How Clove elevated the customer experience by switching from Happy Returns to Loop

The Challenge: A limited merchant experience with Happy Returns

When Clove launched, they wanted to use Loop, but weren’t ready to invest budget in a premium returns management solution. Instead, the brand onboarded with Happy Returns’ returns management tool to process their customer returns—but they quickly came to realize the platform’s many limitations, which ended up costing them more in the long run.

“It really boiled down to three key buckets,” says Sarah Azzaoui, Clove’s CX Director. “Portal limitations, the need to process many types of returns manually, and poor account management.”

Portal limitations

Clove found that portal limitations were an issue when they ran promotions, such as adding a gift with purchase. “We had no way to take free items back or do a returnless option to avoid paying shipping on something that was free to the customer,” says Azzaoui. “We weren’t saving money in ways that we needed to be saving money.”

Happy Returns also lacked fraud/loss prevention and detection features, had no options for customizing workflows, and offered limited integrations with other tools. For instance, while Loop offers a streamlined integration with the gift card provider, Rise, “Happy Returns didn’t integrate with them, so we weren’t able to offer store credit returns,” says Azzaoui.

Manual returns

Clove often needed to process returns manually, defeating their goals of reducing CX time and automating returns. Once again, the lack of options available in a less robust platform meant their team needed to work harder to build a positive returns experience for their customers.

The brand offered different styles at different price points, and was unable to offer a variant exchange through Happy Returns. Instead, if a customer wanted to exchange one item for a different type of product, they’d need to work with customer support to return the first product and then be charged for the remainder of the new item. Clove also had to process orders manually in special cases, such as high risk orders and fulfillment errors.

“No matter what, the capabilities were always limited,” says Azzaoui. “They were no longer heading in the direction that we needed a partner to head with us.”

Account management

When it came to support, Clove often struggled to get the technical support they needed to resolve issues, and spent a lot of time emailing back and forth to get answers. They often had to escalate their concerns to an account manager, but still didn’t always feel like their concerns were adequately addressed. And because their account management team wasn’t consistent, “it didn’t feel like we were building rapport,” says Azzaoui. “It felt very transactional.”

While Happy Returns prioritized Return Bars® (local drop-off centers) for processing returns, this was not a key priority for Clove’s business model—but their account management team didn’t recommend other options on their behalf.

A year ago, after evaluating Happy Returns’ clunky exchange experience, subpar support, and limited ability to automate CX workflows, Clove migrated to Loop—and saw the premium benefits that a best-in-class returns management can offer.

Multiple exchange options retain revenue

Since moving to Loop, Clove has set up streamlined return and exchange options that help them resolve customer issues faster—while still retaining revenue.

“If a customer doesn’t like a product, we want to do whatever we can to retain that sale,” says Ellis Kimmell, Clove’s Finance & Operations Manager. “We don’t want them to return it, we want them to exchange it for something else.”

With Loop, “it’s just easier across the board, whether it’s a size issue or a product issue or something else,” he says.

In contrast, with Happy Returns, “there are all these additional friction points. Customers are like, ‘You know what, it’s not worth it. I’m just going to return to get my money back, because this is a pain.’”

In fact, while the brand was still using Happy Returns, 15% of customers who were requesting returns asked the CX team to process an uneven exchange so that they could exchange their product for a new item at a different price point—but Happy Returns didn’t offer that capability.

“We told them to return the product for a refund, and then repurchase the new product,” says Azzaoui. “But only 15% of those customers actually repurchased. So we’re talking about pretty sizable lost revenue in uneven exchanges.”

By using Loop’s Shop Now, Shop Later, and Instant Exchange features, Clove is able to retain 49% of revenue that would have otherwise been lost, including 5% of incremental revenue that they can directly attribute to the Shop Now and Shop Later features.

Exchanges

Retain revenue with customized exchange options that fit your business

Workflow customizations reduce manual labor and curb fraud

Loop’s Workflows make it easy for Clove to set up custom rules around different scenarios for processing returns and exchanges—without relying on manual support from their CX team.

“Return questions within support tickets dropped by 60% year over year, meaning that customers are now able to get to the portal by themselves with low friction points,” says Azzaoui. “It wasn’t like spinning Wheels of Death, or telling them, ‘you can’t return this, it’s ineligible.’”

For instance, while Happy Returns didn’t support gift exchanges, Loop makes the process simple. Loop also makes it easy to add restocking fees based on certain conditions, helping Clove cut reverse logistics costs.

Additionally, Loop enables Clove to set up customized workflows for monitoring fraud, such as limiting customers who return products too frequently, or setting up manual warehouse inspections based on certain return conditions.

As far as addressing fraud is concerned, “there’s a lot of things in place that make us feel pretty confident,” says Azzaoui, “and honestly, my favorite thing is that you’re still working on more.”

Workflows

Set up customized return conditions that monitor for abuse and protect margins

Top-tier merchant support from Day One

Another area where Loop really shines is their approach to merchant support.

The onboarding process with Loop was quick and easy: “Onboarding took just under five weeks, which was our goal,” says Azzaoui. “Our onboarding manager stayed with us on Zoom to make sure everything was perfect, so we could launch on time, and reap the benefits right away.”

Azzaoui is also impressed by Loop’s technical support team. “Loop has one of the best technical support teams of any vendor we’ve worked with,” she says. “We get quick responses and effective communication, and there’s no deflection. Even if it’s a partner issue, they’ll say, ‘Here’s what I would do when you reach out to them,’ just to give us some leverage and save us time.”

While Clove frequently had to escalate concerns to their account management team at Happy Returns, that’s not the case with Loop because of the quality and speed of support they receive. “I don’t talk to Loop a lot, and that’s how it should be,” says Azzaoui.

Support

Onboard and solve problems faster with best-in-class merchant support

The impact: Higher margins and retention, and a better CX

All around, Loop has elevated the returns experience for both Clove and its customers—translating into a 49% retention rate through exchanges, 60% lower return-related support tickets, and reduced manual labor.

Loop’s advanced analytics platform has also given Clove the data insights they need to improve their products. “As we make new products, we know what people like and what they don’t like,” says Azzaoui.

Another plus? Unlocking an entirely new line of revenue, through the launch of a branded resale marketplace. “It allows us to list products that we have sold out of on our main site,” says Kimmell. “But now we’ve had a substantial enough amount of returns that we can list them on this side of the website. We have some superfans looking for colorways that they can’t get anymore. So it’s been very fun for the customer.“

By leveraging Loop’s rich feature set to streamline operations, drive new revenue opportunities, and collect returns data to inform their business strategy, Clove is confident in their ability to stay ahead of competitors and grow a thriving ecommerce business.

When evaluating a returns management solution, says Azzaoui, “It’s about understanding where your business is today—but also, where are you heading? And how can you reduce any frustration for your customers?”

By partnering with Loop, “without a doubt, you will be saving time and money.”