Return experience flow
A Seamless, Branded Solution
This project focused on redesigning the return experience for merchants using Swap Commerce. Many brands struggled with a return process that felt disconnected from their website, leading to customer confusion and increased support requests.
Our solution? A fully customizable return portal that allows brands to design their own return experience with an intuitive, real-time editor. This ensures a seamless transition from purchase to return while maintaining brand identity.
TL;DR
This project is the core product of the return experience at Swap Commerce, a B2B product designed to enhance the B2C return process. The goal was to empower merchants to create a seamless, branded return portal that mirrors their brand identity while reducing operational complexity.
Goal
The objective of this project was to provide merchants with the ability to design their own return portal, ensuring it aligns with their brand identity while offering a frictionless experience for customers.
Role
Product Designer (Research, UX/UI design, interaction, prototyping, and handoff) in collaboration with the VP of Product, Product Manager, Engineers, and Co-Founders.
Swap Commerce
Year
2024
E-commerce
$40 Million (2025)
100+
Context
The Canvas Design Return Experience is a platform that enables merchants to customize their customers’ return and exchange journey. Many brands lack in-house designers, yet they deeply care about maintaining brand consistency across all customer touchpoints.
This project aimed to:
* Provide an intuitive, no-code tool for merchants to design their return experience.
* Enable seamless brand integration to increase buyer trust.
* Help merchants transition from V1 (a rigid platform) to V2 (a flexible, customizable experience).
By introducing this solution, we not only improved the return experience but also empowered the sales team to promote V2 more effectively.
The Problem
Brands pour their hearts into crafting a flawless shopping experience—so why should returns feel any different?
For them, it’s not just about logistics; it’s about maintaining trust, identity, and control. A frustrating return process can break the customer relationship they worked so hard to build.
The key pain points:
💔 Customer Experience: A clunky return flow makes customers second-guess their next purchase.
🎨 Brand Identity: Merchants want full creative control over how their return portal looks and feels.
📦 Logistics Complexity: Handling returns in-house is costly, time-consuming, and inefficient.
🚪 Third-Party Disconnect: If the return process feels like an external service, trust plummets.
🔄 Adoption Barrier: Even a great solution won’t work if switching over feels overwhelming.
At its core, this project wasn’t just about returns—it was about protecting the brand experience at every touchpoint while making life easier for merchants.
Research & Insights
Pain Points
Personas
Merchant
Name: Adam, brand owner
Age: 45 years old
Location: London, UK
Background: Passionate about fashion since childhood, understands technology but prefers others to handle it.
Goal: Build strong relationships with customers by offering a seamless return & exchange experience while maintaining his brand’s unique identity.
Quote: “We worked hard to establish our brand. Our customers recognize our style, and we want the return portal to reflect that.”
Graphic
designer
Name: Lisa
Age: 24 years old
Location: London, UK
Background: Passionate about fashion and branding, responsible for maintaining brand identity across all digital touchpoints.
Pain Points: Limited flexibility in customizing the return portal to match the brand’s design.
Goal: Ensure the return portal maintains the brand’s aesthetic and consistency.
Quote: “Keeping the brand’s language consistent across all platforms is crucial to our success.”
Customer
support
Name: Sarah Thompson
Age: 32
Location: London, UK
Specialist at a mid-sized fashion brand
Background: Sarah has been working in customer support for six years, with experience in both retail and e-commerce. She enjoys problem-solving and ensuring customers have a smooth experience.
Pain Points:
Customer support teams face a high volume of return-related inquiries due to inconsistent branding, unclear steps, and lack of visibility into return statuses. Customers often get confused, thinking they’ve left the brand’s ecosystem, leading to unnecessary support requests. Without a streamlined system, agents rely on manual workarounds to answer repetitive questions, adding to their workload. Frequent system updates also require ongoing training, making onboarding new team members time-consuming and inefficient
Quote:
"One of the biggest frustrations for customers is when the return portal looks completely different from the main site. They get confused, worry it's the wrong place, and reach out to us for confirmation. If the portal truly felt like an extension of the brand, we'd see fewer questions and a smoother experience for everyone."
