Earlier quoted context omitted.
Amazon offers drop off returns at their retail locations as well. Also at their lockers, but you do have to box it for the locker.
Is re-boxing Amazon products really that big of a hassle? I just re-use the box the product came in, or the box from another recent Amazon purchase.
These are instead several small hassles, many separated in time, each requiring low level focus and effort. Maybe a customer doesn't have packing tape in his house, a cardboard box (since he threw it out) or label glue, so he has to start by to going get those first, after having initiated the return by going to a web site, signing in, finding the right page, and filling out a form.
Customers don't have to do any of that with an in store return. You walk up to the counter at a store you're already going to anyway that day with a receipt and unwanted product and say "This didn't work" "This didn't fit" "I didn't like the color" or whatever, couple minutes, and you're done. WalMart in particular often gives cash refunds, as in actual currency in hand, after a minute or two at most at the counter.
Often analysts will say "It's not a big hassle, the customer shouldn't have a problem with it."
That is true. But what if there is a competitor who offers a product return experience without requiring a series of small hassles? Maybe they instead have a very tiny hassle? Could that difference have an effect on consumer choices? Could consumers perhaps purchase even more products because they are confident that any return won't be met with a series of tiny trifling minor hassles?
Some theorists say yes.