Lesley Evers founded her namesake company in 2012 with the opening of her boutique brick & mortar store in Oakland, California. Her approach to customer service and mission to make clothes that bring joy extends to her online business and has fueled tremendous growth over the past decade.
The Challenge
With the company’s steady growth came logistical challenges of handling inevitable returns and exchanges. As sales volume increased, so did the burden on customer support and the warehouse team to manually process each return or exchange in a timely, efficient manner. And so began the search for a better way to do things. After considering other leading Shopify return management apps, Lesley Evers chose Return Rabbit in 2021 for LesleyEvers.com.
The Solution
An onboarding experience that aligns with their company values
Compared to other returns management apps they evaluated, Lesley Evers partnered with Return Rabbit both for the robust exchange functionality it offered and because the dedicated onboarding support aligned with their belief in the merits of a personal service experience. The Return Rabbit Customer Success team guided them through the initial setup and launch and forged a real, ongoing relationship to ensure they were getting the most benefits out of the product.
The value of full automation
Initially, Lesley Evers was hesitant to utilize the automation functionality in Return Rabbit, concerned that moving to an automated process for their returns and exchanges would make customer experiences feel impersonal or that the system wouldn’t properly address customer concerns. However, they gradually abandoned their manual process and adopted the fully customizable automation rules and quickly saw how much time and resources it saved for their customer support and warehouse teams.
Simplicity invites more exchanges
One of the features that compelled Lesley Evers to choose Return Rabbit over some other more expensive apps was the exchange functionality. Prior to Return Rabbit, Lesley Evers had a 12% exchange rate; meaning of all return requests, 12% chose to exchange for another item rather than requesting a refund. Within 2 months of going live with Return Rabbit, their exchange rate increased to an incredible 20%. That’s a 67% increase in the amount of revenue retention through exchanges!
“When we first launched with Return Rabbit, we didn’t realize how much time we’d save on customer support and operations. Automating the entire returns experience allows us to devote so much time to other areas of our business!”
LAURA PINKOWSKI
Head of Customer Care at Lesley Evers
Flexibility to fit their unique needs
The nature of Lesley’s boutique apparel business means that there is often a small amount of inventory available for each item, so oftentimes when a customer starts a return, that item is no longer available.
In addition to offering full catalog exchanges and a smart recommendation engine that recommends items a customer is most likely to choose for an exchange, Lesley also benefited from the ability to offer gift cards (online store credit) as an option for customers who weren’t quite ready to exchange for something else. This option allows them to retain the initial revenue while also meeting the customer’s needs to keep them as a long-term customer.
Insights that delight
A surprise for Lesley’s team came from how much they not only utilized but actually enjoyed using Return Rabbit’s enterprise-grade analytics. From the ease of scheduling automated reports that get emailed to them regularly to relying on the analytics dashboard to assist with inventory planning and quality control, Lesley Evers got more than just easier returns when they made the switch to Return Rabbit.
“Having a dashboard that shows me at-a-glance how much revenue we’re retaining in exchanges, why customers are returning things, and how we can refine our product descriptions is invaluable. ”
LESLEY EVERS
Founder of Lesley Evers
The delight doesn’t stop there! The team was also thrilled with their new ability to customize return reasons and drill down into customer insights that are useful and actionable. Instead of just “Does not fit” customers can provide more meaningful detail like “Too small”.
They’ve also seen tremendous customer response from allowing customers to choose a gift card for store credit rather than a refund. Lesley’s team gets to keep the revenue from that sale, and the customer gets to choose something else on their own time.
“Partnering with Return Rabbit has really transformed our online experience.”
Lesley Evers
Founder of Lesley Evers
Returns Automation is Hare-Raisingly Easy.
Return Rabbit’s revenue-focused, data-driven technology makes the entire returns management process simple for Shopify merchants and their shoppers. Fast to launch and easy to use, Return Rabbit serves large and small merchants alike with robust functionality and turnkey solutions. Returns management is often viewed as a cost center for eCommerce brands, but we’re here to reinvent the wheel. With Return Rabbit’s proprietary technology, now returns management is a revenue-driving machine. Start your free trial today.
