How Coal Headwear embraced automated returns with Loop

Overview

In 2002, a group of friends with a passion for headwear and a shared love of snowboarding and the outdoors came together to start a company that reflected their lifestyle and shared vision: Headwear is more than an accessory. At the time, hats and knit beanies were little more than a commodity, another place to put a brand logo.

Coal saw an opportunity to provide styles that took fit, function, and fashion seriously while showcasing headwear as an extension of you and your lifestyle. Design, quality, and style have guided us since the beginning, and 20 years later, we remain dedicated to making headwear more than an accessory. Join us on this epic journey.

“What started as a humble side hustle drawing from deep roots in art, skate, and snowboard culture, has evolved into a respected lifestyle brand with global reach.”

Today, Coal offers hundreds of different styles for men and women across the world – in particular places with snow. Their commitment to design, materials, and craftsmanship innovations continues to be prevalent in their brand.

We sat down with Will Moran, ecommerce specialist, to discuss how Loop supports their scaling Shopify brand.

The following is a transcript of an interview by Kristi Meyer, Loop’s customer marketing manager. Some of the questions have been edited for brevity and clarity.

Tell us a bit about your business. How has it evolved over the years?

We were founded in Seattle, WA and have since grown into 2000+ retail locations in North America. Around five years ago, we began working within the Shopify ecosystem, but weren’t necessarily ‘all in.’ That all changed in 2020 when we saw online sales grow tenfold.

The world shifted in a big way, and the way people shopped was no less affected. We suddenly had new eyes on us and there was an internal shift to seize the opportunity. We embraced the tide, and we’re fully committed to continue to provide a best-in-class online shopping experience while growing and supporting our brick-and-mortar partnerships.

Vision wise, I think we’ve started to purposefully establish ourselves as a larger outdoor space lifestyle brand – and a big part of that includes ensuring our shopping experience is easy and enjoyable across the board.

Why did you join Loop? And why do you stay with us?

Funny enough when we did our research on return platforms, I really liked the first demo with Loop, but our team decided to go another route. A few months later, we came back to you ready to jump onboard – and the difference with Loop is immediately noticed.

You’re trustworthy, legitimate industry players and we’re so happy to have a dedicated account manager that supports us. Besides those elements, the onboarding experience has been seamless, and we’re really excited about having a fully branded return portal, too.

Our main concern before adopting Loop was manual returns. We’re a small team, so having a person solely dedicated to processing return tickets for eight hours a day just didn’t make sense. Not to mention the customer retention, the return automation, and the access to in-depth data available with Loop makes you a no-brainer platform for us.

Want to learn more about how Loop can help your brand? Contact us for a demo.