this behaviour is occurring, I didn’t 48

hear of it as “deshopping” though. That’s very
good to hear of that, but that behaviour does
happen as a pattern ... very high pattern.’
 Intention ‘It happens mostly in occasional wear. Customers
buy an item for a party, wedding, and then they
damage it and they return it as faulty.’ (Interview
5, Sales Assistant, House of Fraser)
 Subjective Norm ‘If a person doesn’t do it and she notices that all
her friends are doing it and talking about that,
then she will start to copy them to remain part of
that group and to have their acceptance. In
general we are very influenced, especially from
people who are important for us.’ (Interview 8,
 Awareness ‘I know that this behaviour is occurring, I didn’t

hear of it as “deshopping” though. That’s very
good to hear of that, but that behaviour does
happen as a pattern ... very high pattern.’
(Interview 2, Store Manager, Kate Kuba)
 Excuses
‘We’ve been told about it, in-store it happens

occasionally. People take the garments fine and
they wear it and they bring it back. All they try is
 Lack of substantial say that the garment is faulty, they try to give
evidence some other excuses. They try to get the money
back.’ (Interview 1, Sales Assistant, M & S)
‘In the shop there are a lot of people returning

stuff and some of these are not in good
condition. Some of these clothes have been
used, it happens. So people do it and there is no
evidence when they do it.’ (Interview 4, Sales
Assistant, H & M)
 Stricter policies ‘We do not do returns or refund. At least the
garment is faulty, we give exchanges and we give
credit notes and that’s written in the policy.’
 Poor performance of ‘When people present their club card we in
systems theory know the people who buy from us and in
theory we should be able to track the frequency
in which customers return. We should be able to,
but actually we don’t track at the moment the
returns. Probably it’s going to data but it’s not
something that we monitoring frequently. If you
ask me, well, then I will say that we should be
tracking returners more than we do.’ (Interview
9, Head of Returns, Tesco)
 Physical and psychological ‘In this occasion the manager supported my
abuses decision of refusing a return because the
garment was in very poor condition. The
customer became quite aggressive scratching my
hands and telling me that French people should
not be working in this country.’ (Interview 8,
evidence when they do it.’ (Interview 4, Sales
Assistant, H & M)
 Stricter policies ‘We do not do returns or refund. At least the
garment is faulty, we give exchanges and we give
credit notes and that’s written in the policy.’
 Poor performance of ‘When people present their club card we in
systems theory know the people who buy from us and in
theory we should be able to track the frequency
in which customers return. We should be able to,
but actually we don’t track at the moment the
returns. Probably it’s going to data but it’s not
something that we monitoring frequently. If you
ask me, well, then I will say that we should be
tracking returners more than we do.’ (Interview
9, Head of Returns, Tesco)
 Physical and psychological ‘In this occasion the manager supported my
abuses decision of refusing a return because the
garment was in very poor condition. The
customer became quite aggressive scratching my
hands and telling me that French people should
not be working in this country.’ (Interview 8,
 Frequency ‘A regular basis in the store due to the return
policy. At least I get 40 returns per day. That is by
myself, that’s not including other store areas.
Upstairs they can have 30, others can have 50,
you know. In total there can be about 200
returns in a day per shop and I can say that even
10% of these clothes have been worn. That’s a
high number.’ (Interview 4, Sales Assistant, H &
M)
 Prevention ‘A regular basis in the store due to the return
policy. At least I get 40 returns per day. That’s by
myself, that is not including other store areas.
returns in a day per shop. I can say that even
high number.’ (Interview 1, Sales Assistant, M &
S)
 Customer service ‘We want to maintain a high standard of
customer service, but it depends on who you ask.
If you ask with clothing CEO, he will say that he
makes the customer experience very good and if
the item is not perfect we will give the customer
the opportunity to return it, but I think we are in
danger of become a soft touch. We think at the
moment we have customers who probably abuse
the return policies because we are quite lenient
on allowing them to return clothing without the
tags and labels in.’ (Interview 9, Head of Returns,
Tesco)
 Powerless feeling ‘With the shoes we have people who pull the
shoe on really tight and then come back for 50
money back, they wore it to whatever ... This one
lady we had with ballet pumps she wore to work,
wore to the train station, and it was literally the
returns in a day per shop. I can say that even
high number.’ (Interview 1, Sales Assistant, M &
S)
 Customer service ‘We want to maintain a high standard of
customer service, but it depends on who you ask.
If you ask with clothing CEO, he will say that he
makes the customer experience very good and if
the item is not perfect we will give the customer
the opportunity to return it, but I think we are in
danger of become a soft touch. We think at the
moment we have customers who probably abuse
the return policies because we are quite lenient
on allowing them to return clothing without the
tags and labels in.’ (Interview 9, Head of Returns,
Tesco)
 Powerless feeling ‘With the shoes we have people who pull the
shoe on really tight and then come back for
money back, they wore it to whatever ... This one
lady we had with ballet pumps she wore to work,
wore to the train station, and it was literally the
leather was gone over the zone. She said that
she only wore it once. I asked her, “Where did
you wear it?” and she said, “At home.” We said,
“You couldn’t have worn it only at home! You
can see the dirt is from the outside.” But she
wanted the money back. She said the shoe was
damaged so we had to give her the money.’
 Possible solutions ‘I think the best way will be to decrease the time
in which they can return an item and it should be
a very specific description of how I can return an
item.’ (Interview 5, Sales Assistant, House of
Fraser)
Sources: The author
3. Searching for Categories
After data was codified, the researcher found that some patterns were repeated several
times throughout the data set. Such data was linked and located into analytical
categories allowing a major organisation and structure for later stages in the analysis
(Saunders et al., 2012). The following map shows the categories and subcategories
resulting from this process.
Figure 11: Categories and Subcategories Map
Source: The author
4. Reviewing Categories
In order to refine the categories and subcategories exposed above, the researcher
reflected on the patterns and meanings previously obtained, reanalysing data and
adjusting categories and subcategories where necessary in order to streamline and distil
insightful information.
52
Figure 12: Categories and Subcategories Map Reviewed
Source: The author
5. Defining and Naming Categories
In this stage the researcher analysed each of the categories obtained from Step 4 in order
to identify the essence of them selecting an appropriate name which could transmit the
story that each category is aimed to tell.
6. Producing the report
After defining the category’s names, the researcher proceeded to interlace the extracted
data with the category to which it belongs, narrating a logical and convincing story
about this data and contextualising it with the literature reviewed in Chapter 2 (Clarke et
al., 2013)
In summary, the best data analysis method to generate insight from information
collected in interviews is Thematic Analysis. The software NVivo (CAQDAS) was used
to support the implementation of the Thematic Analysis method for the purposes of this
paper.
54
5 Findings and Discussion
This chapter reveals and interprets the facts discovered through the interviews. This
section also states the relationship between the findings and the aims and objectives of
this study, considering the implication to the theories described in the Literature Review
chapter.
5.1 Employee’s Awareness
Despite store managers’ and sales assistants’ not knowing the term “deshopping”, they
were aware of this phenomenon due to direct exposure to retail outlets where such
behaviour is quite common.
 ‘We’ve been told about it, in-store it happens occasionally. People take
the garments and they wear it and they bring it back. All they try is say that the
garment is faulty, they try to give some other excuses. They try to get the money
5.1.1 Patterns
Despite there not being a set profile of deshoppers, there are, however, some patterns
that store employees have identified in this phenomenon (Piron and Young, 2000; Ford
et al., 2005).
5.1.1.1 Demographics
5.1.1.1.2 Culture
Ford et al. (2005) demonstrated that culture is a key element to understanding how
people perceive conducts. In line with this, employees revealed that consumerism
culture is an important variable that aggravates this phenomenon. They also revealed
that there are people from ethnic groups who tend to misbehave the more.
 ‘Sometimes for certain ethnic groups, it is a cultural thing when they
think it is ok to do that and don’t see anything bad in doing this.’ (Interview 1,
Sales Assistant, M & S)
 ‘Waste culture also takes a part—“I don’t want it anymore” culture. No

