Rogers and Tibben-Kemke (1999) identified the attitude of the organization and company policies as the greatest barriers to reverse logistics. Both the electronic and the fashion re-
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tailer feel that reverse logistics is receiving a sufficient amount of support from the top management. Even though reverse logistics is still a new field for both organizations, top management of the two organizations have realized the consequences of not working with reverse logistics. However, the two organizations believe that with more support from top management, additional money and resources can be used to improve reverse logistics even further.
Both organizations mention that cost is a major barrier for reverse logistics. The electronic retailer mentions that it is easier to propose a new sales channel than investing money on reverse logistics. The fashion retailer indicates that can it be difficult to spend money on customers sending back products instead of buying new ones. There are also costs regard- ing the transportation of getting the products back, as well as the personnel in the ware- house who have to handle the products.
Ravi and Shankar (2004) mentioned barriers like problems with product quality, resistance to change, lack of appropriate performance metrics and lack of training and education. These barriers could not be identified at either of the organizations.