We all came in with fresh eyes. In our first year, it was about setting the foundations. We wanted to improve our relationship with our customers and keep regaining that trust. After Black Friday 2022, we realised we could do more to simplify the experience for our customers.
Hera was founded in 2015, gaining early notoriety with celebrities wearing their signature lines, including Lewis Hamilton, Hailey Bieber, and Brooklyn Beckham, among others. Fast forward to October 2021, HERA Clothing was acquired, in total, by Paul Richardson, an established British businessman – enter Nicole Jackson, Head of Customer Support, for Hera. Nicole joined the team shortly after the acquisition, and from the day she started, Hera has strived to put the customers first.
It was a whole new team. We needed to regain our customers' trust, and everyone on the team helped get the customer journey to where it is now
There was a lot to do, and at first, that started with more listening than acting.
Enter Swap
We knew we wanted to switch from our provider at the time, so we had multiple meetings with different returns platforms. I initially had the meeting with Swap and loved how they were growing quickly, and I knew we could grow together. Then Holly (the CEO) got on board, and we both agreed that Swap was the way to go, and it's been great ever since.
Nearly a year into the relationship with Hera and Swap, the results have spoken for themselves.
One of the things we did when we first kind of went live with Swap is the integration with our 3PL. We know it was tough and made a huge difference for our small team. Processing returns at peak times takes a lot, so having that automated has saved us a ton of time. The team has been super involved in improving our business since day one.
To build on the partnership further, Hera and Swap collaborated to launch Hera’s re-ware program.
Secondhand clothing sales and purchases have grown exponentially over the last few years and are predicted to become even more prominent as the industry evolves. We wanted to play a meaningful role in that space in the best way possible, and Rewear is the start of the journey towards HERA becoming more circular.We wanted HERA Rewear to be an extension of our website. Rewear is handled and executed in the exact same way. All items are hand-reviewed, cleaned, and repaired by our in-house experts to prepare the product for resale. Swap turned around our trade-in returns portal in a very short deadline. I like how we’ve made the process smoother for our customers.
The life cycle of clothing continues, and it’s all resonating with consumers.
HERA Rewear offers our customers another option when buying our clothes. They might prefer the price point as it's more attainable, or they might be attracted to the fact that it is second-hand, which is a more sustainable option. Also, it allows our loyal customers to trade in old HERA products for points should they wish. They can collect these in our HERA Collective loyalty program and use them towards new drops. It becomes a complete 360-degree life cycle of the product.”
Now to recap: retained revenue ✅
customer service ✅
3PL integration ✅
Reuse program ✅
– all that under one login, one partner.
It’s all energizing, but we’re going to do more. That’s what really excites me, is that there’s more to come.