longer do people want to keep hold of their own clothes and wear them over and
over again, so what is happening is because cheap clothes are accessible.’
5.1.1.1.3 Socioeconomic levels
Staff agreed that customers who performed deshopping are frequently individuals with
lower-middle levels of income motivated by social needs. This is in line with previous
research realised by Piron and Young (2000), who revealed that there is a relation
between retail borrowers and income levels. Furthermore, Fullerton et al. (1996)
indicated that people with lower incomes are more susceptible to performing
deshopping.
 ‘Customers who cannot afford to buy something they want, the only way
they could get away with it is by buying it, wearing it, and then returning it
 ‘The typical young lady who pretends to have more money than she
actually has, buying dresses very often to avoid to repeat the same dress that she
wore in previous parties.’ (Interview 8, Sales Assistant, H & M)
5.1.1.1.4 Gender and age
Employees exposed that customers who continually deshop tend to be young females
and also Mums with kids. This is in line with Piron and Young (2000) who revealed that
females tend to borrow items four times as much as men and also that younger people
tend to engage more in this behaviour.
56
 ‘The returns in ladies wear is much higher than it is in menswear. Men tend to
return less products and the return generally is because the item does not fit.’
(Interview 9, Head of Returns, Tesco)
 ‘Mostly women usually look standard, a lot of Mums with buggies, babies, or
children.’ (Interview 7, Store Manager, Joy)
 ‘Definitely women from 18 to 35 years old, even the working woman, anything
above that very rarely. Women over 40 years old normally return goods which are
genuinely faulty.’ (Interview 2, Store Manager, Kate Kuba)
5.1.1.2 Frequency and seasonality
The quotes below demonstrate that deshopping occurs on a regular basis and it occurs
especially in the holiday period, primarily on occasional wear (Bamfield, 2004).
 ‘It happens on a regular basis in the store due to the return policy. At
least I get 40 returns per day. In total there can be about 200 returns in a day
and I can say that even 70% of these clothes have been worn.’ (Interview 4,
 ‘It occurs a lot more in Christmas, because they’re buying in bulk and
then sometimes days before the holidays period because they’re buying items to
wear for weddings, spring weddings, summer weddings.’ (Interview 2, Store
Manager, Kate Kuba)
 ‘It occurs more frequently with expensive items like nightdresses or

wedding dresses where the customer does not really want to spend that money
but they need it.’ (Interview 3, Sales Assistant, H&M)
5.1.2 Customer’s High Power Perception
The following interview excerpts demonstrate employees’ awareness of customers’ high

power perception due to the competitive environment and the rapid changes that the
fashion industry involves. This supports previous research regarding the apparel
industry (MarketLine, 2013) in which it was found that as customers’ power is higher
then, retailers are forced to provide what customers demand. It also shows that
employees perceived customers as very savvy and better informed about legal rights
than employees.
 ‘Customers know that they have the power because the competition is
very high and they know that if the retailer doesn’t give them what they demand
they can go to another store and get it.’ (Interview 8, Sales Assistant, H & M)
 ‘More customers nowadays are aware of the law and aware of the legal
rights and in some ways customers are more clued up on the legal rights than
our staff.’ (Interview 9, Head of Returns, Tesco)
5.1.3 Customer’s Risk-perception
The passages below demonstrate employees’ awareness of the high influence that risk-
perception has on customers. Employees highlight the customers’ great need of variety
(Davis, 1987) due to social pressure and lack of self-confidence to decide by
themselves.
 ‘Society influences people to have more and more, to wear different

items every time, and sometimes they cannot afford it so they try to find the way
to have new stuffs without spending money.’ (Interview 8, Sales Assistant,
H & M)
 ‘People have very low confidence in themselves and they don’t have
enough time to try the clothes in-store before buying. They buy several items,
seeking the opinion from others to feel more confidence.’ (Interview 8, Sales
Assistant, H & M)
58
Participants explained that customers tend to buy to experiment with the garment and
also to have second or third opinions from others before deciding to keep the item. This
supports previous research, Mitchell (1992), in which it was exposed that customers
tend to buy several items to reduce the purchase risk, seeking to return them if the
experience is not satisfactory.
 ‘They perceive risk in the purchase. They know that we don’t give
money back so as soon as they come to the till they ask that question and we say
no, and they put the stuff back.’ (Interview 2, Store Manager, Kate Kuba)
 ‘People spend a lot of money in the store. They buy 10 or 20 items and
from the moment they are paying they say, “I will try it at home. I will get
second opinion and then I will come back to return some of them.”’ (Interview
8, Sales Assistant, H & M)
5.2 Exploring Retailer’s Policies and Procedures to Manage Deshopping
This section shows the procedures used by employees to manage deshopping and also
explore the retailer’s policies and how these are applied to prevent the behaviour. This
section also shows the different postures and attitudes among different levels of
employees towards the management and prevention of deshopping.
Employees detect deshopping by observation and smelling on strategic areas, trying to

