Case Study: Brooks Running achieves an 80% decrease in return rate with Optimizely

Brooks Running sees 80% decrease in return rate

Brooks Running, a performance footwear retailer, faced high return rates from customers who bought multiple pairs of the same shoe in adjacent half sizes while trying to find the best fit. Using Optimizely's Web Experimentation, the team identified shoppers with two or more pairs in their cart a half size apart and targeted them with a pop-up offering live customer-service fitting help via call or chat.

That intervention cut return rates by nearly 80%, raised customer satisfaction (88% said they appreciated the offer) and nudged conversion up about 2%. Although average order value fell slightly, add-on purchases rose and five-minute customer-service interactions proved cheaper than the cost of processing returns, freeing up return budgets for other initiatives and keeping more product available for sale.

Brooks Running

David Kornfield

Marketing Manager