How Esuals doubled its store credit conversion while reducing incentive costs

Esuals is a fast-growing fashion webshop with a strong focus on trend-driven collections and a broad consumer audience. The brand operates in a high-volume environment where returns are a structural part of daily operations.

With a significant number of returns each month, returns management plays a structural role in daily operations. For Esuals, the strategic question was clear: how do you retain more revenue when consumers return items, without negatively affecting the customer experience or putting pressure on margins?

In this case, Esuals doubled its store credit conversion through a targeted adjustment in its return strategy, without increasing the return rate and with a positive impact on profitability.

Tech stack: Shopify, Klaviyo

Situation:
4% of refunds were already being successfully converted into store credit with a 20% bonus credit.

Challenge:
Increasing store credit conversion without increasing the return rate or putting additional pressure on margins.

Strategic adjustment:
The bonus credit was reduced from 20% to 10%, while consumers choosing store credit received a free return label.

Result after 3 months:

• Store credit conversion increased from 4% to 8%
• The return rate remained stable
• Around 25% of the additional retained revenue was used for return labels
• 75% remained as net additional retained revenue

Key insight:
A direct, tangible benefit such as free returns can influence consumer behaviour more strongly than a higher percentage of store credit for a future purchase.

Low store credit conversion despite a high incentive

During the return process, most consumers chose a refund instead of exchange & store credit.

By offering 20% bonus credit, Esuals was already able to convert 4% of refunds into store credit. This proved that revenue could be retained within the webshop. The next step was to improve that strategy further and increase store credit conversion in a way that remained financially sustainable.

The challenge was clear:

• How do you increase store credit conversion?
• Without increasing the return rate
• And without putting disproportionate pressure on margins

The issue was not simply that the incentive was too low. The question was whether a different type of incentive could influence consumer choice more effectively.

Steering consumer behaviour through direct value instead of a higher incentive

Together with Returnista’s specialists, Esuals analysed how consumers made choices during the return request.

The analysis showed that a direct and concrete benefit, such as free returns, weighed more heavily in the decision-making process than a higher bonus percentage that could only be used on a future purchase.

Based on this, Esuals made a targeted adjustment to its return strategy:

• Free return labels for consumers choosing store credit instead of a refund
• Bonus credit reduced from 20% to 10%
• Clearer communication at the top of the return page, explicitly highlighting the benefit of free returns combined with store credit

The process now works as follows:

1. The consumer starts the return via the return portal.
2. In the return portal, the consumer chooses between refund, exchange or store credit. Store credit is positioned as an attractive alternative to a refund.
3. When the consumer chooses store credit, they automatically receive a free return label.
4. After the return is processed, the consumer receives the return amount plus 10% extra store credit by email.

This combines an immediate cost saving, the free return label, with a future shopping benefit through bonus credit.

Store credit conversion doubled without an increase in return rate

After a 3-month pilot, Esuals saw a clear improvement in store credit adoption.

Key outcomes:

• Store credit conversion increased from 4% to 8%
• The return rate remained stable
• Around 25% of the additional retained revenue was used to cover return labels
• The remaining 75% stayed within the webshop as net additional retained revenue, excluding bonus credit

By shifting the incentive from a high bonus percentage to a direct, tangible benefit, Esuals improved the effectiveness of its return strategy while lowering bonus costs per order.

Internally, this meant that a larger share of original revenue stayed within the webshop. Although part of the additional retained revenue was used to cover free return labels, the majority remained as net revenue retention.

For Esuals, this means:

• More satisfied consumers
• More repeat purchases through store credit
• Higher revenue retention within the webshop
• Better balance between incentive costs and profitability
• More control over consumer behaviour in the return process

“Returnista came up with this idea and I thought: that actually makes sense, because many people see return costs as a problem. When you offer free returns, it feels much more valuable to the customer. To keep it profitable, we lowered the bonus credit.”

— Jan van Erp, Co-owner Esuals

Esuals wants to continue experimenting with different bonus credit structures, such as:

• Fixed amount versus percentage
• Lower percentages combined with additional benefits

The team is also exploring further optimization of exchanges through targeted return rules in the return portal.

This case shows that the effectiveness of a return strategy does not only depend on the size of the incentive, but also on how consumers perceive value.

A direct, concrete saving, such as free returns, can work more effectively than a higher percentage of store credit that can only be used later.

For other merchants, this can result in:

• Higher absolute revenue retention through targeted store credit adoption
• More effective use of incentives without unnecessarily high bonus percentages
• Better control over consumer behaviour in the return process
• A more profitable balance between customer experience and return costs

Want to understand what this approach could mean for your return process?

Our experts are happy to review your current setup and identify where a stronger exchange & store credit strategy will have the most impact.