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How Mac Duggal gives special-occasion customers the confidence to buy
Mac Duggal dresses customers for weddings, galas, and milestone moments, where the pressure to get it right is high. The brand has worked with Loop to give those customers the confidence to buy, and the reasons to come back.
85%
Checkout+ attach rate (of customers offered coverage)
63%
of exchanges taken as an Instant Exchange
About the brand: more than four decades of dressing life's biggest moments
Mac Duggal is a family-owned occasionwear brand that has spent more than forty years dressing women for life’s most memorable moments, from weddings and galas to milestone celebrations. Designer Mac Duggal launched the label in 1984 with just ten gowns, drawing on the hand-beading traditions of his native India and a commitment to creating flattering designs for women of every age, shape, and size.
Since then, Mac Duggal has been worn by Carrie Underwood, Olivia Culpo, Cardi B, and many others; featured in Marie Claire, ELLE, and InStyle; and recognized by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. Today, Mac Duggal is a global brand sold throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.
That heritage sets a high bar for every part of the experience, including what happens after checkout. Today the brand sells through its own Shopify storefront and leading retail partners around the world.
Emily Greenfield, the brand's Director of Ecommerce, owns that post-purchase experience end to end: marketing, ecommerce, customer service, returns, marketplaces, and the technology that connects them. Her job is to make the journey feel like one experience, not a set of separate tools.
The challenge: special-occasion dressing runs on confidence.
A special-occasion purchase is not a casual one. Some customers plan months ahead for a wedding or milestone event and order several styles or sizes to find the perfect dress. Others need something for an event next week, with no time for a second try if the fit is wrong.
That puts fit, timing, and the post-purchase experience on equal footing with the dress itself.
"Our responsibility goes well beyond selling a dress,” according to Emily. “We have to support both types of customers, those taking time to find the perfect look and those who need confidence they'll have the right dress in time for their event."
Returns and exchanges come with the category. Before Loop, Mac Duggal had fewer ways to help a customer who needed one, and less visibility into why the product was coming back.
“Before Loop, we had fewer options to offer our customers when they needed to make a return or exchange, and less visibility into why products were coming back. We wanted to create a more seamless self-service experience while also gaining better insights.”
Emily Greenfield
Director of Ecommerce · Mac Duggal
The solution: confidence at every step after checkout
Mac Duggal built its post-purchase experience on Loop and has added to it over time. Three pieces carry the most weight for the special-occasion customer, and each one answers a specific worry.
Confidence at the moment of purchase with Checkout+. Checkout+ lets a customer add return coverage for a small fee at checkout, so a return later ships free. For a significant purchase tied to an important event, that option reads as reassurance rather than friction.
"For shoppers making a significant purchase for an important event, additional peace of mind can actually increase confidence rather than create hesitation. The key is presenting those choices clearly and making sure customers understand the value."
Emily Greenfield
Director of Ecommerce · Mac Duggal
Keep the sale when the fit is wrong, with exchanges and Instant Exchanges. When a dress does not fit, Loop makes it easy to exchange instead of refund. Instant Exchanges go further: the replacement ships the moment she submits her return, rather than waiting for the original to come back and be processed. For a customer with an event on the calendar, that is the difference that matters.
As Greenfield puts it, "Loop has given us much more flexibility in how we support customers throughout the return and exchange process."
Answer "will it arrive in time?" before it's asked, with Order Tracking. Timing is one of the biggest sources of anxiety in special-occasion dressing. Loop's branded order tracking gives customers proactive visibility into where their package is and when it will arrive, on Mac Duggal's own site instead of a carrier's.
"Providing proactive tracking gave customers answers before they needed to contact us," Greenfield says. "That reduced a significant number of 'Where is my order?' inquiries, allowing our support team to spend more time helping customers with questions that actually require a person, like styling, fit guidance, or resolving unique situations."
The results: revenue kept, questions answered
The proof shows up in the numbers and in the quiet.
- More than 8 in 10 customers offered return coverage choose it, a sign they see it as worth having at a high-stakes moment
- 63% of exchanges taken as an Instant Exchange, so the right dress ships right away
Beyond the numbers, success shows up as calmer customers.
“When the post-purchase experience works well, customers spend less time worrying about logistics and more time focusing on the event they're shopping for. That's exactly the outcome we're trying to create."
Emily Greenfield
Director of Ecommerce · Mac Duggal
The partnership: a platform that grows with the brand
Mac Duggal has added more of Loop as the business has grown internationally, expanded its assortment, and increased order volume. What keeps them building on it is a platform that evolves with them, and a partner that listens.
"It's helpful to have a partner that's continuing to invest in the platform rather than standing still. When we provide feedback, we feel like it's heard, and that kind of partnership matters when you're building processes that impact both customers and internal operations."
Emily Greenfield
Director of Ecommerce · Mac Duggal
The bottom line: an experience that scales with the brand
Mac Duggal is expanding, into day and ready-to-wear and across retail and marketplace channels. Because Loop lets the team tailor return and exchange flows by product type or business need, the post-purchase experience holds its standard as the catalog and the channels grow. The payoff is customers confident enough to come back for the next occasion.
"Ultimately, our goal is to make the post-purchase experience feel just as thoughtful and seamless as the shopping experience itself, regardless of what our customers are buying."
Emily Greenfield
Director of Ecommerce · Mac Duggal
