How Partywinkel & Babywinkel spend 90% less time on returns

Partywinkel and Babywinkel are part of the same family-owned business that has grown into a leading player in party supplies and baby products since 2012. Through Partywinkel.nl, consumers can find everything for celebrations and decoration, including balloons, themed products for seasonal events, and a wide assortment of party essentials. Babywinkel.nl focuses on young parents, offering a selection of baby products, care items, and complementary products for baby showers and nursery decoration.

With a large assortment, high service levels, fast delivery, and late cut-off times, the webshops serve thousands of customers each month. The company is based in Nieuw-Vennep and works with QLS as its fulfilment partner. We spoke with Patrick Noij, owner of both webshops, about the move toward a more efficient returns and customer service process.

Fulfilment partner: QLSTech stack: Shopify, Klaviyo, Zendesk, Trengo

Situation:
A high return volume processed manually, requiring coordination between the fulfilment partner and Shopify.

Challenge:
Time-consuming and error-prone return handling, with an average of 2 minutes per return and increased pressure during seasonal peaks.

Strategic adjustment:
Implementation of Returnista combined with a direct integration with fulfilment partner QLS, enabling automation of the return process and the introduction of gatekeeping.

Result:

• 90% of returns processed fully automatically
• Approximately 3 hours per day saved in customer service workload
• Faster refunds to consumers
• Improved insight into underperforming products in terms of quality

Key insight:
By integrating fulfilment operations directly into the return process and automating decision flows, manual handling can be significantly reduced while improving both speed and data visibility.

High manual workload in return processing

Before working with Returnista, processing returns required significant manual effort for both Partywinkel and Babywinkel.

Incoming returns had to be manually matched by the fulfilment partner with the Shopify environment. Only after this step could a refund be issued. On average, this took around 2 minutes per return.

This process introduced several operational issues:

• High manual workload per return
• Dependency on manual matching between systems
• Error sensitivity in processing
• Increased pressure on the team during seasonal peaks

The lack of automation made the process inefficient and difficult to scale.

Automation through Returnista and QLS integration

Partywinkel and Babywinkel implemented Returnista in combination with a direct integration with fulfilment partner QLS. This enabled a largely automated return process.

The process now works as follows:

1. Returns are pre-registered in Returnista.
2. These are automatically forwarded to QLS.
3. Once a return arrives at the warehouse, QLS inspects it.
4. After approval, this is communicated back to Returnista via API.
5. The correct follow-up action is executed automatically: a refund or store credit.
6. The return is archived in QLS to maintain clean and structured records.

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In addition, both webshops actively use gatekeeping. For defective products, consumers first answer a set of questions and upload a photo. Based on this, customer service determines whether the product:

• Should be sent directly to the office for inspection, or
• Can be returned to the warehouse

This prevents defective products from being restocked. At the same time, it generates valuable data on product quality and recurring defects.

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Immediate impact after going live

Within one month after going live with Returnista, the effects were clearly noticeable.

Key outcomes:

• 90% of all returns are processed fully automatically
• Faster refunds to consumers
• Insight into underperforming products in terms of quality

For Partywinkel and Babywinkel, this mainly results in greater operational clarity and more focus on further growth.

“We used to spend far too much time checking, processing, and refunding returns. Now, with the QLS integration, we process 90% of returns without any employee involvement. This quickly saves us around 3 hours per day in customer service work.”

— Patrick Noij, Owner of Partywinkel.nl & Babywinkel.nl

Further reducing customer service workload

The next step for Partywinkel and Babywinkel is to connect their customer service tooling, Trengo, with Returnista. Through further automation, the team aims to respond to customer inquiries faster and more consistently, with fewer manual actions required from customer service.

The goal: reduce pressure on the customer service team while improving the overall customer experience.

This case shows that automating returns directly contributes to:

• Structural time savings
• Lower operational costs
• Less error-prone processes
• Better control over product quality

Especially for webshops with high volumes, seasonal peaks, and outsourced fulfilment, an automated return process can deliver significant value quickly.

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

Our experts are happy to review your current setup and identify where automation will have the most impact.