detect marks or odours that provide evidence. This is in line with previous research
(King et al., 2007). It is important to highlight that the first action that employees take is
to kindly speak to the customers demonstrating the good treat and service that
employees give to customers whether they are deshoppers or not.
 ‘One is smell, and two, you know where the tag goes, and there it wasn’t
put it in the right place or is too tight.’ (Interview 2, Store Manager, Kate Kuba)
 ‘We look if there is any creasing on the bottom. Sometimes this can tell
you if the item has been worn, also checking the tags because sometimes the tags
comes originally inside and when people come back to return it the tags are on
the outside.’ (Interview 4, Sales Assistant, H & M)
 ‘We ask if they’ve worn it, we check into the bags, we look under the
arm, top of the neck, and inside the front, which is where the makeup goes,
because the makeup goes in the middle so you have to check those areas.’
 “We treat them as normal customers. That’s a rule—you can’t treat them
in a different way. We always have to be in good mood in-store.’ (Interview 5,
Sales Assistant, House of Fraser)
 ‘We are professional with every customer, regardless of whether they are
trying to return genuine products or whether they are trying to deshop.’
(Interview 9, Head of Returns, Tesco)
The quotations below demonstrate sales assistants’ attempts to prevent deshopping.

Sometimes they are supported by managers, enhancing their attitude, but other times
they are counteracted by them in order to avoid negative impacts in the customer
service. This affects sales assistants’ confidence to refuse returns (Harris et al., 2013;
King et al., 2007).
 ‘She wanted to return a dress. I could see that the dress was worn, but
she had the receipt with her. I asked her if she wore it, she said, “No”. The
manager said that the item wasn’t in a resalable condition and he refused the
return.’ (Interview 4, Sales Assistant, H & M)
 ‘I confronted a customer once and it ended in them complaining in head

office. But I sent head the office a photo of the item, which was obviously worn
and they told me I was right.’ (Interview 7, Store Manager, Joy)
 ‘Sometimes if I refuse a return my manager tells me, “Give her a note”

or “Return the item”. They do not want to lose the customer. Most of the time
60
managers accept the return. They don’t support me.’ (Interview 4, Sales
Assistant, H & M)
 ‘Commonly I don’t call the manager because when I refuse a return, the
manager always says “Yes” and then it’s me who looks like the bad one in front
of the customer.’ (Interview 8, Sales Assistant, H & M)
The interview excerpts below provide examples of when sales assistants do not feel
empowered to refuse the return of worn garments due to the lack of substantial evidence
and because customers deny the behaviour.
 ‘Customers wear the garments with the tags on. They just hide them, and
then they come back to the store with the receipt, so even though it is obvious
that it has been worn you can’t confront them because of the lack of strong
evidence, because they are bringing the receipt and the dress with the tags on.
Therefore I will not say anything to them because I can’t prove it.’ (Interview 8,
 ‘A customer used an expensive Michael Kors bag for a wedding, so the

argument was “You used it!” and they say “No, we didn’t!” so I say, “Just look
inside and you can feel a bit of something”, but they still say, “No I didn’t”.
That was obvious that she had used it so the argument continued. She wanted
the money back and we had to refund.’ (Interview 2, Store Manager, Kate Kuba)
The following interview extracts provide examples of retailers in which the managers
are the only authorities to deal with deshopping and difficult return situations, whilst
sales assistants’ responsibility is to deal with normal returns and prejudge if they are
genuine cases. The quotes below also show that sales assistants leave the responsibility
to managers to cover their own backs, because they fear to have future issues if they
refuse the return.
 ‘When someone returns something I always call the manager to have his
opinion. But if the item is in a good condition I can accept the return and
immediately put it back on the shop floor.’ (Interview 4, Sales Assistant, H&M)
 ‘If I see something that has been worn and they deny it I tend to call a
manager because you are covering your own back, because otherwise you will
get in trouble.’ (Interview 1, Sales Assistant, M & S)
 ‘Firstly, I speak with the customer, if the customer understands that I

can’t return it there is no problem, but if they start to argue then I will call the
manager.’ (Interview 4, Sales Assistant, H & M)
The interview quotes below illustrate the demotivating experiences that employees have
gone through in their attempts to combat deshopping by refusing the return of garments,
suffering physical and psychological aggressions from customers who, according to
Harris et al. (2004), are classified as ‘oral and physical abusers’. Such incidents highly
affect their work environment, impacting them negatively. This supports previous
research (Harris et al., 2013).
 ‘I refused a return of a dress because the customer didn’t have the

receipt and also because it was very old. She became very aggressive. She
came to me, scratching my hands. I felt really demotivated. She hurt my
feelings.’ (Interview 8, Sales Assistant, H & M)
The quotation also shows that sales assistants perceived actual customers as being very
arrogant, which made them undesirable customers. This supports previous research
about misbehaviour categories (Harris et al., 2004).
 ‘I had the experience of people being very nasty and I got into troubles
because of that. My pay raise was deducted because of one customer and all I
did was just state company policy!’ (Interview 1, Sales Assistant, M & S)
The references below demonstrate that some store staff override the return policies to
maintain customer happiness.
62
 ‘In some cases the stores will say no. The training is to say no but in
other scenarios if the store thinks that the best way is to recover and to try to
keep the customer happy then they will probably refund them.’ (Interview 9,
Head of Returns, Tesco)
This section demonstrates that sales assistants accept the return of items even when they
detect that the garment has been worn if it looks in a resalable condition, and also they
allow the return of products even when it is obvious that the item has been worn. This
supports previous research (Che, 1996; Davis et al., 1995, 1998).
 ‘We are probably over-lenient with the customers, because in the vast
majority of cases if the customer brings back an item without the tags and labels
on we will then probably refund them anyway.’ (Interview 9, Head of Returns,
Tesco)
 ‘If I can actually resell it there is no problem. I accept the return, even
when I find that they wore it but it’s in a resalable condition. But if the item is
not suitable I will confront them.’ (Interview 4, Sales Assistant, H & M)
The following interview extracts demonstrate that some employees become complacent
with returns, showing indifference towards deshopping and a lack of responsibility in
combating this behaviour, and some of them also cover the evidence to resell the item.
 ‘The company has forecasted this kind of loss in advance, so this

