Keys to a successful jewellery packaging & returns process
Vaishali Ravi
·May 13, 2024
As an ecommerce jewellery brand, it’s important to craft a luxurious experience for your customers at every step of the way.
Producing beautiful jewellery pieces is part of that process — but it’s just as critical to ensure that your shopper has a delightful shipping and unboxing experience. And, in the event that they need to return a product, their returns experience should be equally seamless.
By developing a best-in-class customer experience from the first brand touchpoint to the last, you can easily compete with physical jewellery stores and build customer loyalty that will have shoppers coming back to you for every important event they want to commemorate — and even for “just because” purchases.
Here are some tips for building a superior packaging, shipping, and returns experience for your customers.
Customise your packaging to make a lasting first impression
When you purchase a product from the renowned jewellery brand Tiffany & Co., you’ll find it in an iconic robin’s egg blue (known as “Tiffany Blue”) jewellery box, wrapped with a white satin bow. This attention to detail and branding has helped make Tiffany’s one of the most famous and longstanding jewellery brands in the world — and offers important lessons for newer jewellery brands.
When packaging your jewellery, create a branded experience for your customer that creatively uses your brand colours and special stylistic touches to deliver a memorable unboxing experience. Whether the shopper has purchased your jewellery for their own use or as a gift for a loved one, they should be impressed with your attention to detail in every element of the unboxing experience. This not only creates a positive first impression, but also makes the customer feel like they are receiving a luxury item, even if it is at a more affordable price point.
In addition to the physical packaging of your products, consider incorporating digital elements into the unboxing experience. This could include QR codes that lead to exclusive content or special offers, personalised videos or images related to the product, or special discounts for additional products. Pay attention to current ecommerce jewellery trends to understand what’s resonating with modern shoppers, and incorporate them into your business model where they make sense.
Make sure that your products are well-protected during the shipping process
Jewellery can often be fragile, and damage during the shipping process can lead to a negative customer experience, as well as the expense of shipping a replacement product.
To avoid such mishaps, use high-quality packaging materials such as tissue paper, cotton, and sturdy boxes to ensure that your jewellery arrives in pristine condition. The jewellery should be well-insulated to ensure that it does not move during transit, and each item should be secured individually in a separate container.
It’s also important to properly insure your jewellery to cover the replacement cost in the event that it is damaged or lost in transit, and use a carrier that offers real-time shipping updates so that you’ll be aware of the status of your customer’s shipment. By ensuring smooth communication during the shipping process, you’ll be able to more easily correct the situation if something goes wrong.
Embrace sustainability in your packaging
Modern consumers are interested in brands that care about the environment, prioritising shops that use recyclable and eco-friendly product packaging. In fact, half of consumers say that they are willing to pay more for brands that use sustainable packaging.
When possible, avoid using single-use plastics in your jewellery packaging, and turn to recycled cardboard, cardboard, paper, and other sustainable materials. Encourage customers who are making returns to repack the products in their original packaging to avoid additional packaging waste. (When customers are keeping the products, they should be able to easily recycle the packaging materials.)
Build a sustainable returns process
Your brand’s commitment to sustainability shouldn’t end once the package is delivered. Make sure that your post-purchase experience is optimised for environmentalism, by setting up returns management workflows that can keep your returned products out of landfills and minimise the environmental impact of your returns process.
With Loop, you can set up customised workflows that use dynamic routing for returns based on their category, condition, and other criteria. If a product can be resold, it can be shipped back to the nearest warehouse; if not, it can be set up for recycling, donation, or third-party resale.
You’ll also be able to reduce the expense and packaging waste associated with returns by using eco-friendly environmentally shipping methods. Rather than shipping back products from their homes, customers can take their returns to a nearby drop-off centre, where they will be consolidated into a bulk shipment in a re-useable shipping container — helping your brand save money on reverse logistics costs whilst eliminating the need for packaging materials.
A best-in-class returns experience
Creating a superior returns experience doesn’t start and end with the reverse shipping process. It’s important to facilitate a seamless returns experience that will encourage customers to remain loyal to your brand.
Loop’s returns management portal gives customers access to a self-service platform, where they can independently initiate return requests on eligible products, and choose from multiple return options. Oftentimes, the jewellery piece was simply the wrong size — in which case, they’ll be able to easily swap out their product for the right fit in an Instant Exchange.
Or, if they’d prefer a different product altogether, you’ll be able to display a curated selection of options they might enjoy from your available inventory, and they can instantly use their credit from the return to apply towards the new purchase price. If you’d like to encourage shoppers to choose store credit rather than a refund, you can offer them Bonus Credit that they can apply towards the purchase price of the new item.
And, if you sell via both retail and ecommerce channels, you can enable customers to return in-store through Loop’s POS system, eliminating the expense of return shipping and giving shoppers an opportunity to browse your wares in person.
By optimising the returns process for exchanges, you’ll be able to encourage more shoppers to consider other options, rather than requesting a refund: More than 40% of revenue is retained by merchants who use Loop.
Going above and beyond with your packaging, shipping, and returns processes are key elements of delivering a superior customer experience. By showing your customers that you care about every element of their brand experience, you’ll become the trusted jewellery shop to help them celebrate all of their special occasions.
Learn how Loop can help you deliver a best-in-class returns experience for your jewellery shop.
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