Saint + Sofia retains revenue on over half their returns with Loop

The Challenge: Upgrading customer experience, without the cost

Because the UK fashion market is so well-served, customers have high expectations of brands. Part of those expectations include providing top-notch service during the return process. However, returns are expensive for any retailer—if they’re not handled correctly.

At first, Saint + Sofia was handling their returns manually, but that quickly proved too labor-intensive and too time-consuming for them to give the customer experience they hoped for. Allowing their customers to self-serve their own returns ended up saving Saint + Sofia thousands on customer service and helping them build customer loyalty at the same time.

“Trying to manage returns profitably is, I think, the biggest challenge for brands in the UK,” said Dessi Bell, CEO and Founder of Saint + Sofia.

User-friendly automation saves money on customer support

By focusing on Loop’s easy-to-use returns automation, Saint + Sofia was able to save on customer service support time. Loop’s automation tools include self-serve return portals that make it easy and stress-free for shoppers to exchange or return products.

“The thing that we like most about Loop is how user-friendly it is for the customer. It has changed the workflow from a fairly manual workflow, where customer agents would have to get in touch with a customer, then ask whether they want to exchange or return something,” said Bell. “Our belief generally is that people would much rather be able to solve the issue there and then as seamlessly as possible. And then of course our team is available to help those customers who would still prefer to have a personal contact and call.”

Automation

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Exchanges and Shop Now improve customer experience

But mastering the ease of returns is only part of the equation. Loop’s Exchanges tools help brands like Saint + Sofia incentivize exchanges over returns using Bonus Credit and more. Plus, Loop Exchanges can help you better understand the return reasons on each exchange, so that you can continue to optimize your products for future shoppers. 

In addition to Loop’s basic Exchanges tools, Saint + Sofia also uses Shop Now, which allows their customers to browse the whole store catalog when they make exchanges. Rather than simply swapping their purchase for a different color or size of the same item, Shop Now allows Saint + Sofia’s customers to exchange for a new item the same way they would if they were shopping for the first time.

“Close to 50 percent of our sales come from repeat business,” said Bell. “So that’s the bit that I would say we’re most proud of, because the repeat revenue metric is certainly something that encompasses a whole host of things that we do internally in terms of being able to serve our customers.”

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Make returns feel like shopping (with bonus credit)

The Outcome: Brand loyalty and additional revenue

Saint + Sofia prides themselves on providing a top-notch customer experience. But they needed a returns process that honored this commitment to their shoppers. Loop’s Shop Now and advanced exchanges tools have helped the company scale their return operations in a way that also earns them additional upsell revenue, and it sets them further apart from their competitors.

“With Loop, there’s a lot of self-serve options. Shoppers can choose what to exchange as quickly, and as conveniently to them, as possible,” said Bell. “It’s something that has been very helpful for us.”

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