shouldn’t affect them that much. Personally, the return of worn garments does
not affect me. At least, customers disrespect me.’ (Interview 8, Sales Assistant,
H & M)
 ‘I always accept the return of garments because I know the manager will
say yes anyway, so I save time for me and for the customer and I pretend not to
see the condition of the garments and simply accept the return.’ (Interview 8,
 ‘Normally the supervisor knows if it was worn or not but they have to
process it like there is something in the item. We process this as a faulty item or
as if it has been worn and we send it to the dry cleaner.’ (Interview 5, Sales
Assistant, House of Fraser)
The quotations below demonstrate that some retailers are implementing stricter policies,
aiming to decrease the volume of returns. For example, they only allow returns on
faulty garments. Otherwise they offer exchange or credit notes, shortening time for
returns and providing training to staff. However, they notice that even with having these
measures dishonest customers deliberately damage the garments in order to have the
money back and employees should allow the return because they cannot prove it.
This supports previous research (King et al., 2007; Barlyn, 2007; Harris et al., 2013;
Kang et al., 2008).
 ‘We do not allow returns on sale items, and we only issue a refund if
there is a fault on the garment or you have 2 weeks to get a credit note or
exchange.’ (Interview 7, Store Manager, Joy)
 ‘If the item has been worn and there is strong evidence of that, we do not
accept it, but if they damaged the item, as it is almost all the time, we can’t
refuse the refund.’ (Interview 5, Sales Assistant, House of Fraser)
 ‘We used to have almost a year but then they changed it to 35 days.
Compared to a lot of shops that’s still very good.’ (Interview 1, Sales Assistant,
M & S)
 ‘When I first started I got a lot of training. I was told how to stop
different scenarios or situations that could happen, to be aware of things.’
(Interview 1, Sales Assistant, M & S)
The following quotes demonstrate that more training to employees is necessary due to
some of them never having had a proper preparation to deal with returns, and that skills
have been acquired through experience.
64
 ‘Trained not to have an argument. Procedures, checking the garment,
double check that it’s in a good condition” (Interview 4, Sales Assistant,
H & M)
 ‘I didn’t get any training. I had to learn by asking other colleagues how
to do it.’ (Interview 3, Sales Assistant, H & M)
5.3 Exploring the Effectiveness of Policies and Procedures
This section illustrates employees’ beliefs about the effectiveness of the actual policies
and procedures combating deshopping and the impact that refusing returns might have
on the customer service. The present section also highlights the lack of systems to track
returns.
The interview extracts below demonstrate that staff perceived actual policies as too
generous due to the complex and competitive environment, supporting previous
research (MarketLine, 2013).
 ‘I think one of the reasons they make it quite generous is because they
look at what other companies do and then try to be better.’ (Interview 1, Sales
Assistant, M & S)
 ‘There are too many competitors and customers can buy similar
garments in many stores, so companies seek to attract customers by offering less
stringent policies.’ (Interview 3, Sales Assistant, H & M)
Employees verify that policies and procedures are too lenient because retailers want to
maintain their high standards on customer service being customer-orientated (Hartline et
al., 2000) building positive associations with the brand and also enhancing a positive
word of mouth (Macintosh, 2007; Bennett, 1997).
 ‘I don’t think the system is good. You don’t need 35 days to decide. I
think it’s too long and people have too much time to change their mind.’
(Interview 1, Sales Assistant, M & S)
 ‘We want to maintain a high standard of customer service. If you ask
with the clothing CEO, he will say that he makes the customer experience very
good and if the item is not perfect we will give the customer the opportunity to
return it.’ (Interview 9, Head of Returns, Tesco)
 ‘Sometimes we give people allowances—the benefit of the doubt, for the

good of the company, not spoiling the name, especially now with the internet.
They can just spread, go viral!’ (Interview 1, Sales Assistant, M & S)
 ‘It really affects the customer service because word of mouth is a very
powerful force and people can spread negative comments and influence other
people to not buy in this store’ (Interview 8, Sales Assistant, H & M)
Staff also indicate that refusing returns has a negative impact on service.
 ‘If you refuse to give somebody the refund then the customer goes away
unhappy, in some ways we will be upsetting customers because the return is out
of the policy.’ (Interview 9, Head of Returns, Tesco)
Employees state that stricter policies are effective on preventing deshopping but also
provoke a drop in the sales due to customers perceiving a high risk in the purchase.
 ‘With the policy in here you lose sales. Some people are genuine, people
honestly want to buy a bag for a wedding or a pair of shoes, but if they go home
and they want to match it with their outfit they can’t return it so they prefer not
to buy.’ (Interview 2, Store Manager, Kate Kuba)
5.3.1 Effective Policy Enhancing Customer Service, but Ineffective Preventing

Deshopping
The interview quotes below illustrate that store employees perceived the actual policy
inefficient on preventing deshopping.
66
 ‘28-day return policy makes it difficult to combat the problem. It’s a long
period of time. People can wear the garment many times during this time.’
(Interview 4, Sales Assistant, H & M)
 ‘The most effective part of the policy is that sometimes customers do not
take the money back but they exchange, so at least the money remains in the
company, but it does not help to combat deshopping.’ (Interview 8, Sales
Assistant, H & M)
The following quotation demonstrates a manager’s awareness of the negative impact

that fraudulent returns provoke for companies but managers are also aware of the
increments in customer satisfaction that actual policies drive and thus that increase sales
and keep customers loyal to the brand (Pulido et al., 2014)
 ‘We currently have a high level of loss on products that can’t be resold
as a result of our return process, but people buy with us again because people
have a good service from us. It is an investment on the customer.’ (Interview 9,
Head of Returns, Tesco)
The quotation demonstrates that employees are improvising with informal strategies and
tactics to combat deshopping behaviour due to the policies not being strict enough
(Harris et al., 2013). Employees perceived that policies are protecting customers and let
them know that they are the authority (King et al., 2007).
 ‘Not really good results ... that’s why we use our own discretion because
policies somehow are always protecting customers but people take advantage
and often abuse these rights.’ (Interview 7, Store Manager, Joy)
5.3.2 Lack of Systems to Track Returns Frequency
The passages below highlight the absence of systems to track returns frequency.
Employees recognise that even though in cases of returns they collect personal data of
customers, this information is not used with the purpose of monitoring returns, but is
used to prove that the refunds have been made, to know customers’ preferences or to
prevent theft from the staff.
 ‘When people present their club card we in theory know the people who
buy from us and in theory we should be able to track the frequency in which
customers return, but actually we don’t track at the moment the returns. I will
say that we should be tracking returners more than we do.’ (Interview 9, Head
of Returns, Tesco)
 ‘When someone returns something we collect personal data, but this data
is used only to prove that the return has been made to the customer’s bank
account in case of the customer complaining that the return hasn’t be made
within 3 days.’ (Interview 8, Sales Assistant, H & M)
 ‘The database is used to protect your staff from stealing, because when
you have a turnover staff might be then taking the stuff and then returning it.’
5.4 Exploring Variables of Theory of Planned Behaviour in the Management of

