As a prevalent and growing form of customer behavior,
deshopping (King et al, 2008) is on the rise. Retailers’ focus
on good customer service and the offering of lenient returns
polices has led to the growth in this fraudulent behavior of
customers in returning goods. Retailer myopia in the context
of dishonest customer returns, applying the Theory of
Planned Behavior (TPB) using a quantitative questionnaire
with 535 female consumers(King, et al, 2008). The findings
highlight the extent of the behavior with 50% admitting to
partaking in deshopping. The results indicate that currently
these customers perceive it to be easy to deshop as there are
no consequences with the result that such behavior continues
to grow. If retailers were less myopic they would monitor
returns more thoroughly and make it less easy for such
customers to get away with undesirable deshopping behavior.
King et al (2008) study also suggests that retailers to manage
or alter perceived behavioral characteristics for customers,
which in turn, would reduce tendencies for dishonesty in
customers returning goods for refunds. Finally retail myopia
is evident with de-shopping behavior with consequences for
retailers in time, effort and costs.