Blacksmith Store is a London-based independent menswear retailer with a distinctive point of view: their own in-house label alongside a carefully curated selection of brands—Service Works, Power Goods, Champion USA, Pro Club, and more—all united by a commitment to quality, craft, and considered design. From premium blank tees to technical outerwear, Blacksmith serves a growing customer base across the UK and internationally, shipping worldwide across a broad currency footprint.
As a growing independent, every operational decision carries weight. The team is lean, the standards are high, and the previous returns setup was costing them both time and customer trust. Swap changed both.
The challenge
A returns nightmare, and a previous provider that wasn’t keeping up
Before Swap, Blacksmith Store was using another provider — one that had clearly reached the limits of what it could offer a growing business. Returns were the most acute pain point: filtering through them was described plainly as “a nightmare.” Keeping customers updated on their return status required constant manual effort, and the team was stretched thin managing queries that should have been handled automatically.
Beyond returns, the lack of a proper Shopify markets overview meant that strategic decisions — pricing adjustments, regional promotions, market-level changes — required more effort than they should. For a team focused on growth, being stuck in operational admin was a real cost.
- Manual, fragmented returns process: Filtering through returns and keeping customers updated was entirely manual—time-consuming, error-prone, and impossible to scale as order volumes grew.
- No proactive customer communication: Without automated status updates, customers had to chase the team for return information, increasing support ticket volume and reducing satisfaction.
- Limited Shopify market visibility: Managing multiple Shopify markets without a single clear view made it difficult to react quickly to opportunities or make strategic changes at pace.
- A previous provider past its best: The prior solution simply wasn’t built for where Blacksmith Store was heading—the team had outgrown it and needed something designed for a growing business.
“I can’t begin to explain how much easier things are since using Swap.”
Charlie Boileau
Blacksmith Store
The Solution
Instant workflow. Smarter markets. Returns that run themselves.
Swap became part of Blacksmith Store’s daily workflow almost immediately after going live. The transition was smooth enough that Charlie described it as instant — a tool that embedded itself naturally rather than requiring a period of adjustment.
Swap Returns automated the returns process end-to-end: customers receive clear, proactive communication at every stage, the team no longer needs to manually filter or chase, and the whole operation runs with far less friction. Alongside returns, Swap’s Shopify markets dashboard gave Blacksmith Store visibility and control across all their international markets in one place — making it easy to make changes, spot opportunities, and act on them quickly.
- Fully automated returns, from submission to resolution
Swap handles the entire returns flow automatically — processing, customer communication, and status updates — so the Blacksmith team spends their time on growth, not admin. - Proactive, automatic customer communication
Customers are kept informed throughout the returns process without any manual input from the team. The result: fewer support queries, faster resolutions, and a noticeably better post-purchase experience. - All Shopify markets at a glance
Swap’s Shopify markets overview gives the team a single dashboard across all international markets — enabling quick pricing changes, regional strategies, and real-time decision-making that simply wasn’t possible before. - Faster returns processing driving higher retained revenue
The speed at which returns are now processed has directly contributed to the 84% uplift in retained revenue — quicker resolutions mean more exchanges and store credit outcomes, and less revenue lost to refunds. - Customer support that genuinely partners with the team
Charlie highlighted Swap’s customer support as exceptional — a team that responds quickly, understands the operational context, and treats growing businesses as genuine partners rather than just accounts.
“The biggest impact has been from the quick processing of returns, but also having all of our Shopify markets at our fingertips for easy changes and strategies.”
Charlie Boileau
Blacksmith Store
The Results
A clear win
- 35% increase in average order value across the seven months since implementing Swap, a signal that customers are shopping with more confidence and buying more per visit.
- 52% boost in conversion rates, reflecting both improved customer experience at checkout and the team’s ability to make fast, data-led decisions across Shopify markets.
- 84% increase in retained revenue over the last six months—driven by faster processing, better exchange outcomes, and a returns journey that keeps customers in the ecosystem.
The headline trio—AOV, conversion, and retained revenue all moving sharply upward—tells the story of a business that has removed the operational friction holding it back. Higher AOV suggests customers are spending more confidently. The conversion uplift reflects both a better experience and sharper market strategy. And the 84% retained revenue growth is the direct commercial consequence of returns that work: faster, cleaner, and more likely to result in an exchange than a permanent refund.
For an independent retailer where every percentage point matters, these are not incremental gains. They reflect a structural shift in how the business operates — one that began the moment Swap became part of the daily workflow.