Deshopping
The following lines provide examples of employees’ experiences with deshopping when
it is possible to identify the variables that compose TPB: AC, intention, SN, AT, PBC,
and PE, (Ajzen et al., 1980; King et al., 2006)
5.4.1 Examples of Attitude
The excerpts below demonstrate that employees are aware of the positive “attitude” that
customers have towards deshopping—they don’t show any regret of doing it, and
customers perceive deshopping as risk-free and without adverse consequences, which is
in line with the previous research of Ajzen (1985) who mentioned that attitude
encompasses a positive or negative evaluation of the behaviour which makes people
either perform or not perform a behaviour. Employees also reflected about the
customers’ stages of misconduct and how this can evolve in their worst actions. This
underpins the classification by Grove et al. (1989) of the deviant behaviour stages.
68
 ‘A woman tried to return a dress that obviously had been worn, so I
said, “No, I won’t take this item in this condition.” Then she started to cry on
the shop floor and it was embarrassing for her. We declined and she came back
and tried to return the same dress to a different member of staff. She didn’t
learn the lesson.’ (Interview 7, Store Manager, Joy)
 ‘People do not have that conscience. They think, “Oh, who cares? I can
do it.” Next time they will be stealing. It’s the beginning of something worse.’
5.4.2 Examples of Subjective Norm
The excerpt below demonstrates employees’ perception about the strong influence that
family and friends can have in the customers’ decision process of performing
deshopping, which supports previous research (Ajzen, 1991).
 ‘If someone doesn’t do it and she notices that all her friends are doing it
and talking about that, then she will start to copy them to remain part of that
group and to have their acceptance.’ (Interview 8, Sales Assistant, H & M)
5.4.3 Examples of Perceived Behavioural Control
The next quote demonstrates staff that deshopping is perceived as very easy to perform
and socially accepted, seen as something “funny” or “naughty” without consequences or
social stigma. This proves the high control perception PBC that customers have on
performing deshopping and the high confidence in their ability to do it.
 ‘Deshopping is a behaviour that retailers are allowing, is acceptable.

People laugh about it, people think it’s ok, they think they did something
naughty.’ (Interview 2, Store Manager, Kate Kuba)
The excerpts below support previous research, that of Bandura (1982) who pointed out
that customers’ behaviour is influenced by their self-efficacy judgement of how well
they can perform certain behaviour. The findings also support Ajzen (1991) who stated
that PBC refers to the perception of how easy it is to perform a behaviour.
 ‘They see it as something very normal, very easy. It is a conversation

topic among friends. People know that there are not major consequences. They
know it’s not illegal.’ (Interview 8, Sales Assistant, H & M)
 ‘It’s something very common in the shops, also because some people
show off about it, like, “This was something funny, free from any kind of
punishment!”’ (Interview 6, Sales Assistant, Joy)
5.4.4 Examples of Past Experience
Employees believe that previous successful experiences of customers performing

deshopping PE highly influence the customers’ confidence to repeat the behaviour. This
is in line with previous studies by King et al. (2006) in which it was demonstrated that
through PE customers become skilled.
 ‘If they did it once they will do it again. If they get away with it then
suddenly they will find the way to access clothing and always will find the way
to, after returning.’ (Interview 9, Head of Returns, Tesco)
 ‘They know all the techniques because even when you explain to them, “I
can’t do the refund in this way”, they give you the answer. They say, “But you
can do it in this other way”, and sometimes customers are better informed than
the staff.’ (Interview 8, Sales Assistant, H & M)
5.4.5 Examples of Actual Control
The following interview extracts provide examples of when employees detect

customers’ tactics and skills to ensure their AC performing deshopping (Ajzen, 1985,
1991). This goes from washing the garments in order to make them look genuine, to
70
customers deliberately damaging the garments, among others. It supports previous
research (King et al., 2006).
Employees believe that many opportunities and several resources are provided to
customers and thus they are more likely to perform deshopping, which is line with the
statement of Ajzen (1991) that customers’ AC is depicted by non-motivational factors
such as money and skills.
 ‘We sold a cashmere jumper and obviously the customer washed it at

home and she put it in a heating system and it had marks from the heating
system, and she just said that it changed the colour by itself.’ (Interview 5, Sales
Assistant, House of Fraser)
 ‘She bought an item from other branch and she wanted to return it here
because on a regular basis we can accept anything back and because the staff
in the store cannot recognise her.’ (Interview 4, Sales Assistant, H & M)
 ‘Sometimes people buy an item by card and then they want to return the
item and get cash instead of a deposit in the card.’ (Interview 7, Store Manager,
Joy)
 ‘Normally people damage the item and then they come and say that the
item is faulty. This happens very often in occasional wear, so they wear it once
and they won’t wear it ever again and they just try to return it.’ (Interview 5,
5.4.6 Examples of Intention
The following quotes are examples of employees detecting customers’ “intention” to

perform deshopping. They reprove the behaviour and recognise that customers have
learnt to manipulate the policies, taking advantage of them. Employees also highlight
customers’ intentions to return an item premeditated from the moment of purchase,
which supports previous research by King et al. (2006) in which it was encountered that
even though the return of a garment might not have been premeditated from the
purchase moment, it is, however, intentional at the point of return.
 ‘They want different types of shoes to wear in a garden or to wear in a

wedding, so they buy in bulk a bit of everything and the one they do not want
that they’ve worn is returned, claiming the money back.’ (Interview 2, Store
Manager, Kate Kuba)
 ‘I know people who do not have money but they will buy something to go
out at night. They will look suspicious and then they will return it.’ (Interview 5,
 ‘A lady came into store with the label in her jacket, she bought it from
House of Fraser a few weeks ago. She came into this store and I said, “Oh, your
label is attached!” and she said, “Oh yeah ... just leave it in there.” She was
wearing it for the week.’ (Interview 2, Store Manager, Kate Kuba)
In conclusion, the research proved that retailers are highly aware of deshopping. In fact,
customer-facing staff were able to provide insight about the patterns and profile of
deshoppers. However, there are no formal processes to prevent and manage deshopping
and neither is there enough staff training or guidance aimed to identify and refuse the
return of used goods. Moreover, the psychological and even physical violence
experienced by sales staff when dealing with angry customers pairs with the ambiguity
and generosity of return policies allowing fraudulent returns.
The TPB showed that customers have no significant embarrassment or regrets (AT)
associated with deshopping and that the customers’ intention to commit such behaviour
is highly influenced by people close to them (SN). Deshoppers’ previous successes
increase their confidence and skills to repeat the behaviour (PBC) and make them
perceive deshopping as easy to perform and risk-free.
72
6 Conclusions and Recommendations
Having analysed and explained the results of the study, this chapter places particular
emphasis on explaining how the obtained results addressed the research aim and
objectives. The chapter also highlights the limitations encountered throughout the
different stages of the research and provides recommendations to improve the
management of deshopping.
6.1 Final Conclusions
6.1.1 Store Managers’ and Sales Assistants’ Awareness of Deshopping
The research demonstrated that employees across companies and ranks (from sales
assistants to corporate heads of returns) are highly aware of deshopping. Based on
interviewees’ perceptions, the bargaining power of buyers is high and it is underpinned
by increased market rivalry and a prevalent industry focus on customer service. The
insight gathered by front-line staff could be leveraged to improve the prevention and
management of deshopping by furthering the understanding of the phenomenon in terms
of profiling and analysis of patterns.
Employees explained that deshopping is performed by people from different

