Building Automated Returns Management for Fashion Brands

• Building a scalable, reliable platform capable of handling the fluctuating and often high volumes of return requests from numerous fashion brands.

• Developing comprehensive automation with intelligent rule engines to handle different return reasons, conditions, and policy variations.

• Ensuring seamless integrations with a wide array of e-commerce platforms, logistics providers, and customer service tools.

• Developing a fully customizable and brandable return portal offering an intuitive experience for end customers.

• Extracting actionable insights from return data via sophisticated analytics dashboards capable of identifying trends and problem areas.

• Meeting diverse retailer needs with a flexible platform that could be easily configured and adapted to individual business requirements

The core of the solution Wishtree Technologies provided, lies in its ability to automate, personalize, and provide data-driven insights into the returns process.

• Wishtree built a highly customizable rule engine that allows automatic approval or rejection of return requests based on predefined criteria, automated generation of return shipping labels, initiation of refunds or exchanges upon receipt of returned items, and streamlined restocking procedures. Automated email and SMS notifications keep both retailers and customers informed throughout the entire process.

• A fully brandable return portal was developed. Features include easy access to order history, clear explanations of the return policy, guided steps for selecting return reasons and items, options for refunds, exchanges (including one-click options), or store credit, and real-time tracking of their return status.

• The platform incorporates sophisticated analytics dashboards that can analyze return reasons at product, category, and attribute levels, identify top-performing and underperforming products, understand return trends over time, and gain valuable intelligence for improving product quality, descriptions, sizing accuracy, and overall customer experience. Customizable reports allow for deeper dives into specific data sets.

• Wishtree developed robust integrations with leading e-commerce platforms like Shopify, enabling automatic synchronization of order and product information. Furthermore, integrations with major logistics providers such as DHL and Postnord streamline the return shipping process by automating label generation and providing tracking information. Integration with customer service platforms like Zendesk and Gorgias centralizes communication and provides support agents with all necessary return-related context.

• The platform is designed for high scalability and reliability. Services like AWS Lambda, Amazon SQS, and Amazon SNS ensure the platform can handle significant fluctuations in return volumes, particularly during peak seasons, without performance degradation. PostgreSQL serves as the robust and efficient primary database for managing large volumes of transactional data.