Pricing and monetization · Online-retail field experiment evaluating retargeting offers of free shipping (FSR) and free returns (FRR), with causal-forest analyses of treatment-effect heterogeneity.
From Stopping to Shopping: A Field Experiment on Free Return and Free Shipping Retargeting Policies in Online Retail Operations
Xueming Luo, Le Wang, Qingsheng Wu, Takeshi Moriguchi (2025). From Stopping to Shopping: A Field Experiment on Free Return and Free Shipping Retargeting Policies in Online Retail Operations. Manufacturing & Service Operations Management. https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2024.0779
Plain-English take
Simple product reminders did not significantly increase purchases. Late-stage FSR and FRR increased purchase rates by 18.6% and 31.6%, respectively, and targeting profitability by 28.2% and 37.8%, respectively. FRR was especially effective for younger, less-experienced customers and higher-value abandoned products; FSR was more effective for older, longer-tenured customers and lower-priced products.
How much weight to give this
4/5 Field experiment with bounded scope
The 1–5 evidence-check score is a practical reading aid, not a formal peer review or a probability that a conclusion is true. It combines design strength (2 points), sample reporting (1), comparison/control clarity (1), and how much of the paper could be checked (1). Access affects how confidently this directory can assess a study, not the study's underlying quality. Blinding is reported separately because it is not relevant to every design.
Online-retail field experiment evaluating retargeting offers of free shipping (FSR) and free returns (FRR), with causal-forest analyses of treatment-effect heterogeneity.
Consumers who visited an online store and left without purchasing; the fetched abstract does not report a numeric sample size.
See the full paper for comparison conditions and analysis.
Publisher page checked; full-text methods not independently reviewed.
Double-blind? Blinding was not established from the checked publisher page.
Research question
What the authors investigated
What does from stopping to shopping: a field experiment on free return and free shipping retargeting policies in online retail operations show about customer decisions or business outcomes?
Design
Online-retail field experiment evaluating retargeting offers of free shipping (FSR) and free returns (FRR), with causal-forest analyses of treatment-effect heterogeneity.
Sample and setting
Consumers who visited an online store and left without purchasing; the fetched abstract does not report a numeric sample size.
Reported result
What the study found
Simple product reminders did not significantly increase purchases. Late-stage FSR and FRR increased purchase rates by 18.6% and 31.6%, respectively, and targeting profitability by 28.2% and 37.8%, respectively. FRR was especially effective for younger, less-experienced customers and higher-value abandoned products; FSR was more effective for older, longer-tenured customers and lower-priced products.
This is a paraphrase of the source. Check the original paper for definitions, estimates, statistical uncertainty and analysis details.
Scope and transfer
Limitations to keep in view
Not reported in the fetched abstract/page; omitted rather than inferred. Full article methods and correction history were not independently reviewed.
Possible founder application
Use this study as a bounded example of from stopping to shopping: a field experiment on free return and free shipping retargeting policies in online retail operations; assess whether its population, intervention and outcome match your own decision.
Evidence access
Publisher article page; full-text access varies and was not established in this check.
Publisher page directly retrieved; candidate metadata and reported result checked against that page. Full methods were not independently reviewed.
If only an abstract or metadata was available, the profile is limited to claims supported there. A paper's paywall does not change its evidentiary status, but it limits what we can substantiate from accessible text.