How Kulani Kinis streamlined international returns with Loop

Learn more about Kulani Kinis:

Australian couple Dani Atkins and Alex Babich were inspired by the colourful, tropical swimwear they spotted whilst on vacation in Hawaii in 2014 – but found similar pieces in stores too expensive and lacking in quality.

“This search for pieces that didn’t break the bank, that celebrated bodies and allowed for self-expression grew, transformed and sparked a beautiful wave of inspiration,” says Alex Babich, Managing Director & Founder.

Soon, the pair decided to launch an ecommerce company to bring affordable versions of these tropical styles to customers in Australia, the U.S., and beyond. Fast forward to today, and Kulani Kinis is now a $50M AUD business empire. Their swimsuits can be found in shops in North America, Europe, the U.K., ANZ, and even the UAE – and the brand also has a thriving ecommerce business, where shoppers all over the world can explore their wares.
Their mission is “to empower our community to feel confident, fun, vibrant, and ready for adventure,” says Babich.

The Challenge: Scaling a great CX experience

In 2021, the brand was struggling with the challenges of delivering a fantastic customer experience as they scaled – and processing returns was a major pain point.

Their returns process was highly manual: Customers submitted an online form; then the CX team recorded it, created shipping labels, and sent them. Once the customer had shipped the item, CX could create an exchange in Shopify upon transit confirmation, or process a refund after arrival.

This returns process was slow and painstaking – and it didn’t scale along with the brand’s rapid growth.

“Everytime we wanted to grow our order volume, we had to hire more CX people to scale operations,” says Babich. “When we were growing fast, it was impossible to hire and train that many people.”

What’s more, “the work was repetitive and led to burnout in the team,” Babich adds. “We want our people to be doing value-adding work that fills their cup. There was no time for any of that – but Loop was going to change everything.”

The impact: A streamlined and highly automated CX for returns

Since onboarding with Loop in 2021, Kulani Kinis has witnessed a sea change in their returns management process.

“Loop revolutionised the way we process returns for our customers,” says Babich. “It ties effortlessly into our CX Shopify techstack, with integrations with Klaviyo and Gorgias - it just adds to our perfect CX journey.”

“Good technology is hard to really find, but I think the best measure of whether something is effective is to ask the following question: Can you imagine going back to running Kulani Kinis without it? And the answer was a simple no.”

A streamlined global returns process

In the pre-Loop era, returns management was stop-and-go: Shoppers needed to wait for the CX team’s approval at multiple stages of the returns process. Today, it’s a fully streamlined, self-service process through Loop’s returns portal – ensuring ease of use for shoppers across their entire global market.

“The seamless return portal looks like an extension of our website,” says Babich. “Giving customers fast self-service to submit their return request and automatically print their label without waiting for a reply from a team member in a different time zone is amazing. Adding on return processing automations further improved our customer experience, as they no longer had to wait or enquire about their refunds and exchanges.”

By embracing Loop’s technology, Kulani Kinis has ramped up its customer experience (CX) without adding more staff, and can easily support shoppers across multiple languages, currencies, and time zones with self-service returns.

Returns

Optimise your customers’ returns experience with self-service automations.

Instant Returns incentivises quick action

Loop’s Instant Exchange feature has been a great option for customers who are looking to swap out sizes, styles or colours – and it has added benefits for the brand, too: In order to obtain an Instant Exchange, customers must return their purchased items within 14 days, or they’ll be charged for both items.

“Customers love to be able to receive their refunds and exchanges instantly, and the extra condition to return their pieces quicker means our bikinis are returned, processed and back in stock quicker, which is great for ensuring these new collection pieces stay current and don't age,” says Babich.

In fact, nearly 20% of shoppers use Loop’s Instant Exchange feature to easily swap out their purchase for the same item in a different size or colour, ensuring that they can get just the right fit in time for their upcoming holiday or beach trip.

Instant Exchange

Drive loyalty with streamlined exchanges.

Shop Now generates upsell revenue

In situations where a shopper might veer towards a refund, Kulani Kinis can now steer them towards choosing an alternate product by sweetening the deal.

When shoppers request refunds, the brand offers them bonus credit to use via Loop’s Shop Now feature, with the option to apply the extra credit along with the refund value towards any product in their store. That helps them retain more revenue from returns, and increases their customer loyalty rate. On average, the brand gains $1.66 USD in upsell revenue from every return.

“The Shop Now feature in Loop allowed us to keep customers coming back to us,” says Babich. “Many customers go from wanting a refund to actually spending and buying more using this feature.”

Shop Now

Transform returns into exchanges.

Analytics fuel product improvements

Loop doesn’t just support a better customer experience during the returns process – it also gives the brand key insights around issues with specific products.

When using the returns portal, customers are asked why they’re returning a specific item: Was it too big, too small, or a poor fit?

Loop’s Analytics 2.0 tool collects all of these insights, and gives the brand improved visibility around return trends and reasons. They can see if a specific swimsuit is often returned because of an improper fit, for instance – and can use that data to make product improvements that will enhance the quality of the item.

“Loop is helping us make business and design decisions based on the analytic tools and reports.”

By using Loop’s returns data to optimise their product development and product descriptions, Kulani Kinis is able to make strategic improvements that will lead to higher customer satisfaction and lower return rates.

Analytics 2.0

Get the why behind your returns

Regional partners empower international expansion

Kulani Kinis is focussed on growing its international footprint – and Babich says that Loop’s network of local shipping and fulfilment integration partners in the U.S. has made the reverse logistics journey much easier to navigate. When shoppers need to return products, they can go back to an in-country fulfilment centre, rather than shipping all the way back to Australia, helping the brand save time and money.

“We just launched our new warehouse in the USA with Barrett Distributions and it has been a game changer for Kulani Kinis to have local fulfilment and returns options for our customers in the USA,” says Babich. “We are more efficient and faster.”

Logistics Partners

Scale international expansion with local providers.

The results: Scalable CX that boosts customer loyalty

Transitioning from manual returns to Loop’s streamlined platform has completely transformed Kulani Kinis’ returns experience. They’ve been able to preserve their CX team’s time for issues that need hands-on support, while enabling shoppers to initiate returns and exchanges through self-service. Tools like Instant Exchange, Shop Now, and Insights help them get returned items back faster, analyse return trends, and boost customer loyalty and revenue by turning returns into exchanges effortlessly. And, with local integration partners within the U.S., U.K./Europe, and ANZ, Babich is confident that Loop can support their ambitious plans for international growth.

“We highly recommend using Loop to streamline returns as your business grows,” says Babich. “It takes out a lot of manual data entry work, while giving you the analytics and returns reporting to help understand what your customers are returning – and most importantly why they are returning – to help other parts of your business.”

Scale your brand across borders without stress.