450 returns per month initially sounds like a manageable number for a medium-sized company.
However, when the entire process runs manually and the peak of technology consists of a PDF document that has to be sent back and forth between your own company and an external logistics provider, returns management quickly becomes a task that is not only uneconomical but also consumes a lot of time.
This was exactly the situation the company Lotuscrafts faced until a few months ago. In the interview, Markus Pfister, Head of E-Commerce at the Austrian label, tells us about the difficulties that arose from the old process. He also reports how the introduction of 8returns has already made returns management significantly more efficient and how the workload in customer support will soon be reduced by 90 percent.
Markus Pfister, Head of E-Commerce
Cumbersome and Error-Prone: Reasons for Returns Before 8returns
Lotuscrafts consists of a core team of 15 employees and is based in the Austrian capital Vienna. In the company's own shop as well as its presence on major online marketplaces, customers can find everything related to yoga and meditation.
The aspect of sustainable business management is particularly important for Lotuscrafts. In the Danube city, they focus on having a paperless office where possible, sustainable products, as well as green shipping and returns.
The company's customer base currently consists mainly of residents of the DACH region and France; individual customers can be found throughout Europe. Therefore, further expansions are next on the Vienna team's agenda, especially towards Italy and Spain.
As mentioned at the beginning, Lotuscrafts receives around 450 returns from across the European continent every month. In addition to the in-house customer support team, an external logistics service provider is also responsible for processing them.
For a long time, this process and the communication between partners was extremely labor-intensive, error-prone, and not very customer-friendly. E-Commerce Manager Markus Pfister tells us about the previous status quo:
Customer-Unfriendly Process
"Until a few months ago, a return at our company went roughly like this: When a customer wanted to return their goods, they were confronted with a Typeform form in our shop where they had to enter their information.
Depending on their country of origin, they were then either redirected to the website of a shipping provider like DHL or landed on a website with the return label to print themselves. The process was therefore not optimally solved because there was no central collection of return requests. It was also not user-friendly because the return couldn't be registered on a central platform."
Open to Errors and Unqualified Returns
"One of the main problems was that the entered data wasn't compared with the order information. So customers could, at least in theory, enter whatever they wanted into the forms. This made it possible for orders older than 30 days to be returned.
That didn't happen often, but it wasn't optimally solved. Additionally, the manual comparison of the PDF lists from our logistics service provider created another potential source of error – even though our customer support works very thoroughly – people make mistakes and transposing numbers in an order number can happen quickly."
Ineffective Handling
"Finally, it was very disadvantageous that our logistics partner couldn't be informed about incoming returns. The packages just arrived unannounced. They were then inspected and documented; unfortunately only in a PDF document.
This document was then sent to our customer support, who manually initiated all further steps depending on the return status – exchange, refund, damaged goods, and so on. Overall, our returns management was previously cumbersome, non-transparent, and above all not scalable."
Products for mindful moments
Efficient and Transparent: Returns After Switching to 8returns
As Head of E-Commerce, it was clear to Markus that things couldn't continue this way. After discussions with competitors and comprehensive online research, Lotuscrafts decided to partner with 8returns.
Markus summarizes what has changed since then as follows:
Central Point of Contact, Individual Communication
"Every one of our customers, no matter which country they come from, now goes to the same returns portal for a return and simply enters their order number and email address. The system compares the entry with the order and automatically creates a return label or a QR code for the shipping provider.
This is not only convenient and foolproof for our customers – in particular, as a company, we can individually configure each return case. For example, it's possible to offer free return shipping for buyers in the DACH region while charging postage for a customer from Portugal. This makes a return just as customer-friendly as it is economical."
Clear and Simple
"The PDFs are also a thing of the past now, because our logistics provider also has access to the 8returns system and is now informed about incoming shipments there. The fact that all parties involved in a return work with the same interface naturally has immense advantages:
Standard cases, such as damaged packaging or defective goods, no longer have to go through our customer support, but simply receive a code and are processed directly by our logistics provider. Support only intervenes in exceptional situations and can otherwise forward the process directly to accounting. When everything there is also switched to the 8returns platform in a few weeks, we'll save up to 90 percent of the work."
Fewer Returns Through Tracking Return Reasons
"We're particularly pleased that we're now finally able to accurately capture the reasons for a return and evaluate them afterward. For example, if we notice that customers repeatedly cite 'too small' or 'too big' as the reason for their return, we position a corresponding note on the product page. With a friendly 'This item runs very large, better order a size smaller,' we've already avoided many returns.
And if a return does occur, we can also score points with more sustainability here: Since the entire process is now so simple, we're increasingly noticing that our customers use the original packaging for shipping. This is not only easier for our logistics provider but also saves many resources."
Future Plans: More Languages, Complete System Integration
Despite all these advances, there's still some work ahead for Lotuscrafts and 8returns. According to Markus, the following is planned for the coming weeks and months:
"First, we want to switch our accounting, because the software we're currently working with isn't fully compatible with our system. When that's done, returns will only mean a tenth of the current workload for us.
After that, we'll focus on our expansion into Southern Europe. Already during implementation, 8returns provided us with language packages in English and French, now the Spanish and Italian versions follow. This way, we'll soon be able to offer our entire service to our customers in a large part of the Mediterranean region."
So nobody in beautiful Vienna needs PDF documents anymore when they want to return a shipment. The convenient, transparent, and fast processing via the new 8returns portal pleases Lotuscrafts in general, its customer support in particular, and of course above all the customers.
All images courtesy of Lotuscrafts.
