Managing product returns for Shopify stores doesn’t have to be a customer service and operational nightmare. Read how BOA Ideas’ returns system for Shopify stores can simplify the process and provide you with valuable insights.
One of the challenges customers face when ordering products online is finding the right product for their needs. We often buy something only to discover when it arrives that it doesn’t fit, doesn’t look like it did on the website, the warehouse sent the wrong color, or we simply added something to our cart absentmindedly and don’t need it.
The ability to exchange and return products is a necessity in online shopping. Not only does Israeli law require it, but customers are also reluctant to commit to buying a product online if they might be stuck with it if it isn’t right for them. For Shopify store managers, this presents an even greater challenge. More precisely, it involves several challenges that fall into two categories: customer service and operations.
Before introducing BOA Ideas’ returns system for Shopify stores, let’s take a closer look at these challenges and how returns are handled without an all-in-one product returns management system.
How Do You Return This? The Challenges of Managing Product Returns in Shopify Stores
Through our work with Shopify store owners, we’ve encountered the challenges they and their customers face when it comes to product returns. As mentioned, these challenges fall into two categories: customer service and operations.
Customer Service Challenges
- Heavy workload for customer service - One of the most common complaints from Shopify store owners is the heavy burden returns processes place on their customer service teams. Without an online self-service solution for product returns, customers contacted the store via WhatsApp, email, or phone. This increased workload requires expanding the service team (a challenge in itself) and lengthens response times for every customer inquiry. What’s more, this workload sometimes leads to inquiries or packages being overlooked.
- Poor customer experience - Customers often don’t know whom to contact about returns, and when they do reach out, the wait for a response from customer service can exceed the return window. It’s no wonder so many customers feel frustrated by lengthy, opaque processes.
Operational Challenges
- Communication gaps between customer service and the warehouse - Without a single system for consolidating and managing all returns for a Shopify store, communication breakdowns often occur between the different links in the process. For example, our clients have reported that the disconnect between handling a customer service request and the package actually arriving at the warehouse creates a lot of confusion and unnecessary delays.
- Disconnect between sales and returns data - When monitoring the popularity and profitability of products on a website, it’s easy to overlook returns data. A product may become incredibly popular, but nearly half of its buyers may be disappointed and choose to return it. Sales data suggests it’s selling very well, so the obvious move seems to be to produce more. But taking product-level returns data into account can reveal a lot about which products are worth keeping in stock and which are better off being discontinued.
At BOA Ideas, we developed an innovative product returns management system for Shopify stores that addresses all the challenges mentioned above and enables you to provide fast, efficient service to customers who want to exchange or return a product.
Putting Customers Back in Control: BOA Ideas’ Self-Service Returns System for Shopify Stores
The product returns management system we developed meets customer needs while taking the logistics team’s constraints into account. Customers don’t need to contact customer service; instead, they can handle the process themselves through a self-service area in a dedicated section of your Shopify store.
How Does It Work?
To understand how our returns system works and see its value right away, let’s look at the process a customer who wants to return a product goes through when using it.
The customer’s return journey begins when they receive their package and decide, for one reason or another, to return one or more of the products. Inside the package, they’ll find a “return slip” directing them to the returns section of your website. This section can be fully customized to match your physical store’s return policy, if you have one, and lets you offer customers a range of options according to your preferences.
Customers who visit the returns section of your website will be asked to enter their order number (printed on the package) and the email address they provided when making the purchase. They’ll then see a form prefilled with their purchase details - the products and quantities ordered. Customers can select which products and how many they want to return, as well as how they’d like to return them. You can offer a range of ways to send the product back to you - at a physical store, by mail, or via courier.
Once the form is completed and submitted, it becomes a request for customer service in the system (more on that later). Once approved, the customer receives an automated email from the system confirming the return and providing shipping details (for example, a shipment number from the courier company, if that option was selected).
Behind the scenes, the system serves as a centralized database of all product return activity for your online store. This offers several benefits that improve the customer experience and your store’s service efficiency. For customer service, it provides a single place where representatives can approve returns and view all the related information, including the request’s status, the courier tracking number, and more.
When the returned products arrive at the warehouse, logistics staff can scan the barcode on the package and immediately access all the return details. This lets them verify that the package contains all the items the customer requested a refund for, and check whether they arrived in good condition or damaged.
After the warehouse has finished processing the items, logistics staff can approve or reject the customer’s refund in the returns system without having to log in to Shopify’s refund system.
Naturally, you’d prefer customers to spend the refunds they receive for returned products on their next purchase from your store. Our system takes this into account, too: Shopify Plus stores can offer refunds in the form of gift cards. Customers can use their gift cards later, and you won’t lose the money because of the return.
Another benefit of an all-in-one returns management system is the valuable information it makes available in downloadable tables. This data can tell you a lot about which products are returned more often than others, which items are never returned, whether refunds are full or partial, and more. You can use these insights to make critical business decisions about inventory and pricing, and sometimes even about the descriptions of specific products highlighted in the returns system reports.
Streamline Returns with BOA Ideas’ Returns System
When developing our returns system for Shopify stores, we took our customers’ diverse and unique needs into account. From the options you can offer to the permissions you can configure, we created a system that can be fully tailored to your business’s needs and requirements.
To improve the customer service experience in your Shopify store and save your service and logistics teams hours spent handling returns and refunds, BOA Ideas can tailor the system to your exact business needs. Get in touch and let's talk!
