How Cliphair Turned Returns Into Growth: 50% Exchanges, 10-Min Resolutions, Smarter Inventory

Executive Summary

Cliphair, a leading D2C hair accessories brand, was losing revenue and visibility to an outdated return process. Without clear return reasons, a structured exchange mechanism, or automation, the team relied on manual fixes and hunches to manage post-purchase experiences. After implementing Return Prime, Cliphair cut return resolution time from 5 days to 10 minutes, eliminated ineligible return shipments, and converted half of all returns into exchanges - boosting customer retention while driving smarter inventory and supplier decisions.

Customer Background

Headquartered in South London, Cliphair has grown from a small family-run business into a global e-commerce brand known for high-quality, ethically sourced human hair extensions. They serve a wide range of customers - from individuals shopping for weddings or makeovers to professionals offering salon-grade services at home.

With 95% of their customer base being women who rely on colour accuracy, hair quality, and fit, the brand built its reputation on fast delivery, expert support, and premium Remy hair products. But as their global footprint grew, so did the complexity of handling returns- especially when those returns weren’t telling them the full story.

The Challenge

As Cliphair scaled, so did the complexity of managing returns. What once worked for a small operation was now straining under the weight of growing order volumes and evolving customer expectations. The team knew returns were part of the beauty buying journey—but without the right tools, they were more of a liability than a learning opportunity.

• No visibility into return reasons
  They knew 10% of orders were being returned - but why? That was anyone’s guess. Feedback trickled in through support calls or end-of-month summaries from the CS team. There was no structured data to trace issues back to specific SKUs, product variants, or supplier batches.
  
  
• Manual, paper-heavy return workflows
  Every order shipped with a printed return label - just in case. If the returned product wasn’t eligible (due to removed hygiene seals or tags), Cliphair would bear the cost of return shipping and send the product back to the customer, incurring a third shipment. The entire returns lifecycle was logged manually in their inventory system.
  
  
• No exchange mechanism = missed revenue
  Perhaps most frustrating: if a customer simply ordered the wrong shade or length, there was no easy way to exchange. The only option was to return, wait for a refund, and place a new order. Many customers dropped off at this step - meaning lost sales that could have been saved with a better process.
  
  

In short, the team was spending too much time fixing returns and too little time learning from them.

The Solution

Return Prime transformed post-purchase chaos into actionable business intelligence.

With Return Prime’s self-serve return portal live on their website, Cliphair quickly moved beyond manual email and call-based workflows - unlocking immediate and measurable benefits:

• Real return intelligence
  Customers are now required to submit return reasons with photos turning vague dissatisfaction into actionable feedback. For the first time, Cliphair had clean and real time data on why returns happened, which products were most affected, and how to respond.
  
  
• Pre-screening before shipping
  Ineligible returns are now filtered at the request stage. If the hygiene seal is broken or a tag removed, the platform catches it before the product is even mailed back - saving Cliphair from unnecessary two-way shipping costs.
  
  
• Built-in exchange flows
  Return Prime added a simple, intuitive smart exchange option. Now, instead of refunds and lost customers, Cliphair encourages swaps - keeping revenue in-house and giving customers a better path to satisfaction.
  
  
• Smarter supply chain moves
  Data on returns by category and product type helps Cliphair flag issues early - whether it's a mismatch in shade vs. website display or inconsistencies in supplier quality. Inventory ordering is now more accurate, and QA teams are more focused.

With Return Prime, we didn’t just fix our returns - we finally started understanding them. That shift helped us reduce costs, improve inventory decisions, and win back customers who just wanted the right product.
- Junaid, Cliphair

Implementation

Cliphair’s setup was fast, collaborative, and hassle-free.

• Timeline: One week from kickoff to full rollout
• Teams onboarded: Customer support, warehouse staff, logistics ops
• Tech integrations: WMS/IMS and customer support workflows

With everything up and running by week’s end, the team started seeing actionable data flow in within the first month. That early visibility built momentum across operations and helped drive quick wins.

Results

Here’s what changed within weeks of going live with Return Prime:

• Reduced return eligibility decision time from 5 days to 10 minutes for both customers.
• Eliminated 30% of ineligible returns that previously resulted in triple shipping costs
• Shifted from 10% of returns being exchanges to 50%, preserving revenue
• Cut paper use for shipping labels by over 50%
• Identified product gaps that led to better supplier QA and more precise inventory ordering due to accurate product-wise return prediction.

This wasn’t just about process optimization. It changed how Cliphair approaches post - purchase as a strategic part of the customer experience - and gave their ops team the clarity they’d been missing.

Next Steps

Cliphair is now exploring deeper automation and upsell with Return Prime. Their goal? Make returns so seamless and insight-rich that they become a loyalty driver, not a cost center.

‍