Returns & post-purchase
Stop returns eating your margin.
High return rates and a thin post-purchase experience quietly erase the profit on every first order. Most brands treat it as logistics. It is a retention problem - and it is fixable. I rebuild the returns strategy and the post-purchase journey to cut the avoidable returns and turn the moment after purchase into the start of the next one.
A focused 30 minutes on what's driving your returns and what to fix first.
Returns are not a logistics line. They are profit leaving on the orders you already paid to win.
- Profit erased on the first order. Pick, pack, ship, the refund and the return shipping all land on an order that often made little margin to begin with.
- The same products, again and again. A small set of SKUs and a handful of reasons usually drive a disproportionate share of refund value - and most brands cannot see which ones.
- A silent first impression. The post-purchase window is where repeat purchase is won or lost, and for most brands it is a tracking link and nothing else.
- Returns and retention treated as strangers. The customer who returns badly rarely comes back, yet the two are managed by different teams against different numbers.
The moment after purchase decides the next one.
Cut the avoidable returns, fix the reasons behind the rest, and turn the post-purchase window from a tracking link into the start of the second order. The margin you save is margin you have already paid to win.
- The returns diagnosis. Return rate, return mix by reason and by SKU, and where refund value actually concentrates - read against retention, not just processing cost.
- The avoidable-return plan. Sizing and fit, product description and imagery, expectation-setting: the cross-functional fixes that stop the return before it starts.
- The post-purchase journey. Confirmation, shipping, delivery and the days after, sequenced to reduce anxiety, cut WISMO and avoidable returns, and set up the next purchase.
- The returns experience itself. Framing exchanges over refunds where it genuinely suits the customer, and keeping the relationship intact through a good return.
- The data to keep watching it. The reason-code structure and reporting, so returns stay visible long after I am gone.
A one-off rebuild
The returns strategy and post-purchase journey diagnosed, designed and specified, ready for your team to build. Scoped per project.
An embedded retainer
Ongoing ownership of returns, post-purchase and retention, month to month. For brands that want it run, not just diagnosed.
I have run this diagnosis across four live storefronts.
I run retention for a premium fashion brand turning over £30M+ across four storefronts. Recent work includes a SKU-level returns diagnostic across all four, surfacing the products and reasons behind disproportionate refund value, and the cross-functional plan to act on it - alongside a sizing and fit technology rollout to cut avoidable returns at source. See the returns work in Projects →
I run retention for a premium fashion brand turning over £30M+ across four storefronts, where returns and post-purchase are part of what I own. I have run a SKU-level returns diagnostic across all four storefronts and built the cross-functional plan to act on it. You get the same approach, scoped for your brand - once, or owned.
“Replace with a real, signed-off client quote about the returns work.”
No. I am not optimising your warehouse or negotiating carriers. I work the retention side of returns: why customers return, how to prevent the avoidable ones, and how the post-purchase experience shapes the next order.
Yes. Part of the work is building the reason-code structure and reporting so the data exists going forward. We start with what you have and make it readable.
I architect the post-purchase strategy and oversee the build and design through a trusted production layer, so it ships to a high standard. The strategy stays mine; Klaviyo and email covers how that works.
The aim is to cut the avoidable returns and recover margin on the rest. I will not promise a number before I have seen your data - any honest answer comes after the diagnosis.
Closely. Returns and post-purchase are part of the wider engine. Start with the Retention Audit for the full picture, or Loyalty and LTV for the repeat-purchase layer.
Find out how much margin your returns are taking.
A focused 30 minutes on what's driving your returns and what to fix first.
or email hello@callumrichardson.com