backgrounds and suggested that demographic variables play an important role to
identify deshoppers. They highlighted that young females and people from lower-
middle backgrounds are more likely to engage in deshopping as this is the easiest way
to have access to new or expensive garments and to cover their needs of variety and
social acceptance; in essence, deshoppers borrow clothes from the store. Also,
deshopping has seasonal traits, peaking during holiday periods when expensive
occasional items are at the top of the returns list.
Interviewees indicated that the consumerism culture has influenced people to engage in
excessive consumption, as this makes people feel a greater need for material
possessions in order to be socially accepted. They also believed that customers from
overseas might be performing behaviours which are culturally accepted in their home
countries but are deemed as fraudulent in the UK. Likewise, customers’ low self-
74
confidence when buying suggests that they tend to buy to experiment with the garment
in order to obtain different opinions rather than buying to keep.
6.1.2 Retailer’s Policies and Procedures to Manage Deshopping
The research proved that there are no formal processes to prevent and manage
deshopping, and that front-line staff do not receive any formal training to identify and
refuse fraudulent returns. In fact, the lack of processes and store manager’s support to
refuse returns generates feelings of insecurity and vulnerability among front-line staff.
This subsequently discourages staff from enforcing the return policies. Definitely,
retailers would benefit from investing in processes, training, and systems to address this
problem.
Interviewees mentioned that visual and olfactory assessments are the “standard”
methods to identify used garments, which, according to their own views, is not enough
evidence to refuse a return. Hence, they feel susceptible to customers’ demands and end
up accepting the returns of items regardless of their condition.
Employees recognise the lack of training; some of them have been advised about the
return policies from a purely theoretical approach. In practice, the management of
difficult situations regarding fraudulent returns is very different from the situations
covered in the manual. This generates ambiguity and conflicts among staff at the
moment of enforcing the policy, and most of the time the view of keeping customers
happy prevails over preventing fraudulent returns. Moreover, staff recognised that it is
common for customers to be better informed or understanding of the policies and legal
rights than themselves.
The research showed that some retailers are implementing stricter return policies to
prevent deshopping. For example, they have shorter set times to return garments and
allow returns only by using gift cards or credit notes and provide more training to the
staff to handle difficult return situations. These measures have demonstrated a reduction
in the number of deshopping cases and returns in general. However, it also negatively
has impacted sales due to the high risk that customers perceive in the purchase.
6.1.3 Effectiveness of Policies and Procedures
In conclusion, this paper has exposed that return policies are too generous, which is
associated with the retailers’ focus on customer service, enabling customers’ abusive
and fraudulent behaviour. Interviewees recognised that deshopping could be better
prevented and managed by tightening and enforcing returns policies. However, it is
perceived that if a company ventures to such actions in isolation, it might lose its
competitive advantage relative to its rivals. The retail industry could benefit from the
development of standard returns policies by the industry bodies, with mandatory
implementation.
The research found the absence or use of systems to monitor returns which could
underpin the prevention and management of fraudulent behaviours by generating insight
and evidence about returns linked to customers’ profiles, hence facilitating the
identification of serial deshoppers.
6.1.4 Exploring the Theory of Planned Behaviour in the Management of

Deshopping
In summary, TPB has been applied and has proved that the consumers’ intentions to
engage in deshopping are highly influenced by four variables: (a) their positive self-
assessment of deshopping which reduces or eliminates feelings of regret or
embarrassment (AT); (b) the common acceptance of deshopping among society and
particularly the positive perception of deshopping among people in the customers’ inner
circles, highly influencing their intention to engage in the behaviour (SN); (c) the
relaxed return policies and their low enforcement has increased the customers’
perception that deshopping is a common and accepted practice in the retail industry
(PBC); and (d) such perception is further increased by previous successful experiences
in committing deshopping (PE).
This insight could and should be used to develop appropriate mitigation strategies based
on three pillars: (1) to generate a negative social perception of deshopping through
raising awareness of the potential health and safety problems generated by fraudulent
76
returns if the goods are resold; (2) to tighten and enforce the application of the policies;
and (3) to provide training to staff to manage fraudulent returns.
6.2 Concluding Statement
In conclusion, this paper has achieved fantastic insight into the management of returns
underpinned by a case study of ten companies (covering fashion and major groceries
retailers) developed by interviewing customer-facing and corporate staff. It is
remarkable that retailers with deep pockets, solid customer databases, and strong
technology systems are not leveraging such strengths to generate insight and support
with the management of fraudulent returns. For example, the Tesco Head of Returns
acknowledged that its loyalty card could be used to track down serial deshoppers,
enabling a better profiling and targeting of prevention strategies.
6.3 Recommendations for Future Research
Even though this research has explored the existence of policies and procedures set in
stores to prevent and combat deshopping, there is a lack of literature about what would
be more effective in preventing this behaviour. For instance, further research can study
whether deshopping can be prevented by creating awareness among consumers that they
might consequently be buying products that have been worn, changing the social
perception towards the behaviour. Another action to investigate might be to toughen the
consequences or penalties in order to see whether deshopping can be decreased.
Additional research can be conducted to explore the ideal training to give to store
employees to deal with fraudulent returns. This might be a key point to combat
deshopping behaviour.
6.4 Limitations
The research conducted ten case studies. However, a larger sample would enable the
researcher to have more insights into deshopping and its management.
In addition, the majority of people invited to participate in the study were reluctant to
provide information without the permission of the head office, which was a non-viable
option.
Finally, the time for data collection also was limited in the study, because it was not
sufficient for finding more participants.
6.5 Reflections
Working on this thesis has been an outstanding experience in both the academic and the
personal aspects. I have gained insightful understanding on consumer behaviour and
also on the important labour that staff carry out. I found that all the participants at some
point have tried to combat deshopping. However, they have been corrupted by bad
practices used in-store, making some of them unresponsive to confronting this
phenomenon.
Concluding this project fills me with confidence to start new challenges. I have
improved my social and analytical skills and, more importantly, I have learnt to manage
my emotions and thoughts in stressful circumstances.
78
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84
Appendix 1. Pre-notification letter
Appendix 2. Transcript of the interview to the Head of Returns at
Tesco’s
Interview 9: Head of Returns, Tesco
Interview conducted by: Phone
Objective 1. To investigate Store Managers’ awareness about deshopping

