How SHEIKE Boosted Repurchase Rates by 80% After Going Live With Refundid

Discover how this leading women’s occasionwear brand elevates its customer experience and repurchase rates with instant, hassle-free refunds and exchanges.

“Migrating to Refundid was a great decision for our business. Now, our customers receive instant refunds, the care team spends less time on manual processing, and repurchase rates have increased.”

Mel Grafton, Head of Digital and CRM at SHEIKE

SHEIKE is an Australian women’s occasionwear brand founded to shape the big and small moments in their customers’ lives through timeless designs and beautiful details. From humble beginnings at Sydney Markets in 1979, SHEIKE boasts over 50 stores nationwide and a thriving online presence.

As Head of Digital and CRM at SHEIKE, Mel Grafton is responsible for protecting the brand’s nearly 50-year reputation for delivering exceptional customer experiences. Her goal is to ensure every aspect of the digital journey feels just as seamless as its in-store counterpart — especially when it comes to customer returns.

The problem? While SHEIKE had several teams responsible for processing online returns, its legacy returns platform left crucial gaps. The platform enabled customers to lodge and track returns online, but resolving them was a fragmented and time-intensive process. Every return had to be manually inspected by SHEIKE’s warehouse team before the customer care team (that Mel oversees) could issue the refund. And with many returns in the queue at once, the wait for customers could take upwards of two weeks. Even though Mel’s team always turned around fast responses to the inevitable flood of ‘where’s my refund?’ inquiries, delays still threatened customer satisfaction.

“Many people buy SHEIKE fashion for special events like weddings,” Mel explains. “If we can’t get customers their money back in time to purchase replacements, we lose their trust.”

Mel also worried that these delays posed more serious revenue implications. She knew that, if a customer couldn’t receive a timely refund, they’d be less likely to make another purchase, especially since her team’s existing returns platform didn’t support direct exchanges.

As refund turnaround times jeopardised retention and overwhelmed SHEIKE’s internal bandwidth, Mel realised it was time to upgrade to a new returns management platform that would:

• Offer instant refunds and easy exchanges to online customers
• Help her internal teams reclaim bandwidth for other initiatives
• Integrate effortlessly into SHEIKE’s major ecommerce systems

Luckily, she didn’t have to search for long. Having already used Refundid to solve this challenge in a previous role, Mel knew the returns management platform would be the ideal fit.

“If you want to turn refunds into repurchases, you need to process them as quickly as possible. When our existing operations didn’t support that, we knew it was time to look at alternates.”

Mel Grafton, Head of Digital and CRM at SHEIKE

To Mel’s delight, migrating to Refundid took only 4 weeks. During this phase, Refundid did most of the heavy lifting, integrating with Shopify Plus, Gorgias, and Klaviyo. The team also developed a rich, custom integration with SHEIKE’s OMS to automate the full returns processing lifecycle. And they pulled it all off without any downtime or data loss, so no customer inquiries or returns were lost in the transition.

“Switching was incredibly quick and painless,” Mel shares. “It required almost no input from our team and never got in the way of daily operations.”

Mel Grafton, Head of Digital and CRM at SHEIKE

Today, issuing refunds takes SHEIKE a fraction of the time it did with the previous platform. In the new, streamlined workflow, shoppers quickly choose between a standard refund, an instant exchange, and an instant refund, receiving payouts for the latter in minutes. Behind the scenes, Refundid automatically enforces SHEIKE’s return policies, syncs orders and inventory in Shopify, and gives the warehouse team a fast, scanner-based way to process incoming returns.

Crucially, Refundid assumes 100% of the financial risk associated with instant refunds, so SHEIKE can provide the service without worrying about fraud or loss.

That said, the biggest transformation has been for the customers themselves. A large proportion of them are selecting instant refunds, and many are even choosing to meet their replacement needs with the new exchange capability. “Refundid’s exchanges have opened up such an easy way for us to build customer trust and keep more money in the business,” Mel shares.

If Refundid’s merchant dashboard is any indication, customers are exchanging or repurchasing at an impressive rate. In addition to tracking all returns lodged and the reasons behind them, Mel can use the dashboard to measure the hard value of instant refunds. She can see precisely how much faster and more frequently customers come back, what they spend when they do, and all the revenue the brand is retaining as a result — then use that intel to make the post-purchase experience even better.

For a customer-first business like SHEIKE, partnering with Refundid was the ultimate loyalty unlock.

“Refundid doesn’t just incentivise customers to buy again; it shows us when and how often they’re repurchasing. With these insights, we’re able to tailor the customer journey to retain more revenue.”

Mel Grafton, Head of Digital and CRM at SHEIKE

With Refundid, SHEIKE transformed returns management from a hindrance to its competitive advantage, boosting customer satisfaction and retention.

The results since migrating to Refundid?

• 80% higher repurchase rates with Refundid vs standard refunds
• 6% increase in repurchase AOV with Refundid vs standard refunds
• 4 weeks to full migration from Loop with custom ERP integration

Returns will exist as long as customers shop online, and Mel’s relieved to have found a partner who can help her team streamline one of the most friction-heavy steps of the digital journey.

“As a family-owned brand, we pride ourselves on being able to give customers a premium experience. Refundid helps make that possible. It’s truly a standout partnership.”

Mel Grafton, Head of Digital and CRM at SHEIKE