Boutique Rugs reduces annual shipping costs by $1.5m and earned $60k revenue in 3 months with Extend Product Protection and Shipping Protection

Protecting the post-purchase experience to increase loyalty and LTV

Over the past five years, BoutiqueRugs.com has enjoyed steady online growth. Today, they’re shifting their focus to increasing customer retention and lifetime value. They do this, in part, through a commitment to unparalleled customer service that drives satisfaction across the entire customer experience.

It’s not just about getting customers in and out the door — it’s about retaining customers and delivering an exceptional post-purchase experience that keeps them coming back, starting from the moment of checkout. 

“Shipping rugs is a challenge,” Ali explained. “They’re not in a box; they're rolled up in plastic wrap. They get damaged all the time. And that leads to overhead in the shipping department.” 

Boutique Rugs’ internal team estimates that about 5% of their shipments encounter issues, costing an estimated $3,000,000 annually. In fact, they have a whole team dedicated to negotiating with their major shipping carrier and submitting claims for disputed shipments. 

To enhance their end-to-end customer experience and help mitigate rising costs, Boutique Rugs integrated Product Protection and Shipping Protection with one simple integration from Extend. 

Extend Product Protection and Shipping Protection work together to increase profitability

“Extend Shipping Protection and Product Protection are a crucial part of our efforts to deliver a best-in-class digital experience that drives customer lifetime value and brand loyalty,” Ali said.

Shipping Protection ensures customers receive the product, so merchants can start the most important part of the customer relationship right — and reduce the cost of making it right when things go wrong. 

Then, Product Protection delivers added benefits as customers enjoy their products, and keeps customers in the merchant’s brand ecosystem, increasing both average order value and incremental revenue.

They work together to create a profitability engine that maximizes brands’ profit margins.

Product replacement costs reduced by 45%

The cost of acquisition is too high to lose a customer to a failed delivery. “We’ve seen increasing shipping issues over the past few years, and being able to offer our customers the opportunity to protect their purchase while enroute to their homes is a tremendous value add,” said Ali. 

With a 45% attach rate, Boutique Rugs is offsetting the risk and cost associated with nearly half of their shipping losses, resulting in $1.5 million saved. That includes diverting more than 100 claims from Boutique Rugs’ customer service team to Extend in just the first three months. In the case of covered shipping mishaps, where before Boutique Rugs would have absorbed the cost of replacement products, instead they are recognizing a net-new sale to their bottom line.

“With Extend Shipping Protection, our customers are protected, and we save millions of dollars in product replacement costs,” said Ali.

Reclaimed time among customer service and negotiation teams is reinvested in the business

‍The self-service nature of Kaley, Extend’s 24/7 virtual assistant, means that Boutique Rugs’ customer service team has to field much fewer shipping-related claims. This keeps their focus on resolving other customer issues efficiently. This also takes some of the pressure off of the shipping carrier negotiations team, as the shipping insurance claims they’re fighting for will have been reduced by almost half.

“Our customer support team is happier than ever,” said Ali, in part because they’re spending less time managing failed deliveries. Saved customer support time gets reinvested into the business in other areas.

Industry-leading product protection and shipping protection, delivered in one simple integration

“We want to offer peace of mind at every step our customers take with us,” Ali said. 

Prior to partnering with Extend, Boutique Rugs used a competitor’s solution for product protection and handled shipping issues in-house. Today, their team manages both through one simple app and a hands-on partnership with Extend.

Shipping Protection and Product Protection complement each other, said Ali, “allowing us to further drive incremental profit and defray costs.”