Q1. Have you ever heard about deshopping before?
“Yes, from customers all the time they came back to us, the more tricky area is clothing
and is when people buy products on line and the return is much higher”
Q2.Where did you heard about deshopping?
“In store. I`ve never heard about “deshopping” not with this term, but I know people
deliberately buy stuffs, they wear it and then they return it. Is very hard to know when
people deliberately are coming with the intention of returning a product. When people
present their club card we in theory know the people who buy from us and in theory we
should be able to track the frequency in which customers returns, we should be able to,
but actually we don`t track at the moment the returns, probably going to data but is not
something that we monitoring frequently. If you ask me well then I will say that we
should be tracking returners more than we do”
“So when people shop with us, they supposed to, with regard to clothing they supposed
to if they return something bringing the item back with the receipt, and they should also
return the item with the original tags and labels still applied. At least the item is faulty,
and they took the tags off, and they return the product because is faulty”
“Is very hard to know when people bring cloths back to store, the policy says that the
item has to come with the labels put on, most people I would think removes the tags and
labels and then wear it out, but when people bring stuffs back we should be checking, if
the product is return for a change in mind, we should only give them a refund if the
customer comes back with the receipt and also the clothing item got the tags and labels
still on them. Now the reality is in Tesco stores, I do not know about other stores we are
probably overly lenient the customers because in the vast majority of cases if the
customer brings back an item without the tags and labels on we will then probably
refund them anyway”
“We want to maintain a high standard of customer service, but It depends on who you
ask, if you ask with clothing CEO, he will say that he makes the customer experience
very good and if the item is not perfect we will give the customer the opportunity to
return it, but I think we are in danger of become soft touch, we think at the moment we
have customer who probably abuse of the return policies because we are quite lenient
86
on allowing them to return clothing without the tags and labels in, so I think it is we
have this balance which is we want to give the customer really good service but we
don`t want to lose the trade but I think we are in danger becoming a bit of higher
service where people buy things and they can probably take the tags and labels out and
then come back with the products and they`ve changed their mind, we probably will still
give them the refund, but interestingly across the more technology buy categories like
electrical we are very hard making sure that the customer returns the item with the
receipt and we try to get the product repair, but in clothing we are quite lenient”
Q3. How often this phenomenon occurs?
“I think it does, I think in Tesco I think it does, I think there are lots of occasions where
the customers returns stock without the tags and labels and in some cases as well the
customer do not bring the probe of purchase (receipt) and the stores will refund it
anyway because the product is F&S which is our Tesco brand”
Q4. How do you identify that a garment has been worn?
“Is very difficult I think in some cases you can see but I think in stores they encourage
to deliver great service and I think even if I can see that the product has been worn and
the customer is returning it because he changed his mind I think in most cases stores
will refund it, I think it is very evident, if there is dirty or if it was wore in a party and it
has wine over and someone is returning it I think in this case will say, no you can’ t
have a refund. But if the item does not have the tags or labels in they will probably
refund you”
Q5. Have you identified any pattern on this phenomenon?
“We probably, we do not look at it in the level of detail we probably should do so I
think, no I think the areas which will be more likely to have this to happen are ladies
wear, with dresses, the returns in ladies wear is much higher than is in men’s wear.
Men tend to return less product and the return generally is because the item does not fit
whereas we get a lot of ladies coming back and a higher value products have a higher
return rates and I think is in these products where people is more likely to remove the
tags and labels and then try to get a return after the event anyway, is in the ladies wears
product where we have more risk”
Q6. In your opinion what is the profile of customers who perform deshopping?
“I think is anybody and everybody, I do not think is limited to any particular profile of
customer, I think is people who are quite fabulous, people who are quite strays ways
and in knowing they can get away with and I think a lot of people will probably never
think to effectively trying deploring a retailers because is an interesting question to
know whether this is deploring a retailers, it’s probably no deploring because Tesco
policy is not a legal thing but we do I think in our interesting delivery day service we
are a little bit nine, eight because that allows more and more customers with a certain
profile to take advantages of it”
Q7. Do you think that relative bargaining power of customer might be a factor
influencing fraudulent returns?
“I think more customer nowadays are aware of the law and aware of the legal rights
and I think in some ways customers are more clue up on the legal rights than our staff
but I think that’s more relevant on line purchases, you know where store purchase you
get an increasing knowledge among customers if they return something and they say
there is faulty, and some customer will make the product faulty or they will introduce
defects on the products and then say that is faulty in order they can return it, I would
hope that that’s rare because some people do not want to back to the store and say I’ve
just changed my mind particularly if they have taken the tags and labels off but in
theory if you buy a coat or dress of 50 pounds and then you decided to wearing have
taken tags and labels off and then you return it saying that there is a defect in the
product the store will never know that the product was not defective in the first place.
But you have to be a very cynic customer in order to do that. So they are customer who
does that but this is not generally a common thing”
Q8. In your opinion what are the main reasons driving customers’ deshopping
behaviour?
“I think they can change their wardrobe frequently without even spend for them, if you
can find a way to hire cloths from a big retailer and you can spend a limited amount of
money in order to keep changing your cloths”
Objective 2. To explore formal policies and procedures aimed to prevent and

