As you grow your ecommerce brand, you’ll likely find that as your sales grow, so do your returns—and that can be a lot for your customer support team to keep up with. 

Depending on your industry, as many as 40% of your total sales may end in a return, and it’s not always because your shopper didn’t like your brand—the particular product they selected just may not have worked for them. The product might have been the wrong size or color, had a defect, or the shopper simply realized they didn’t need it after all. 

As such, a product return doesn’t have to mark the end of your relationship with a shopper. If you take care to manage the returns process wisely, you’ll be able to transform a return into an opportunity to continue and even grow the relationship. 

Read more about how returns are an opportunity for your brand in The Future of Reverse Logistics

By using the right returns management solution, you’ll be able to reduce customer support costs, deliver a faster and more efficient shopper experience, retain more revenue, and reduce customer churn.

Here are some of our top recommendations for a returns management solution:

If you want to process returns across international borders: Returnly

Returnly is a returns management platform that provides automated labels and customs, multi-currency support, and localized return centers to help international sellers scale more quickly. 

Returnly makes it easy to process returns domestically as well, although exchanges are processed as a gift card refund with a commission charge of up to 15%. We like Returnly’s “Green Returns” feature, which uses conditional logic to determine when it makes more economic and environmental sense to recycle or repurpose a product, rather than requesting a return.

What sets Returnly apart:

  • Green Returns to optimize costs and improve sustainability
  • Simplified international returns
  • In-store return options
  • Option for store credit

If you’re looking for an enterprise-level post-purchase platform: Narvar

Narvar focuses on the entire post-purchase experience from the time the shopper has purchased an order—including tracking and shipping logistics and communications to fill the customer with confidence during the course of the transaction, as well as comprehensive support with returns and refunds if the product isn’t the right fit. In our opinion, Narvar is best for enterprise-level businesses who have already developed an inventory solution.

While Narvar does offer exchanges, its focus is on variant exchanges—which means that if the customer doesn’t want to get the same product in a different size or color, they’ll need to request a refund instead, rather than choosing a different product from your store.

What sets Narvar apart:

  • Access to supplier profiles
  • Concierge package drop-off services
  • Reliable delivery estimates
  • Customized “red carpet” returns experience for VIP customers

If you want an all-in-one inventory management solution: Ordoro

Ordoro is a comprehensive solution that helps merchants track their inventory from manufacturer to warehouse to the end customer, and back again. You can automatically link up all of your sales and supplier channels to get complete visibility into your inventory, with automatic restocking. 

On the returns side, Ordoro offers a module for managing customer returns, but the solution requires merchants to manually create a return merchandise authorization (RMA), which can be a time-consuming process. While Ordoro is a great solution for tracking and managing inventory, you’ll likely want to select an add-on app to help automate your returns functionality.

What sets Ordoro apart:

  • All-in-one inventory management platform
  • Kitting and bundling options
  • Streamlined workflows with automated presets
  • Vendor portals for self-fulfillment

If you’re looking for better visibility on shipping status: Aftership

Shoppers often stress out about their package status—whether they’re in the process of waiting for a purchase or completing a return. With Aftership, shoppers get instant access to automated delivery updates, so that they can be confident about where their product is in the shipping process and know that it will be delivered or returned safely. The solution also offers data analytics trends to track which shipping carriers perform the best across a range of metrics, so that you’ll have the insights to optimize your logistics operations.

Aftership also includes a self-service returns portal, but merchants need to manually review each return request to determine whether it meets criteria for approval.  

What sets Aftership apart:

  • Automated shipping and delivery updates
  • AI-powered email parsing tool
  • Estimated delivery date predictions
  • Automatically compare rates from 90 carriers

If you need a returns platform that can handle both B2B and B2C returns management: ReverseLogix

If you work with both business customers and individual shoppers, you may want a returns management platform that can handle both types of transactions, and ReverseLogix fits the bill. ReverseLogix provides a streamlined solution for managing the entire returns lifecycle for both B2B and B2C transactions, with built-in customizable rules, including vendor entitlements and approval hierarchies. 

That said, integrating ReverseLogix with the other services you use is likely to require manual development support. While ReverseLogix offers great features once you’re able to connect your data, it can be tough to get up and running. 

What sets ReverseLogix apart:

  • Configurable workflows for B2B, B2C, and hybrid models
  • Tools to drive insights from your entire returns lifecycle
  • Return on Behalf (RoBo) features to add flexibility in return locations

If you’re looking for seamless integration with your Shopify store: Loop

If you run a Shopify store, look no further than Loop—we offer the only returns software that’s purpose-built for Shopify. Our seamless integration delivers a faster, more customizable, and more cohesive experience when working in the Shopify ecosystem.

Moreover, Loop now offers more than 40 integrations with other apps in the Shopify app ecosystem, enabling merchants to create seamless workflows to support them with customer support, fulfillment, shipping, marketing, analytics, and more. Loop also provides opportunities to recapture lost revenue through exchanges and store credit, empowering merchants to retain 40% of revenue that would otherwise be lost to returns.

What sets Loop apart: 

  • The only native Shopify returns management app
  • Over 40 Shopify app integrations
  • “Shop Now” and “Instant Exchange” features
  • Workflows built on conditional logic to optimize return costs
  • Integration with the Shopify Fulfillment Network

Ready to explore the best returns management solution that’s purpose-built for Shopify stores? Check out a demo.

JP Arnaud-Marquez

JP Arnaud-Marquez is the Manager, Content Marketing at Loop, the exchange-first returns solution for Shopify brands. JP owns, creates, and drives Loop's multimedia content strategy from brainstorm to publication to advance the conversation around the post-purchase customer experience.