Reduces Carbon Footprint, Improves Returns Management and Saves Money.
The Challenge
When you are one of the UK’s fastest-growing multi-channel retail companies you need a robust solution to manage your returns.
In a retail sector that historically has a problem with returned stock, they had been scrapping products at a huge cost. HSTV needed to find a better way to refurbish goods, introduce them to a secondary market, and reduce the number of products that were ending up in landfill.
HSTV has made huge strides over the past few years to lower their carbon footprint and finding a sustainable solution for returns was the missing piece of their efforts.
“We’ve been making huge steps as a business to be more environmentally friendly. We measure our carbon footprint closely and make every effort to reduce it where possible.” Jim Coleman, CEO at HSTV told us. “We’ve introduced recyclable bags, become part of a WEEE care scheme, optimised our warehouse space to reduce waste and moved to ESG packaging in an effort to create less waste and play a positive role in the circular economy.”
For most retail brands returns management is an afterthought but Jim and the team wanted to take a more proactive approach and find a solution that would deliver an environmentally friendly end-to-end returns management for the business.
“Returns have always been an issue for us, mainly due to the nature of distance selling. You don’t really know what a product is like until you try it.” Jim explained. “Our industry generally has a high returns rate and low recovery rate.”
ClearCycle’s Returns Solutions came at the perfect moment.
After being introduced to ClearCycle’s Commercial Director Dan Hague, Jim felt it was the perfect opportunity to see how effective a partnership could be.
“It was perfect timing, as we were going through a large project at the time that focused on how best to deal with our returns,” explained Jim. “Returns has always been a huge problem and it was always an afterthought but it’s ClearCycle’s area of expertise. They have a process that can drive improvements with a different eye.”
Returns were once a cost to us, ClearCycle’s solution has saved us money and made a significant financial impact on our business. The in-depth reporting they deliver has allowed us to run the returns side of our business more efficiently and make key decisions that drive the business forwards, faster.
The Solution
Having met the ClearCycle team and taken a tour of their operations to gain a better understanding of the solution, HSTV decided to begin with an initial trial.
ClearCycle’s partnership approach meant that HSTV just had to provide the initial product data, the rest of the onboarding was taken care of.
From the very start, it was all hands-on deck with sales and operations working together to ensure whatever was promised got delivered. ClearCycle provided the product engineers, integrations and data insights that identified which products could be repaired, returned to good stock, or made fit for re-sale.
“ClearCycle uses expert engineers to recover products. They didn’t just provide a solution to clean them, their team were able to get them back to full working order and fit for re-sale.” Jim notes. “We recovered a lot of stock that otherwise would have ended up in landfill and resulted in an additional cost to us. Instead, they were able to sell it through their eCommerce platforms that they manage, on our behalf.”
ClearCycle’s end-to-end solution meant that HSTV had a 360-degree view of their returns and a transparent view of the true cost of returns through cost analysis reports. In-depth fault reports also meant that improvements could be made to the manufacturing process.
The solution also went much deeper than reports.
“ClearCycle took away the headache of returns, but we still felt in control. They gave us the data that ultimately allowed us to make key decisions to drive the business forward.” Jim told us.
60%
Average resale value of original RRP
33k
Items refurbished and resold
The Results
Jim explained, “rather than drowning in returns we had information that helped us to make key decisions and gave me the headspace to focus on other areas. We have also now introduced leading retailers such as Argos to ClearCycle as a returns management solution rather than coming directly to HSTV”
As well as overhauling their returns management efforts, ClearCycle has become a valuable partner for Jim and the wider HSTV team by playing a huge part in helping them to reduce their carbon footprint.
Jim concluded “I’m a huge fan of doing the right thing for the planet, but it also has to make financial sense for the business. Partnering with ClearCycle help us to do both – reducing the amount of product going to landfill and introducing more products to the secondary market. What has been most impressive is that ClearCycle has been able to deliver what was promised from the start. For someone like me who has a very fact-based role, being given the data and insights I need is very important. ClearCycle promised me that they would be able to provide an increased return on our investment and that’s what they have delivered…and then some.”
We‘ve seen a very significant reduction in the amount of product we are sending to landfill, this is now almost at zero and ClearCycle allows us to send more product to the secondary market
In addition to reducing the number of products heading to landfill, HSTV has been able to recover more products than ever before and send more of their products for resale on the secondary market.
As well as overhauling their returns management efforts, ClearCycle has become a valuable partner for Jim and the wider HSTV team by playing a huge part in helping them to reduce their carbon footprint.
Jim concluded “I’m a huge fan of doing the right thing for the planet, but it also has to make financial sense for the business. Partnering with ClearCycle help us to do both – reducing the amount of product going to landfill and introducing more products to the secondary market. What has been most impressive is that ClearCycle has been able to deliver what was promised from the start. For someone like me who has a very fact-based role, being given the data and insights I need is very important. ClearCycle promised me that they would be able to provide an increased return on our investment and that’s what they have delivered…and then some.”
Key Benefits
- HSTV have achieve 60% average resale value of original RRP
- ClearCycle have refurbished and resold 33,000 products
- HSTV have experienced a significant reduction in products going to landfill