How TOV Essentials automates return decisions

TOV Essentials is a fast-growing jewellery webshop with a strong online brand positioning and a focus on everyday wearable pieces. The brand serves a broad consumer audience looking for accessible, stylish jewellery.

With over 1,000 return requests per month, returns management plays a structural role in daily operations. Like many e-commerce businesses, this creates an operational challenge: how to ensure consistent return decisions without requiring customer support to manually review every request.

Tech stack: Shopify, Klaviyo

Situation:
More than 1,000 return requests per month, with return decisions largely handled manually by customer support.

Challenge:
A uniform return process with a limited set of rules, requiring many return requests to be assessed individually, making the process time-consuming and error-prone.

Strategic adjustment:
The return process was structured according to the desired return policy and implemented in Returnista’s return rules feature, where rules are defined and automatically applied to every return request.

Result:

• 45% of return decisions handled automatically
• Customer support saves 4–5 hours per week on individual case handling
• More consistent application of return policy
• Faster clarity for customers on their return requests

Key insight:
By defining return policy rules upfront in the return rules feature, merchants can apply a differentiated return policy without adding operational workload. The platform automatically applies these rules to every request, allowing customer support to focus only on exceptions.

A uniform return process led to manual decision-making and limited structure

Before implementing Returnista’s return rules feature, TOV Essentials used a single set of return rules for all returns. There was little differentiation between return reasons, order types, or specific order situations.

When a consumer initiated a return or had questions about costs, timelines, or outcomes, customer support often had to determine the applicable conditions on a case-by-case basis.

This resulted in several operational challenges:

• Return decisions were frequently handled manually by customer support
• Similar cases were sometimes handled differently
• The process was time-consuming, especially during peak periods

Although the return policy itself was clear, there was no structured way to apply these rules consistently and automatically within the process.

Structuring and embedding return policy into automated return rules

Together with Returnista, TOV Essentials analyzed the existing return process and identified scenarios where different outcomes were required, such as variations in return reasons, order timing, or specific order situations.

Based on this analysis, the team translated the return policy into concrete return rules. These rules were then configured within the return rules feature in the Returnista platform. Once defined, the platform automatically applies them to every return request.

The process now works as follows:

1. The consumer initiates a return via the return portal.
2. The Returnista platform automatically checks relevant variables such as return reason and order period.
3. The return rules feature applies predefined rules to the request.
4. Based on these rules, the applicable outcome or conditions are determined instantly.
5. The consumer receives immediate clarity on the next steps in the return process.

Customer support now only intervenes in exceptional or more complex cases.

A more consistent process with reduced manual effort

Since implementing the return rules feature, many return decisions are now automatically determined based on predefined rules.

Key outcomes:

• 45% of return decisions handled automatically
• 4–5 hours per week saved by customer support
• More consistent application of return policy
• Faster communication and clarity for customers

Internally, this creates a clearer workflow: standard decisions are handled automatically, while the team focuses on exceptions and more complex customer interactions.

For TOV Essentials, this means:

• Higher customer satisfaction
• More focus on service quality instead of administrative tasks
• A return process that scales with order volume

“By using return rules, we can apply our return policy much more consistently. The system automatically handles a large part of the decisions based on predefined rules, which means our team spends less time on manual reviews and the process becomes clearer and faster for customers.”

— Rowin Paapst, Operations Manager

This case shows that a more differentiated return policy does not necessarily lead to a more complex internal process.

By defining and embedding return policy rules in advance, the platform can automatically apply them to each return request. This allows merchants to manage returns more precisely without increasing manual workload.

For other merchants, this can result in:

• Structural time savings within customer support
• Lower operational costs due to fewer manual reviews
• Less error-prone processes through consistent rule application
• Greater control over the return process through clearly defined policies

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

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