Silk & Salt’s Story

Silk & Salt aims to revolutionize fashion retail by making clothing accessible to women of all ages. The eco-conscious fashion brand ensures that the fabrics they use are ethically sourced and that their packaging is sustainable. When looking to reduce the amount of waste and carbon emissions resulting from return shipments and optimize their return process, they searched for an eco-friendly returns solution. Since ReturnGO shares the brand’s values of sustainability, in addition to being one of the most flexible returns solutions, it was the perfect choice.

Based in the United States, Silk & Salt aspired to capture the American market before expanding internationally.

Since the company manufactures its clothes in China, it was searching for a returns solution that would support its reverse logistics needs while staying sustainable. In addition to fulfilling its values, Silk & Salt was looking for a way to manage its returns more effectively, track return data, and gain control over the returns process.

They chose ReturnGO because it met those needs by providing:

1. A choice of shipping carrier and aggregator integrations.
2. Visibility into the returns process and flexible return policy rule settings.
3. An in-depth return analytics dashboard.

As of today, Silk & Salt serves customers all across the United States, as well as in Canada, Britain, and other parts of Europe, and is continuing to expand across the world.

The Challenge

One of the main challenges for Silk & Salt was a lack of visibility into the return process, from the moment a customer requests a return until the product is returned to inventory.

As the store’s growth led to increased returns, handling returns became even more challenging. Silk & Salt needed more visibility and control over their returns process, as well as more flexibility in setting return policy rules and conditions.

Another challenge was that as the number of returns grew, processing returns became increasingly time-consuming.

Silk & Salt’s Head of Operations, Assaf Neuman, who manages the store’s customer service, emphasizes the need they had for self-service returns. “Customers can now complete the returns and exchange process through an easy-to-use self-service portal, and most of them don’t even require customer service.“

Why Silk & Salt Chose ReturnGO

As Silk & Salt expanded and grew during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, they experimented with other returns solutions before finally settling on ReturnGO.
3 key reasons led them to choose ReturnGO:

1. Being able to manage and control returns & exchanges in one place while staying sustainable.
2. ReturnGO’s flexibility to meet their growing needs while being easy to use.

3. Having the ability to track returns data using a return analytics dashboard.

How Silk & Salt Uses ReturnGO

Silk & Salt uses ReturnGO to make data-driven decisions to optimize their returns process and reduce return rates:

Tracking Return Reasons
When Silk & Salt realized that the most common reason for returns was “Doesn’t fit”, they decided to research the issue further.

Silk & Salt used customized follow-up questions on the ReturnGO return portal to collect customer feedback. For example, they discovered a product with a 90% return rate and used the return analytics dashboard to figure out that an incorrect size for the “Small” option was to blame for the high return rate. They turned to the manufacturer to make more accurate sizing for that product.

Silk & Salt have since taken on a proactive approach by reviewing their returns data on a monthly basis to determine what they can do to decrease their return rates.

 Measuring Refund Rates
By measuring refund rates from different times and different products, Silk & Salt discovered a refund pattern, stemming from their store return policy.

They determined that their return policy was too permissive, allowing customers to return items for a wide variety of reasons, including order details, product types, special sale tags, and damaged products.

To overcome this issue, they used ReturnGO’s flexible settings to create policy rules and conditions for specific product categories, and added unique conditions for products that are on sale. Furthermore, automated rules were set up to ensure that certain items would only be eligible for store credit and not for refunds.

Silk & Salt immediately saw a drop in their refund rates. In addition, they found that customers added more money to their next purchase when redeeming their store credit.

The Results

• 24.1% Decrease in Refunds Since Offering Store Credit.
  Silk & Salt has seen a 24.1% decrease in refunds since offering store credit as a return resolution option. Store credit usage continues to climb, showing the value of having multiple resolution options in the returns management solution.

• 24.9% New Revenue from Redeemed Store Credit.
  When customers redeem their store credit, 61% of them spend more money, which generates 24.9% additional revenue on average. For this reason, store credit is a great option to offer customers.

• Optimized Returns Management.
  Silk & Salt used advanced features such as automation and flexible policy rule settings to adjust their return eligibility conditions to match their return policy, making managing their return requests easier and more effective.

• Reduced Costs and Time.
  Automation rules and an intuitive self-service return portal have minimized customer support queries, enabling the Silk & Salt team to focus on other essential tasks.

• Increased Customer Satisfaction.
  By integrating with a variety of shipping carriers and automatically generating return labels, Silk & Salt created a smooth return experience for both the store and customers.

As Silk & Salt continue to expand and grow, they can effortlessly scale their post-purchase experience using ReturnGO’s effective returns management solution.