Digital Local Return Services and Purchase Intention in Cross-Border E-Commerce: A Risk–Trust Perspective

Cross-border e-commerce offers consumers broader product access, yet uncertainty surrounding returns continues to suppress online purchase decisions. This study conceptualizes digital local return services as a digital assurance mechanism in cross-border e-commerce rather than merely a reverse logistics function. Drawing on UTAUT2, perceived risk theory, and trust theory, we develop and test a research model using survey data from South Korean consumers with prior experience of digital local return services (LRS). Structural equation modeling (SEM) is used to test the proposed relationships, and artificial neural networks (ANN) are employed to capture nonlinear effects and compare the relative importance of key predictors. Qualitative interview evidence is further incorporated to enrich the interpretation of the findings. The results show that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, facilitating conditions, and hedonic motivation significantly reduce perceived risk. Perceived risk, in turn, exerts a strong negative effect on purchase intention and weakens consumer trust. Additional ANN results indicate that hedonic motivation and facilitating conditions are particularly influential in lowering perceived risk, while perceived risk is more important than trust in predicting purchase intention. These findings show that digital return service design shapes consumer decisions primarily through risk reduction rather than trust enhancement alone. The study contributes to digital commerce research by explaining how return service design functions as a customer-facing platform assurance mechanism that improves conversion in cross-border online retailing.