Loop Returns & Exchanges

Loop is a solid reliable returns platform. I've used it in two different ecomm companies. It's userfriendly, the workflows, tags usage, and return outcomes are well thought out. We definitely take advantage of the Shop Now feature to keep customers reingaged in our eco system. Financial Reconciliation is a bit tricky with, that's an area that can be improved upon, but that said, it's comparable to others on the market. Overall, I'm pleased to continue using Loops as my go-to returns solution.

The software is good. Customer service is decent.

There are some features in the software that you need a web developer to implement and code into your .liquid files, and Loop Returns doesn't provide a developer to do so, so you have to hire and pay for the developer yourself.

Save your time and money and get anything else. The experience quickly went downhill once they sign you up. Customer service disappears and you're stuck with a 12 month contract for something that doesn't fully function as promised and no one to help you!

The platform is flexible and works ok. BUT - when you sign up you are LOCKED in to that monthly payment, no matter what. If your business model changes and you want to change to a cheaper plan or cancel the service, you are out of luck. Even if you are not using their service at all they will make you pay them every month, no matter what. It is really not an appropriate business model for this kind of service and they do not care about their customers AT ALL.

Loop is a fantastic solution for easy returns. The onboarding was clearly laid out and easy to implement. Automations are easy to set up and streamline a lot of processes. Some additional reading I'd recommend when defining your policies in the app is their page on return fraud: https://www.loopreturns.com/blog/the-easy-way-to-handle-return-fraud/

We got targeted by a few fraudulent orders and the fraudsters were able to game the USPS tracking to show up as delivered without anything actually getting delivered to our store.

Their integrations with Shopify are really great, and it's nice to be able to see updates on the order status page directly in Shopify.

After the returns platform we were using sunsetted in October 2023, we quickly transitioned over to Loop, per our previous partners recommendation. Though there have been a few glitches to work through, the Loop CS team and our dedicated CSM Jackie have been extremely responsive / helpful. We hope to continue benefiting from this return platform and definitely recommend giving it a try!

Overall, Loop Returns is a good returns software. The platform offers a lot of nice features and customizations. The integration with our WMS platform makes processing returns easy for our team. Our customers like the “instant exchange” feature as well as the Happy Returns option. The “workflows” allow you to configure return scenarios. However, the reason for three stars is because the platform is very buggy. The amount of return related questions has become a burden for our customer service team. Loop is unable and/or unwilling to find solutions for the issues listed below. In addition third party developers are unable to help.

• Many customers experience issues using the “on-store” shop now feature. After selecting their items and clicking checkout to proceed to the return summary they are redirected back to select return or exchange again. Occurs most frequently on mobile devices.

• The “on-store” shop now feature doesn’t work in our mobile app pop up browser. The product(s) the customer selects to exchange for do not populate on the return summary page. Therefore, we are unable to have links to the returns portal within our app. This is a major issue as roughly 20% of our customers use our mobile app.

• The “shop now bonus” credit is hidden on the returns summary page. This causes customer confusion as they think they aren’t getting the bonus that was previously presented in the return process. To see the bonus the customer has to click the “details” drop-down and it is shown as a line item near the bottom.

• Loop Returns doesn’t work well with Shopify Markets Pro making international returns challenging. The HS codes for products from Shopify Markets Pro orders do not always pass to Loop causing returns labels to not generate. There is no way to override this so we have to generate and process those returns outside of Loop. This is only roughly 5% of those international returns.

• A portion of returns that expiree that have Happy Returns selected for the return method can no longer be returned/exchanged, even when added to the “allowlist”. For some reason when those returns expire it also shows the return was dropped off at a Happy Returns bar even though it wasn’t. Therefore, the system thinks the item(s) were returned already and can no longer be returned. We generate and process those returns outside of Loop.

• You are unable process returns through Loop if the customer’s email address was edited. For example, if there was a typo in the email address and our customer service team corrects it, the customer can no longer initiate the return through the returns portal. It provides the error “unable to retrieve order”. We have to generate and process those returns outside of Loop.

Loop is a suitable application for those focusing solely on domestic returns rather than international ones. Although Loop claims to support international returns, this feature falls short in reality. They rely on third-party apps to generate return labels, incurring additional costs. The third-party service, typically Easy Post, proves cumbersome and not user-friendly. Moreover, Easy Post functions more as a developer platform, requiring a dedicated team for optimal use. Consequently, utilizing Loop becomes impractical and costly. It's advisable to explore alternative return applications and refrain from committing to any contracts with Loop until thoroughly evaluating their services.

They did not help with our onboarding process. The system does make it easier for customers to submit for returns, but if you're needing exchanges across different prices/products that cost extra. It caused more headache with our backend systems than it solved problems.

Overall - Does the basics, but not a great value. Good option for a mid-sized business, but if you are smaller I'd go for something cheaper and if you are bigger, I'd go for something a bit more comprehensive. Pros:
+ Return Portal UI is clean and works well
+ No issues with Shopify sync and does reduce workload vs. manual processing of returns and exchanges Cons
+ Fairly expensive for what is ultimately a pretty simple service
+ The whole concept of reducing refunds vs. exchanges is just marketing. It truly does nothing in this regard. In fact we saw our refund % go up significantly since installing Loop
+ We pay a couple hundred bucks per month and I don't like how miserly they are with features; e.g. we can see certain analytics but they restrict the ability to see basic stuff like product refunds until we upgrade to the next tier (I understand SAAS pricing but the way they do it feels just cheap)
+ Customer support is mostly a disaster. The team is nice but it seems like they're completely overwhelmed. We've had an issue syncing with ShareaSale and it's legitimately been 2.5 months since we raised it. If we send an email, it usually takes about a week to get a reply. We've followed up maybe 5-10 times on this issue alone, which is of course super frustrating to do when there's a million other things to keep track of.