New Solutions for the Growth Phase
Julian Eyrich and Harald Nuss decided in 2019, after a trip together, to do something about boring towels. Since then, WOODSANDWAVES has been supplying travelers, fitness fans, and households with eco-friendly, colorful towels. Bye, bye standard terry cloth!
With a growing selection of designs, orders also grew. The problem: The team processed returns manually at the time. A process that became too confusing and labor-intensive during the growth phase. In their search for a solution that would ease operations, Julian and Harald eventually came across 8returns. Co-founder Julian tells us himself what has changed at WOODSANDWAVES since then.
Julian Eyrich, Co-Founder
Manual Returns: Confusing and Complicated
"At first, we had very few orders," Julian recalls. "We manually created a DHL return label for every return and tracked it by hand. Our fulfiller received each package and informed us by email what exactly came back." Even the refund was handled by the team manually. "We calculated discounts and return costs by hand. At some point, that was no longer feasible for us."
The WOODSANDWAVES team eventually decided on returns software. However, the first attempt failed. "The dashboard was very confusing back then. Also, only DHL was covered as a shipping provider. It quickly became clear to me that we needed to look around again," says Julian. He finally learned about 8returns from a former colleague.
Implementation Without Programmers
The recommendation came at exactly the right time. "My colleague was very satisfied with the exchange feature of 8returns. An important factor for us since we offer many different designs and models. Customers therefore tend to order different products to have a selection."
After a short product demo, Julian was convinced. "I already knew that 8returns could be implemented with just a few clicks. Still, I had respect for the switch because there are always problems with any software at the beginning. However, 8returns was so easy to implement that I didn't even bring in a programmer," Julian says.
Relief Through Automation
WOODSANDWAVES initially focused on upselling features. "Refund in vouchers wasn't possible at all before. Since we've been offering store credit, more and more customers are choosing it."
The biggest time savings came from automating the process. Labels and QR codes for all common carriers are automatically created by the software. Julian knows the advantages this brings: "We have far fewer tickets in customer support because the process is so self-explanatory from the customer's side. Label and QR code are in the inbox immediately after registering the return. Plus, the look & feel of the platform is very nice – also on smartphones."
Time for a conclusion! What concrete results has the WOODSANDWAVES team been able to achieve since implementing 8returns?
More than just standard terry cloth
Easy Returns as a USP
50% Fewer Customer Support Tickets
A big advantage for the team: Customers understand the process right away. "We don't get any complaints about the returns process anymore because the platform is so self-explanatory." As a result, the number of customer support tickets has halved in no time.
75% Time Savings
Finally, we asked Julian how much time the team saves overall since they've been using 8returns. "We're growing as a company, of course, so the absolute volume of returns has gone up. Still, the time investment hasn't grown with it. The fulfillment center works independently and we refund once or twice a week through 8returns. That takes a maximum of 20 minutes. The process used to take at least two hours, so we save about 75% of the time."
The next step for WOODSANDWAVES: The fulfillment center should also work with 8returns. Then the colleagues on site can check the return and refund directly. "That would be a big plus. Until then, I don't have to worry about returns. Honestly, I haven't looked at the software for half a year – the returns run practically by themselves."
