Boden, the well-established British clothing retailer known for its vibrant designs and commitment to quality, has built a loyal customer base both in the UK and internationally.

View the Features of Boden’s Returns Portal

Boden

switches to ZigZag for its returns

Jason Taylor
Commercial Director

We spoke to Boden’s Head of Logistics Colin Dawes, who has led the charge for the retailer as they switched from a well-known returns management company based in the Netherlands to ZigZag’s award-winning solution.

“We went from being in a position where the returns solution we had wasn’t doing everything we wanted it to, with a terrible roadmap, to a position where everything is great with ZigZag.”

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Returns challenges Boden
faced before ZigZag

High returns shipping costs

The cost to get goods back from overseas was substantial

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Unresponsive support team

Boden’s previous returns solution had a hard-to-reach customer service team

Limited label-less returns

The network wasn’t quite ready to significantly roll out paperless returns

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How Boden’s returns experience has

taken shape
with ZigZag

Seamless Integration

ZigZag’s implementation process includes everyone from our business. We want to get retailers set-up as quickly and smoothly as possible. That means our Implementations Team will be in constant contact with all the relevant branches of both your business and ours.

Hands-on Account Management

Customer service doesn’t just relate to shoppers getting a great level of service. You, as a retailer, need to be able to reach and talk to your partners. Customer service is something we take seriously at ZigZag. Retailers are assigned their own Account Manager and have easy access to our Implementations and Technology teams for advice and portal fixes or updates.

Boden’s Colin Dawes commented, “We got really frustrated with our previous returns solution provider. They were just not responding. We as a business want to invest in partnerships rather than ditch one and quickly move to another. So, we were giving them plenty of opportunity to work with us, but they were largely ignoring anyone who wasn't their largest customers.”

Return enquiries have dropped

ZigZag prides itself on utilising carrier services and partners that allow for complete returns visibility. Customers can use the portal and get updates to SMS or email on their returns journey back to the retailer and, more importantly, the status of their refund. This reduces customer frustration, keeps them happy, and keeps them shopping.

Boden, like any other retailer, still sees the usual enquiries hitting their customer service team of “Where is my order?” and “Where's or when do I get my refund?”. It’s somewhat unavoidable as an internationally selling retailer. However, with Boden’s increased desire to keep their customers informed of return key milestones and ZigZag’s platform, the volume of these enquiries has dropped over the last 12 months. This reduces the strain on the Customer Service Team, frees up reseource, and reduces the cost of returns.

Cost-saving
carrier rates

Boden were fortunate to already have strong carrier relationships with competitive rates due to their pedigree and volume, but ZigZag was still able to grow their network and substantially reduce the overall cost of their returns. And as we are carrier agnostic, Boden could keep any rate or relationship they want.

In just the first year, Boden has been able to save north of half a million pounds simply by switching from the rates offered by their previous returns provider to ZigZag’s more attractive fees.

Extensive carrier network access

ZigZag has 1,500+ carrier services from over 170 countries. As the returns provider for some of the biggest retailers in the world, retailers such as Boden, we have the volume to command carriage rates many retailers don’t have access to. Especially retailers just starting their journey into e-commerce.

Colin expressed, “We've got quite a lot of direct contracts for our main markets, and we could just bring them over which was fantastic. And then, in the areas that we don't have, ZigZag has got really good depth.

“And the US lane is a brilliant example. On the day we switched to ZigZag, our US returns carrier partner, Pitney Bowes, were unable to continue operating and we were forced to look for an alternative. Within 3 days we were set up with one of ZigZag’s US partners, at half the price of the quoted carriage fee from our previous returns solution.”

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Boden’s Returns Revision

An interview with Colin Dawes, Head of Logistics.
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Scroll through to see Boden’s adoption of ZigZag’s award-winning platform.

Find out more how Boden benefits from hands-on account management, improved carrier rates, a wider carrier network, paperless returns, and ZigZag’s expertise.