combat deshopping and how they are implemented on daily operations
Q9. In your opinion which would be the best way or strategy to combat
deshopping?
“I think we should reinforce the policies that we have in place anyway, and very simple
is 1. Customer should bring back the receipt 2. The item has to be the tags and labels 3.
Normally the only way we can refund a person which item has not present labels and
tags if is the item is defective. We give 28 days if they change their mind but they’ve got
an extend amount of time for products which are faulty”
Q10. Did you receive training to handling returns?
“They do receive training, but sometimes get overridden by what is in the best interest
on the customer. There is a pressure on store colleagues to always say yes, we do not
want to lose customers, they get train on the policy but then the reality when people is
standing in front of them makes the situation more complex and so they are in a tricky
situation because they want to apply the policy but in some way that will mean to say no
to the customer but is intend on you saying yes and I want to avoid compensation is they
can’t”
88
Q11. What do you do when you detect that the article that the consumer is trying
to return has been worn?
“Well I think if the item has been worn, it depends, if they say that the item is faulty then
I will return it , if they say they changed their mind then I think some stores will say no
and some others will say yes, we probably will have a variation across. I think in some
cases the stores will say no, they should say no , the training is say no but in other
scenario if the store think that the best way to recover and to try to keep the customer
happy then they will probably refund them”
Q12. Can you explain how you treat genuine return customers or deshoppers and
if they are different?
“I will hope that we are professional with every customer regardless whether they are
trying to return genuine products or whether they are trying to deshop”
Q13. Can you give an example of when your supervisor has or has not support
your decision to refuse a return when you detect that the garment has been
used/worn?
“Yeah normally, the store staff will go to the manager and will come back saying no,
other times the managers will in interest to making sure they keep the customer happy
and they will give the refund. Is tricky because in the first scenarios the customer goes
unhappy”
Q14. Do you think that refusing returns in cases of deshopping may impact
customer service standards?
“Yeah well if you refuse to give somebody the refund then the customer goes away
unhappy in theory the customer service does not always mean to say yes, sometimes
they can have a tough conversation with the customer and say no, I think, our policies
allow people to return products genuinely but if people comes to you and deliberately
try to put pressure on you to refund something which is out of our policy then is right to
say no, so yeah in some ways we will be upsetting customers because the return is out of
the policy”
Q15. Do you think that customers investigate return policies before deciding where
to buy?
“Yes I think so, I think people do choose where to buy based on the return policy, I
think that more online, people tend to do research into the return policy on line, and
you want to shop with someone who can return it quickly and easily so return policy is
part of their consideration”
Objective 3. To investigate the effectiveness of the policies and procedures
described in objective two
Q16. What has been the results using this process?
“Generally people are well recover and I think we have currently having a high level of
loss on products that can’ t be resold as a result of our process but people buy with us
again and again because people have a good service from us is an Investment on the
customer”
Q17. Do you consider that the return policies of the company you work for, helps
to prevent deshopping?
“No, I do not think it does is not the policy which helps to prevent deshopping is the
application of the policy”
Q18. How do you think the phenomenon of deshopping will evolved in further
years?
“I think it will get worst, on line will get worst and in store the same. Because on line
returns are people deliberately buy products online in order to return those most than
in store”
Objective 4. To investigate the role of Theory of Planned Behaviour’ variables

(attitude, past experience, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control, actual
control and intention) in managing deshopping behaviour
Q19. Are previous attempts to perform deshopping, successful or not, likely to
influence the future deshopping behaviour of customers?
“Yes, I think if they did it once they will do it again, you know if you doing once and you
are brave in of to tried and get away with it then suddenly you know you find the way to
access clothing and you always will find the way to after returning now I think customer
will do it would be naturally worry about doing this that frequently because they will
become known into the store and known to the customer service they can be behind to
the desk, but if every week this particular customer comes back and returns two or three
items or whatever might be, so I suspect that if they can go away people will continue to
do it or they will go back into the store at different times, different desk so I think if they
were able to do it they will do it again. I think if you tried one time and someone say you
cannot do it you probably wouldn’t try again or if they try again they will try in
different times and different person. But I think this is happening a lot”
Q20. In your opinion how deshopping is perceived from a social perspective?
“Yes I think is socially accepted I think, you know it reminds me you know is illegal to
download music without paying for it but everybody does it, everybody download music
without paying for it and is socially accepted but is illegal, now obviously this is not
illegal only is taking advantage of retailers policy, so I think is socially acceptable, but
90
is more prevalent now online more than anything, when people order stuffs online and
its deliver to their house they wear it they send it back and actually is the way the cloths
industry works”

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CRANFIELD UNIVERSITY

Diana Ferreira Galindo

How Retailers Manage Deshopping

Cranfield School of Management

Supervisor: Tamira King

Cranfield School of Management

Academic Year: 2013-2014

Diana Ferreira Galindo

How Retailers Manage Deshopping

Supervisor: Tamira King

This Thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the

© Cranfield University 2014. All rights reserved. No part of this

Value of the work:

Deshopping, consumer behaviour, consumption, fraud, retail, return policies, customer

Figure 1: UK Apparel Retail Value, Source: MarketLine (2013) p.11 .......................... 12

Figure 2: Consumption Expenditure in the UK (EUR), Source: FashionUnited (2013)

Figure 3: Area of Research ............................................................................................. 15

Figure 4: Apparel Retail Industry EU % Share by Value, 2012, Source: MarketLine

Figure 5: UK’s Apparel Retail Industry Category Segmentation % Share by Value,

Figure 6: Theory of Planned Behaviour, Source: Ajzen (1991) p. 182 .......................... 27

Figure 7: Theory of Planned Behaviour Model Predicting Deshopping, Source: King et

Figure 10: Introductory Phase ........................................................................................ 40

Figure 11: Interview´s Ethical Consideration ................................................................. 41

Figure 12: Key Questions and Themes .......................................................................... 42

Figure 13: Categories and Subcategories Map ............................................................... 52

Figure 14: Categories and Subcategories Map Reviewed .............................................. 53

Table 3: Comparison of Four Research Philosophies, Source: Saunders et al., (2012)

Table 4: Advantages and Disadvantages of Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches and

Table 6: Changes to the Interview´s Questions .............................................................. 39

Table 7: Interviewee’s Data............................................................................................ 45

Table 8: Example of Coding Process ............................................................................. 48

1.1 Chapter Introduction

1.2 The Dark Side of Consumer Behaviour

In today’s world in which technological development enables consumers to be aware of

1.4 Business Implications

Source: Adopted from MarketLine (2013) p.11.

According to fashion statistics, the total UK consumption expenditure in clothing and

Figure 2: Consumption Expenditure in the UK (EUR)

Source: Adapted from FashionUnited (2013) p.1.

Objective 1. To investigate Store Managers’ and Sales Assistants’ awareness of

Objective 3. To investigate the effectiveness of the policies

1.6 Chapter Conclusion

2.1 Chapter Introduction

How do retailers manage deshopping?

Figure 3: Area of Research

Source: The author

Figure 4: Apparel Retail Industry EU % Share by Value, 2012

Source: Adopted from MarketLine (2013) p. 10.

Source: Adopted from MarketLine (2013) p. 9

Clothing retailing is a competitive business in which consumer’s buying decision is

Table 1: Areas of Perceived Risk

Perceived Risk Description

Social Risk The risk of how the selection of the service

Physical Risk The risk that the performance of the service

Psychological Risk The risk that the selection or performance of

Source: Adopted from Mitchel (1992) Vol. 30 No.3 p. 27

 Pre-purchase information search

Risk-perception can be reduced during the pre-purchase phase by increasing the