Hunkemöller increases in-store returns and customer engagement

Hunkemöller operates more than 900 stores and state-of-the-art ecommerce sites across 19 countries. With high online order volumes, returns play a major role in the customer journey and directly affect profitability. To improve the experience for shoppers and gain clearer operational insight, Hunkemöller digitised its returns process using nShift Returns, first rolling it out across Benelux, Germany and the Nordics.

Challenge

Prior to using nShift, Hunkemöller was using conventional printed return label in packages sent to online customers. The company didn’t know in advance how many returns might come back every day, or what was driving those returns. This inability to understand return volumes in advance, identify return drivers or maintain visibility across markets meant that warehouses lacked insight into what was coming back, when it would arrive and how to prepare capacity.

At the same time, the team wanted to improve the customer experience with a more flexible, convenient process aligned with their omnichannel strategy.

Solution

Hunkemöller deployed nShift Returns across six European markets, with plans to expand to the rest of its global footprint. This enabled the retailer to digitise the entire reverse journey, giving customers more choice and delivering richer intelligence to internal teams.

The digital setup eliminated printed labels, provided real-time status sharing across teams and created a more consistent, guided experience for customers returning items through any channel.

Results

Since going live, Hunkemöller has seen a 15% shift from return-to-warehouse to in-store returns. This creates more opportunities for assisted customer service, remarketing and repurchase, strengthening the relationship with shoppers and reducing unnecessary transport.

Warehouse teams now have visibility of expected volumes days in advance, supported by real-time dashboards showing all returns in progress. The move to a paperless process has also contributed to Hunkemöller’s sustainability goals by reducing printed materials at scale.

The improvements span multiple parts of the business: customer experience, operational efficiency, inventory management and environmental impact, all enabled by the shift to a digital returns model.