The Impact of E-Commerce Information Overload on Consumers' Return Intentions: The Moderating Role of Perceived Environmental Effectiveness

The increasing frequency of product returns on e-commerce platforms has emerged as a critical issue, leading to substantial economic losses, heightened carbon emissions, and wasted social resources. While e-commerce platforms are designed to assist consumers in making informed purchasing decisions through abundant product information, the overwhelming volume of data often has the opposite effect. Consumers encounter redundant, promotional, or misleading information, resulting in perceived information overload — a state where individuals feel overwhelmed by excessive or complex data. This overload impairs decision-making ability, reduces satisfaction with purchases, and ultimately triggers impulsive buying followed by product returns. Using a quantitative survey of 536 valid respondents from North India, the study confirms that extreme exposure to unorganized information leads to increasing post-purchase regret and impulsive buying behaviour, ultimately resulting in higher product return rates. A mathematical framework is developed linking information overload, cognitive strain, utility distortion, irrationality, and return intention into a quantified behavioral chain.