How nordesign Automates Returns Management with toern in the Home & Lifestyle Segment

Founded in 2021 by siblings Tessa and Ferdinand Schulz, the Tübingen-based label nordesign operates under a clear mission: "We make things you need into things you love." With a focus on Scandinavian minimalism, the brand offers a premium product portfolio ranging from sustainable soaps and cleaning agents to sophisticated storage systems for the kitchen and bathroom, as well as select furniture pieces.

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The Challenge: Manual processes as a growth brake despite low return rates in the home & living sector

Unlike fashion labels that grapple with high return volumes, nordesign operates in the home and living sector, where return rates are naturally lower. When returns do occur, they are typically due to an item not quite fitting a customer’s aesthetic or personal preference.

Despite this moderate volume, returns management became a significant administrative burden prior to the partnership with toern. Although the company was already using a third-party provider, the process remained only partially automated. While customers could register their returns online, refunds still had to be triggered manually. This manual overhead, combined with the need for individual customer communication for every return, created a critical bottleneck that tied up valuable resources within the customer support team.

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Automation with toern: 30 hours of monthly time savings and strategic data insights for nordesign

To overcome these operational hurdles, nordesign implemented toern’s returns solution, which guarantees maximum efficiency even for brands with moderate return volumes. The core objective was the complete automation of the refund process, which is now handled directly by the system without manual intervention.

Intelligent case management ensures smooth operations: if toern identifies a discrepancy based on specific return reasons or fulfillment feedback, a clarification case is opened automatically. This allows the support team to focus exclusively on exceptions while the standard process runs seamlessly in the background. By implementing these efficient workflows, nordesign saves up to 30 hours of manual processing every month.

Beyond mere processing, nordesign utilizes the toern dashboard as a strategic asset. The feedback collected directly within the portal serves as a vital database, allowing the team to optimize existing products and integrate these insights directly into the planning of new collections. In this way, nordesign has transformed returns management from a purely administrative task into a scalable advantage for both service and product development.

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The Result: Higher customer loyalty and efficient scaling thanks to the toern returns platform

By making the switch to automation, nordesign has successfully turned returns management from an operational burden into a strategic strength. Fully digital processing ensures that overhead remains low, while customer satisfaction has noticeably increased thanks to faster refunds and proactive solutions for damaged goods.

It is a well-known industry standard that approximately 80% of customers will not return to a brand after a poor returns experience. In the interior design sector, damaged products can be particularly detrimental to the customer journey. Through toern, nordesign transforms this risk into an opportunity: proactive management and rapid resolutions in clarification cases sustainably strengthen customer trust and brand loyalty.

Today, nordesign benefits from a lean organizational structure that supports brand growth without requiring additional support capacity. This partnership proves that an intelligent returns portal from toern serves as an engine for profitable growth and a superior customer experience, far beyond the world of fashion.

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