Gym King

How Gym King’s returns experience has taken shape with ZigZag

Selecting the perfect returns partner

“We explored several different returns solutions, but ZigZag stood out as a UK-based provider with a strong domestic network. We were also impressed by the range of options ZigZag offered, such as Refund to Gift Card, which felt far more compelling than some of the alternatives presented by other providers.

“Both myself and our Operations Manager, felt the level of service we would receive from ZigZag would be far superior and much more personal than the other providers we considered. As a fast-growing business, you inevitably must be reactive at times, so it was important to have a returns partner that was always accessible – whether by phone call or WhatsApp message – whenever we needed support. That personal service was a key factor in choosing ZigZag.

“I think another major advantage of partnering with ZigZag was the flexibility to either use their carrier network rates or our own.”
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Responsive Account Management

At ZigZag, account management is central to the customer experience – not simply an add-on service. From the moment you partner with us, our focus is on supporting your business and continually earning your trust.

We take pride in being available to provide proactive guidance and hands-on support to our world-leading enterprise clients as well as our ambitious growing brands. Gym King has seen real fast growth, so it needs to be able to lean on specialist partners like ZigZag to help sustain that growth and plug knowledge gaps.

“We have never had any issues getting hold of anybody from ZigZag. If we have a problem, it's usually resolved very quickly. Whenever I need anything, Stacey is always very responsive, as was Hannah in the early days. We’ve had a strong, collaborative, and responsive relationship with ZigZag from the very beginning.”

Maintaining a great customer experience during a warehouse move

As Gym King continued to grow in popularity and expand its product range, the business quickly recognised the need for a larger facility capable of supporting its new scale of operations. Moving to a new warehouse is not without its complications, and disruption to business processes is inevitable.

But Gym King wanted to minimise the disruption felt by customers. That meant adapting its refund processes to keep customers satisfied and shopping with confidence, rather than overwhelming customer service teams with complaints about delayed refunds.

“ZigZag helped us minimise the impact of the warehouse transition on our customers. Historically, we had always refunded at the quality check stage to help combat fraudulent returns, but during the move we needed to rethink that process.

“During this transition we enabled auto-refunds to ensure loyal customers weren’t left waiting because of any complications during the warehouse transition.

“We now get virtually no complaints around refund times.”

Reducing costs and return rates

Returns portals help remove friction from the customer experience, ensuring shoppers aren’t left frustrated by a poor returns process and tempted to turn to competitors instead. However, the process also needs the right balance – it shouldn’t be so effortless that returns become a free-for-all. By using a returns portal to capture customer information, retailers introduce an added layer of accountability that encourages customers to think more carefully about both fraudulent activity and unnecessary returns in general.

“Working with ZigZag has definitely helped keep our return rates under control. Just by asking for more information through the portal, it reduces the number of returns coming back. Customers have to log returns against their order and provide their details. It encourages people to think twice about making a return and act more honestly.

“As a result, we’ve reduced costs both by identifying and preventing fraudulent returns and by benefiting from some of ZigZag’s highly competitive carrier rates.”

A returns portal you can trust

Our returns portal has received industry recognition every year since ZigZag was founded, and we take great pride in the platform’s functionality, reliability, and user experience. The last thing any retailer wants during peak season is a returns platform that fails under pressure.

While no technology platform can ever be completely immune to occasional issues, any rare problems are proactively managed by our Account Management and IT teams, who work quickly to resolve them and keep operations running smoothly.

“We don’t typically receive complaints about the returns portal. It’s an intuitive, streamlined platform that is exceptionally easy for the vast majority of our customers to use, while also capturing all the information our warehouse and quality control teams need to process returns as efficiently and seamlessly as possible.

“Genuine issues are extremely rare. The portal is very reliable and ZigZag often notifies us of problems with a particular carrier label before we notice it ourselves. So, by the time the customer emails us, we already know there’s a minor issue that just needs a couple of hours to be resolved.

“We also no longer include any paper returns documentation in the box, which brings an added sustainability benefit.”

A smooth implementation process

“It was exceptionally straightforward. Once we'd mapped out everything we needed and obviously utilised the advice from Hannah, Stacey, and the rest of the ZigZag Team, we were set and ready to go. We had no issues at all. It just switched on and worked out-of-the-box.”

Charging for returns with ZigZag’s payment gateway

“We’ve always charged for returns. As a newer, growing business, it’s difficult to justify offering free returns – we simply haven’t been in a position to absorb those costs. It was vital to be able to charge for returns seamlessly and transparently during the returns process, and ZigZag’s payment gateway does just that.”

Smarter insights with ZigZag’s Returns Reporting Hub

“We use the reporting functionality regularly. We use it every month to provide the business with a return report that provides context on why and how frequently items are being returned across our product categories. It’s valuable data that the wider Gym King team really appreciates.”