How ReBound Helped Boden Create a Consistent, Global Return Experience for Their Customers

Boden is a renowned British fashion brand with a global footprint. As the company expanded its reach to 70 countries, they faced challenges in providing seamless returns services in the various markets they operated in. Boden needed a returns solution that offered better global coverage, reduced costs, and improved customer experience. In 2017, Boden partnered with ReBound to address these challenges and transform their returns process. 

The Challenge 

Before collaborating with ReBound, Boden’s returns process faced significant limitations, particularly for international customers. Despite the fact that Boden was supplying to 70 countries worldwide, there were no returns logistics set up for some markets, leading to insufficient options for customers to return parcels. For most territories, they put return labels in outbound shipments to make the customer experience better, but this resulted in unnecessarily increased costs since only some customers were returning products. In countries where this service wasn’t available, customers needed to arrange their own return labels and shipping methods, which created confusion and an inconsistent customer experience. Lastly, since customers weren’t able to track their returns, they had a high amount of inquiries from customers wondering where their returns were and when they would receive refunds. 

The Solution 

To tackle these issues, Boden chose to partner with ReBound in 2017. Upon initial implementation, Boden made use of the ReBound portal and simply directed customers to it via their website, where they could generate a return label and select a shipping method. In late 2021, they began looking at expanding their digital services and plotting a critical path to remove all paper including order confirmations and return forms from outbound parcels.  

“We were looking for a way that customers could produce a label without us having to put a label in the parcel.” -Hem Patel, Carrier Coordinator at Boden 

A big reason to move away from paper labels in outbound parcels was the desire to become more sustainable, along with reducing cost. As a result of working with ReBound, they saw substantial savings after removing pre-printed returns labels since only about 35-40% of customers were even using them. Additionally, they were able to remove 44.6 tons of paper annually from their processes, creating a more environmentally-friendly return model. 

Boden has a number of different customer segments, and ReBound was able to support them in offering a variety of return methods that were tailored to the different needs of all their customers. 

“Because of the power of the ReBound portal, we were able to expand the consumer offering and provide different options with carriers. This menu-based, personalized approach to returns fits the different demographics of customers that shop with us.” -Leyton Jones, Operational Development and Facilities Manager at Boden 

Customers can now choose the route, the speed, and the carrier for their return. They have various return options that are convenient and suit their customers’ preferences including: 

• Collection from home with no label 
• Drop off at several major retailers, most carriers covered 
• Locker drop-off 
• Digital options that don’t require printers 

Lastly, the portal has empowered Boden to be more in control of their return options and serves as a one stop shop for carrier claims, customer fraud, and more. While in the past they dealt with customers who received refunds and return labels but never sent parcels back. Now, in addition to consumers being able to track returns, which leads to lower customer service inquiries, Boden can also track all returns which reduces fraud. 

“The power of the data from the ReBound portal is eye-opening–we’ve been able to piece together a whole suite of reports that are extremely valuable to us. Without the ReBound portal, we wouldn’t have the visibility over our processes that we have today.” -Leyton Jones, Operational Development and Facilities Manager at Boden 

The Impact 

The collaboration with ReBound resulted in impressive outcomes for Boden: 

• ReBound supports Boden’s returns in 38 countries 
• Expanded return options for UK customers, including pick-up and printerless options. 
• Increased return services from 3 to over 15 within the UK 
• 42% increase in drop-off points to 11,000+ within the UK 
• End-to-end tracking of all return orders 
• 26% decrease in return customer service inquiries
• 44.6 tonnes of paper saved per year
• Further cost reductions seen in storage of pallets and invoice creation 

Why They Chose ReBound 

Boden’s decision to work with ReBound was driven by their commitment to enhancing customer service, reducing returns management costs, and adopting sustainable practices. Leveraging ReBound’s powerful returns portal, Boden successfully expanded its digital services worldwide, offering customers a consistent return experience with a wide range of options. This collaboration aligned with Boden’s dedication to minimizing paper usage and reducing the ecological impact of their operations. Additionally, Boden utilized valuable data insights from ReBound’s portal to optimize their returns process further. The partnership with ReBound has been instrumental in reinforcing Boden’s commitment to customer satisfaction and sustainable practices as they continue to lead the fashion industry.

*Images belong to Boden https://www.boden.eu/