4. Offer a longer return period
Another way to ensure that more products are sold is by offering a longer return period. When the consumer gets more time to return the item, this will result in fewer return shipments. A decrease of 47% in return rates has resulted previously from the stretching of the return time to one month. An endowment effect can be seen here: the longer someone has a product in his or her possession, the harder it will be for them to send it back. The reason for this is that the person becomes attached to the product.
Another explanation lies in the construal level theory. This means that something that seems far away (for example in terms of time) leads to a more abstract processing by the human brain. The other way around is that if something feels close (for example, a shorter return time), people start to think about it more concretely.
Our own research shows that European consumers expect the return period of a purchase to be at least two weeks (17 days). Italian online shoppers expect the shortest return period, namely at least 14 days. British online shoppers, on the other hand, expect the return period to be 19 days minimal.
5. Omit the currency sign
Brain scientists have conducted research into the effect on the brain after seeing a price. It showed that the insula is activated as soon as a person sees a price. This is the same brain area that is activated the moment someone experiences pain. This shows that seeing prices has a negative effect on people. The omission of prices on products in online stores therefore ensures that this negative association is not linked to the product, which means that consumers are more likely to purchase the product.