Improved Decision Support for Product Returns using Probabilistic Prediction
2023 (English)In: 2023 Congress in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, & Applied Computing (CSCE), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), 2023, p. 1567-1573Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]
Product returns are not only costly for e-tailers, but the unnecessary transports also impact the environment. Consequently, online retailers have started to formulate policies to reduce the number of returns. Determining when and how to act is, however, a delicate matter, since a too harsh approach may lead to not only the order being cancelled, but also the customer leaving the business. Being able to accurately predict which orders that will lead to a return would be a strong tool, guiding which actions to be taken. This paper addresses the problem of data-driven product return prediction, by conducting a case study using a large real-world data set. The main results are that well-calibrated probabilistic predictors are essential for providing predictions with high precision and reasonable recall. This implies that utilizing calibrated models to predict some instances, while rejecting to predict others can be recommended. In practice, this would make it possible for a decision-maker to only act upon a subset of all predicted returns, where the risk of a return is very high.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), 2023. p. 1567-1573
Keywords [en]
Calibration, Decision Support, Predict with Rejection, Probabilistic Predictions, Product Return
National Category
Information Systems
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-64150DOI: 10.1109/CSCE60160.2023.00258Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85191148521ISBN: 979-8-3503-2759-5 (electronic)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hj-64150DiVA, id: diva2:1856559
Conference
2023 Congress in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, and Applied Computing, CSCE 2023 Las Vegas 24 July 2023 through 27 July 2023
Funder
Knowledge Foundation, 20160035, 201702152024-05-072024-05-072024-10-04Bibliographically approved