Company Overview

Darn Good Yarn’s story really is a darn good one, about an entrepreneur looking to sell great products while improving the lives of the artisans who craft them. The brand features specialized, recycled products that come from artisans half a world away in India and Nepal. After ten years, the company is among Inc.’s fastest-growing Shopify retailers and  continuing to serve millions of shoppers passionate  about their crafts and apparel.

Business Challenges

Darn Good Yarn is a satisfied Shopify merchant, but e-commerce platforms like Shopify omit returns management features, because the products its retailers sell vary so widely that a ‘one size fits all’ returns solution isn’t viable. With the lack of an effective returns solution many retailers like Darn Good Yarn are forced to piece together manual and tedious solutions that ultimately negatively impact customer satisfaction, drive up costs, and increase return rates.

Operational Inefficiency and Lack of Visibility

Processing returns and exchanges was the full-time job of one employee, who spent 40 hours a week doing so. With the lack of visibility and data, it was difficult to properly inspect returned goods, assign appropriate dispositions, track inventory, and authorize return requests in a timely manner.

Slow and Lengthy Returns Process

Shoppers were frustrated with the lengthy and cumbersome exchange process, so many of them opted for a refund instead, meaning Darn Good Yarn was leaving money on the table as customers churned. In addition to the ineffective returns process, Darn Good Yarn’s customer success team was overwhelmed with a manual e-mail and spreadsheet based process that led to high touch points and difficulties enforcing return policies and rules.

Goal

Two primary objectives fueled Darn Good Yarn’s search for a Shopify returns management solution;  improve operational efficiency and reduce friction during the returns process for shoppers.

To provide exceptional customer service, Darn Good Yarn needed a self serve returns center that would provide shoppers with a quick and hassle-free returns experience, while also reducing the number of touch points the customer success team needed.

Darn Good Yarn’s operations team needed a returns management solution that would provide full visibility into product returns, their shipping statuses, inspection processes, dispositions, and inventory counts.

Solution

Darn Good Yarn found it’s answer using ReturnLogic, which provided a complete end to end returns management platform that worked for both Darn Good Yarn’s shoppers and team.

Self-Service Automated Return Center

ReturnLogic replaced the days-long process of exchanging emails with a streamlined, branded portal that enabled customers to complete a self-service return transaction in just four clicks. Automated emails keep customers informed at every step of returns receipt and processing. And Darn Good Yarn has the ability to enforce their stated return policy and easily detect fraudulent returns activity.

Back End Warehouse Returns Management

ReturnLogic’s solution built for warehouse and operations teams streamlines back-end returns operations, so Darn Good Yarn can easily match an incoming return with the original order. That not only speeds customers’ exchanges and refunds, but gathers all the images, customer comments and order data in one place. In the case of an exchange, ReturnLogic also automatically creates a draft order for that item to hold the merchandise, further streamlining the returns process.

Actionable Insights and Analytics

Then, ReturnLogic’s advanced analytics allows Darn Good Yarn to get new visibility into which products are being returned – and why – to uncover and address issues that drive returns.

Results

Darn Good Yarn’s story has a happy ending, because they soon found a way to solve all those issues – and then some. Thanks to ReturnLogic, the company’s return rate fell by more than half, a quarter of returns for refunds were shifted to exchanges, the time to process returns was reduced from days to seconds, and Darn Good Yarn was ultimately retaining more of its valued customers thanks to efficient processing and new insights into their business.

Return Rate Down More Than 50% and 25% More Exchanges

Darn Good Yarn cut its return rate by more than half, and the ratio of returns to exchanges shifted: more customers are exchanging items now rather than giving up in frustration and just returning the item. “That is great, because we’re able to keep that customer now for repeat purchases,” says Schermerhorn. “Reducing churn and driving life time customer value is always a top priority,” added Schermerhorn.

Streamlined Backend Process

All photos, comments, order, and returns data are now gathered in one place and exchange orders are generated automatically as drafts. That means Darn Good Yarn can process returns and exchanges more quickly and accurately, boosting productivity and avoiding errors that cost money and disappoint customers.

The Verdict

ReturnLogic solved all of the pain points around Darn Good Yarn’s returns and exchanges, bringing its issues to a happy conclusion. While the benefits extend from customers all the way back through suppliers, Darn Good Yarn is particularly enjoying the impact on the productivity of its staff.