How Honeylove Saves Millions In Refunds and Reduces Tickets By 20%
Key Insights
Honeylove, a high-growth intimates brand, was processing tens of thousands of returns per month during peak while seeing too many customers default to refunds. Despite a highly sophisticated front-end sizing experience, their returns flow lacked personalization, driving unnecessary refunds, customer confusion, and increased CX volume.
Frate’s exchange-first returns platform brought Honeylove’s sizing intelligence into the returns experience. With a customizable exchange UI, in-flow product and size recommendations, and frictionless exchanges, Honeylove reduced refund rates by several percentage points immediately and cut return-related support tickets by 20%; retaining more revenue while scaling returns without added CX overhead.
Table of Contents
About Honeylove
Honeylove is a category-defining intimates brand known for high-performance shapewear designed to fit real bodies. With a focus on comfort, support, and precision sizing, Honeylove has built a loyal customer base by investing heavily in product design and a sophisticated front-end shopping experience.
Honeylove is especially known as an innovative apparel brand, and is one of the only ones of its kind to participate in Y Combinator, the world-renowned Silicon Valley accelerator.
As order volumes scaled, so did returns. During peak periods, Honeylove processes tens of thousands of returns per month, and that volume continues to grow year over year.
Their challenge wasn’t demand. It was ensuring the returns experience matched the intelligence and care built into the buying experience.
The Challenge: High Refunds and Clunky UI
Honeylove had invested deeply in helping customers choose the right product upfront. Their site factors in detailed inputs like cup size and band size to recommend the best fit.
But once customers entered the returns flow, that intelligence disappeared.
The CX team noticed a growing disconnect:
- The front-end sizing experience was highly personalized.
- The returns experience was static and rigid.
- Customers defaulted to refunds even when a better-fitting exchange existed.
"We were able to deliver a really sophisticated sizing experience on the front end [of our website], but the returns experience wasn’t matching that. Customers were defaulting to refunds when there was often a better solution available."
Trevor Humphrey, VP of CXSo, Honeylove needed a returns partner that could:
- Match the sophistication of their front-end experience
- Make exchanges intuitive and frictionless
- Reduce refunds without adding CX overhead
- Scale through peak volumes without breaking
They found that partner in Frate.
Why Honeylove Chose Frate
From the first interaction, the Honeylove team saw Frate as more than a software vendor.
What stood out immediately was the partnership mentality.
"There’s a certain level of competency and real partnership that was obvious from the first interaction and has proven itself tenfold since then."
Trevor Humphrey, VP of CXRather than forcing Honeylove into a rigid workflow, Frate offered:
- A customizable exchange UI
- Intelligent product recommendations inside the return flow
- The ability for customers to adjust cup and band size directly within the exchange experience
For a fit-sensitive category like intimates, this was critical.
Frate allowed Honeylove to carry their sizing logic and merchandising strategy all the way through the return, instead of losing the customer at the moment of friction.
Solution: Custom Exchange-First UI
With Frate, Honeylove redesigned their returns experience around one core belief: most refunds are really failed exchanges.
Instead of forcing customers into a generic return flow, Frate partnered closely with the Honeylove team to rebuild the experience from the ground up. Over several weeks, Honeylove shared detailed returns and exchanges data, sizing behavior, and customer pain points. Together, the teams designed a returns journey that directly addressed why customers were coming back in the first place.
The result was a custom-built exchange experience that now serves as the foundation for how many Frate merchants approach exchanges today.
Key capabilities included:
- Exchange-forward UI that guides customers toward better-fit alternatives before presenting a refund, reducing default refund behavior without adding friction.
- Product and size recommendations based on real return reasons, allowing customers to correct cup and band sizing issues directly inside the exchange experience.
- Embedded size charts to increase the chances this is the customers last exchange.
- A simplified, clearer return flow that reduced customer confusion and eliminated unnecessary CX tickets.
Rather than feeling like the end of the customer journey, returns became a natural extension of the shopping experience. Customers could quickly find the right fit, stay within the Honeylove ecosystem, and move forward with confidence, while Honeylove retained revenue and scaled returns without increasing operational load.
"The way Frate approaches the exchange UI—making it easy to move customers into an exchange with product recommendations right there in the experience—has been a huge unlock for us."
Trevor Humphrey, VP of CXImpact: Fewer Refunds, Fewer Tickets
The impact was immediate.
As soon as Honeylove launched Frate, they saw measurable improvements across both financial and CX metrics.
- Refund rate dropped by several percentage points almost immediately
- 20% reduction in customer support tickets related to return confusion
- More customers finding the right solution without contacting support
- Faster exchanges and higher retained revenue during peak periods
"Immediately once we spun this up, we saw an improvement in the refund rate. It’s easier for customers to exchange more quickly, and that has a very real financial impact on our bottom line"
Trevor Humphrey, VP of CXJust as importantly, Frate reduced the operational burden on Honeylove’s CX team by eliminating confusion inside the returns experience. By making exchanges clearer and easier to complete, customers were able to self-serve solutions that previously required support intervention.
As a result, Honeylove saw a 20% reduction in customer support tickets related to returns, freeing the CX team to focus on higher-impact conversations instead of clarifying return steps or sizing options.
"We’ve seen about a 20% reduction in cases involving customer confusion around the returns experience since launching Frate. Making the right solution easier to find has had a huge impact on our support volume."
Trevor Humphrey, VP of CXA True Extension of the Honeylove Team
Beyond the product, Honeylove emphasized the working relationship.
Partnering with Frate felt less like onboarding a vendor and more like adding teammates.
"Working with Frate feels like an extension of our own team. Working with their engineers feels like working with our own engineers. We’re working toward a common goal."
Trevor Humphrey, VP of CXFor brands where fit, personalization, and scale matter, Honeylove’s experience shows what’s possible when returns are treated as a strategic lever instead of a cost center.
"If I were talking to a similar brand thinking about switching to Frate, I’d say do it. You will see your refund rate go down, without fail. And you’re going to love working with the team."
Trevor Humphrey, VP of CXTired of a clunky returns process and revenue lost due to returns?
Frate's fully automated, intelligent returns portal cuts refunds and streamlines your returns process. Talk to us today to see how it works.
