How Baseballism turns refunds into up-sells with Loop.

True fans can recognize a Baseballism shirt in the wild. From their “ducks on the pond” t-shirts to their “6+4+3=2” tank tops (references that only a baseball enthusiast would recognize), the brand’s products are beloved in the baseball community.

John Maddalone, Baseballism’s Customer Retention Supervisor, is a die-hard Yankees fan himself. But the point of Baseballism, according to him, isn’t about rooting for a specific team - rather, it’s about cultivating an off-the-field passion for the sport. “We’re trying to spread the love of the game of baseball, and we try to get that to come through our products,” says Maddalone.

Given this tight-knit community of baseball fans, it’s no surprise to hear that Baseballism prioritizes giving their customers the best experience possible. That’s why the brand offers a ‘no questions asked’ return policy and has a CEO who takes the time to engage with their customers to understand their needs and wants. 

We’re trying to spread the love of the game of baseball, and we try to get that to come through our products.

However, after joining Baseballism, Maddalone quickly recognized that their manual returns process was proving to be an obstacle in their otherwise awesome customer experience - not to mention that it was a huge drain on resources for their customer support representatives. That’s when he decided to partner with Loop, with the hopes of streamlining the brand’s return process for both their community and their team.

Freeing up customer support resources

When Maddalone first joined Baseballism, there was one person handling the entire customer support process - from printing out pre-paid labels for every order to addressing inquiries from customers. This resulted in a stressed-out employee, a disorganized warehouse, and a less-than-stellar customer experience. “When we got packages back, they would stack up because one person was answering all the phone calls and emails and doing returns. So while we were gunning for a 24-hour turnaround, it would realistically take two weeks for customers to get their exchanges - that’s a long time,” explains Maddalone.

With Loop, Baseballism was able to streamline the returns process by automating critical moments. “I love that Loop emails our customers a pre-paid return label based on the products they’re sending back. I also love that, once a customer scans in their item at the postal service, we’re shipping their new one out automatically. 90% of the time, our customers are getting their new package before we even get theirs,” says Maddalone.

I'm confident to say the amount of time spent by the customer service team on a return-related request has been cut in half, if not three-quarters.

The results? “I’m confident to say that the amount of time spent by the customer service team on return-related requests has been cut in half, if not by three-quarters,” says Maddalone. This has allowed Baseballism customers to have a more seamless returns experience, while also freeing up the support team to use their time in more impactful ways.

Shifting refunds to upsells

Another downside of Baseballism’s slow manual return process was that it was pushing customers to opt for a refund over an exchange. To combat this, Loop introduced Baseballism to the Shop Now feature, which allows customers to exchange for any product in their catalog all within the returns experience. This, paired with Bonus Credit, incentivizes Baseballism’s customers to exchange instead of a refund and even opt to spend more than their initial order.

“One of my favorite aspects of Loop is the incentive to Shop Now instead of using a refund. I love that we can upsell with the $5 bonus. We’ve already seen tremendous success with that. It’s awesome,” says Maddalone.

In fact, Baseballism has seen so much success with the Shop Now feature that upsells now comprise 14% of their total returns and have generated an additional $10k in the last year. Baseballism also has an incredibly low refund rate now at 47%, which means that they’re refunding less than half of their total returns.

Baseballism has generated over $10k in additional revenue using Shop Now in the last year.

Removing Excel spreadsheets

Manually collecting data was a huge pain point for Baseballism as well. “We were using Excel to put all of our returns in one-by-one. There was no formality to it,” says Maddalone. So when someone sent back a hat, one person might input the return as a “Baseballism hat.” But the next person could record it as a “black cap,” explains Maddalone. This made searching for anything in their database virtually impossible.

Similarly, the brand’s method of collecting customer feedback was limited. Customers received an 8x11 sheet of paper with their order to explain their reason for returning an item. The only options they could choose from were “wrong size,” “damaged,” or “other” - which didn’t provide any actionable insight.

With Loop’s return reasons feature, Baseballism is now able to collect more open-ended feedback and organize it in a way that actually provides value. Now that the team has access to this information, they can use it to make data-driven decisions related to sales, product sizing, and even messaging.

Helping Baseballism serve its community

Baseballism is now able to serve its community better than ever before. With a seamless process and automated returns portal, customers don’t have to worry about waiting weeks to receive their item. And with Loop freeing up time for Baseballism’s support team, they’re able to provide an even greater level of customer service.  

Wow, that was the easiest return process I've ever been through is something that's commonly said about our returns.

“Now, it’s so easy for customers to go through an exchange or returns process with us. ‘Wow that was the easiest return process I’ve ever been through’ is something that’s commonly said about our returns,” says Maddalone.

We’re proud to be able to help Baseballism stay true to its values of creating the best experience for its customers. Do you want to create a better returns process for your customers? Book a demo and see how Loop could work for your brand.