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How a 2 year old apparel brand reduced returns by 67%
Industry:
Apparel
Products Live:
Cart
Checkout
Features:
No items found.
+10%
AOV
~28%
Repeat purchase rate
Meet the brand
Past Modern is a contemporary fashion label founded in 2024 by Shivang Chandna. Built around the idea of bringing India's rich cultural heritage into modern fashion, the brand creates globally relevant apparel with distinctly Indian influences. The majority of its customer base falls between 20 and 36 years old, representing a generation increasingly proud of embracing Indian identity through fashion.
Meet the brand
Past Modern is a contemporary fashion label founded in 2024 by Shivang Chandna. Built around the idea of bringing India's rich cultural heritage into modern fashion, the brand creates globally relevant apparel with distinctly Indian influences. The majority of its customer base falls between 20 and 36 years old, representing a generation increasingly proud of embracing Indian identity through fashion.
Challenge
Past Modern experienced strong early traction after launch, but the team identified checkout as one of the biggest friction points in the customer journey.
The challenges included:
- Discounts and coupon offers were not clearly visible during checkout.
- Upselling opportunities were limited.
- Checkout flows felt less seamless than desired.
- The team struggled to identify fraudulent orders and problematic pin codes.
- RTOs were significantly impacting operations and profitability.
As a young brand growing quickly, the team needed more control over how customers moved through checkout and where revenue leakages were occurring.
We felt that's one of the last milestones where we were losing customers.
Evaluation Criteria
Past Modern was introduced to Shopflo through a recommendation from a fellow founder. However, the decision to stay with Shopflo was driven by much more than a referral.
For Shivang, customer support became one of the most important evaluation criteria.
The team wanted a partner that would:
- Respond quickly during critical business situations.
- Be available outside regular working hours.
- Continuously improve the product.
- Actively listen to merchant feedback.
- Support the business as it scaled.
The day your checkout breaks is the day you discover whether you bought a product or a partner. Features can be copied. Pricing can be matched.Responsive support and genuine ownership are much harder to replicate.We've always felt Shopflo behaves like a partner.
~ Shivang Chandna, Founder, Past Modern
Solution & Strategies
1. Building bigger baskets without becoming a discount brand
Like many fashion brands, Past Modern started with a standard first-purchase discount.
But as the brand grew, Shivang wanted to move beyond blanket discounting.The goal wasn't simply to offer customers a lower price.
The goal was to encourage larger purchases while preserving the brand's premium positioning.
Using Shopflo's strong discount engine, the team built a layered incentive strategy.
Instead of giving every customer the same offer, they created multiple reasons to increase cart value:
- Free gifts for first-time buyers
- Tiered discounts that unlocked higher savings at higher order values
- Milestone-based rewards
- Cart incentives designed to encourage customers to add one more product
This changed the role of discounts inside the business.
Rather than functioning as a conversion lever alone, discounts became a basket-building tool.
Customers were encouraged to unlock better value by increasing their order size, while the brand maintained control over how much margin it was willing to give away.
It's really allowed us to be creative without discounting too much. The milestones, freebies and tiered offers give us flexibility to increase AOV whilestill controlling how we want to reward customers.
~ Shivang Chandna, Founder, Past Modern
2. Checkout surveys to improve conversion
Shopflo's exit surveys were used to understand why customers were abandoning checkout.
While pricing appeared as a common reason, the most actionable insight came from delivery expectations.
The survey revealed that many customers felt delivery timelines were slower than expected. Using this insight, the team launched an express shipping option that offered faster delivery for an additional fee.
The result was a measurable improvement in conversion.
That increased our conversion rate. And that was only possible because we had the survey in place to give us the exact reasons why we are seeing customers fall off.
~ Shivang Chandna, Founder, Past Modern
3. Moving to a Prepaid-First Model with Split COD
Past Modern realized that a significant portion of its returns were being driven by COD-related RTOs.
While fraudulent orders were one part of the problem, Shivang observed that many customers simply refused deliveries when orders arrived later than expected.
To improve order quality, the team made a strategic decision to move away from traditional COD and adopt a prepaid-first model supported by Shopflo's Split COD feature.
Today, customers choosing COD pay a nominal upfront fee, creating greater purchase intent while still preserving payment flexibility.
The impact was immediate.
Past Modern's return rate dropped from approximately 18% to just 6%, a figure Shivang believes is exceptionally rare in the apparel category.
We currently operate at a return rate of about 6%. Before that, we were at about 18%, which was predominantly made up of RTO orders.
~ Shivang Chandna, Founder, Past Modern
Impact
In less than two years of operation, Past Modern has built a checkout experience focused on higher-quality orders, better customer understanding, and stronger profitability
Bottom Line
For Shivang, the biggest differentiator wasn't a feature, it was what happened when something went wrong.
During Past Modern's first-ever sale for existing customers, an unexpected discount configuration issue impacted the checkout experience. Customer complaints started coming in late in the evening. By 9:30 PM, Shivang was on the phone with Shristi from the Shopflo team. By 10 PM, the issue had been identified, resolved, and the campaign was back on track.
For Shivang, moments like these are what define a technology partner.
We've been approached by almost every checkout provider in the market, butwe've never seriously considered moving away from Shopflo. The product hashelped us build a prepaid-first checkout experience, reduce returns from 18%to 6%, and experiment with more thoughtful ways of increasing AOV withoutrelying heavily on discounts. But what really stands out is the team behind it.
Every founder eventually faces a moment when something breaks andrevenue is on the line. That's when you discover whether you've bought aproduct or found a partner. Every time we've needed support, the Shopfloteam has shown up with urgency, ownership, and a genuine commitment tohelping us succeed.
Curious how this could work for you?
Let’s make it real. Book a call with our team, and we’ll show you exactly how Shopflo can drive real impact for your brand.
