| 1 | Management related | The competencies, incentives, degree of education and involvement of RL staff, as well as the dedication of senior management to RL methodologies | R1 | Absence of commitment and accountability from upper management | Chileshe et al. (2015); Moktadir et al. (2020); Saruchera and Asante-Darko (2021) |
| R2 | Lack of collaboration with RL professionals and SC partners | Agrawal et al. (2015); Campos et al. (2020); Cricelli et al. (2021); Plaza-Úbeda et al. (2021) |
| R3 | Lack interest among stakeholders for RL | Bouzon et al. (2016); Prakash and Barua (2015); Waqas et al. (2018) |
| R4 | Resistance to the departure from traditional practices | Gomes da Silva and Gouveia (2020); Prakash et al. (2015); Waqas et al. (2018) |
| R5 | Inadequate strategic planning to improve RL implementations | Lara et al. (2019); Prajapati et al. (2019); U-Dominic et al. (2021) |
| 2 | Economical and financial | Capabilities pertaining to economic aspects of RL implementation, such as investments, loans and finance. | R6 | Availability of sufficient and timely capital | Abdulrahman et al. (2014); Agrawal et al. (2016); Bouzon et al. (2018) |
| R7 | Minimal profitability | Abdulrahman et al. (2014); Bouzon et al. (2018) |
| R8 | Increased expense of adopting RL | Abdulrahman et al. (2014); Chileshe et al. (2015) |
| R9 | Uncertainty concerning economic matters | Desticioglu et al. (2022); Sonar et al. (2024) |
| 3 | Infrastructure and technological | Physical infrastructure, transportation, technology and information systems as they pertain to RL | R10 | Lack of waste management and product recovery technology | Abdulrahman et al. (2014); Al Zaabi et al. (2013) |
| R11 | Insufficient infrastructure and logistics facilities | Caiado et al. (2022); Muchenje (2024) |
| 4 | Regulatory | RL-enabling policies, rules and regulations at multiple levels (municipal, national, regional and worldwide) | R12 | Inadequate government laws and rules for EoL goods | Bouzon et al. (2018); Govindan et al. (2014) |
| R13 | Lack of representation from a professional Indian retail apparel body | Derived in the Delphi survey by the authors |
| R14 | Changing regulations | Muduli et al. (2013) |
| R15 | Lack of standards for recycling management | Abdulrahman et al. (2014); Bouzon et al. (2018); Giunipero et al. (2012) |
| 5 | Supply chain, governance and operational | Established protocols for managing value chain operations and stakeholders | R16 | Insufficient coordination among supply chain partners | Abdulrahman et al. (2014); Balasubramanian (2012); Prakash and Barua (2015) |
| R17 | Insufficient planning and forecasting in RL | Abdulrahman et al. (2014); Agrawal and Singh (2020); Bouzon et al. (2018); Prakash and Barua (2015) |
| R18 | Quality issues of returned products | Bouzon et al. (2016); Prakash et al. (2015) |
| R19 | Operational issues | Moktadir et al. (2020) |
| 6 | Promotion of remanufactured or recycled products | In relation to market volatility and competitiveness, the extent of market recovery development | R20 | Underdeveloped markets for recovery | Bouzon et al. (2018); Starostka-Patyk et al. (2013) |
| R21 | Managing quality uncertainty, return timing and demand | Jindal and Sangwan (2013; Prakash et al. (2015) |
| R22 | Perceptions of inferior quality products | Jindal and Sangwan (2013); Prakash et al. (2015) |
| R23 | Lack of community pressure | Meehan and Muir (2008); Muduli et al. (2013); Srivastava (2008) |
| 7 | Consumer awareness | Concerning goods returns and the environmental repercussions of improper disposal | R24 | Customer acuity about RL | Prakash and Barua (2015) |