Industry: Retail & Consumer Packaged Goods | Services: Digital Operations
Client Overview
A global leader in e-commerce and retail technology, serving millions of customers worldwide across a vast product portfolio. Despite scale and infrastructure strength, the client faced persistent challenges with returns, customer support resolution, and support overhead.
The Challenge
Generic Content and Disconnected Resources Fueling Returns and Support Inefficiency
Although the client had robust reach, its support content was overly generic and not aligned to specific product variants or use cases. Customers often couldn’t find precise guidance, leading to frustration, repeat support requests, and high product return rates. Support agents had to navigate multiple disparate resources, slowing resolution and increasing cost.
Sutherland Solution
Research-driven, Modular Content Architecture Across Channels
Sutherland designed a content-enablement strategy centered on modular, product-specific knowledge. Using analytics and support data, we pinpointed high-return product categories and prioritized content creation there. We adopted DITA / XML authoring for scalability and consistency, built omnichannel delivery (phone, chatbot, social, voice assistants), and trained a dedicated content team to produce setup guides, troubleshooting modules, FAQs and policy content. The content was structured for “First Time Right” use, facilitating faster, correct resolutions on the first contact.
The Outcome
Substantial Return Reduction, Cost Recovery, and CX Uplift
By implementing the revamped content strategy to drive measurable business outcomes, the client saved over $300 million annually. The client was able to achieve these savings by reducing product returns, shortening handling times, and improving first-contact resolution rates. The optimized content for high-return categories minimized unnecessary returns and supported increased revenues. Additionally, the content lifecycle became scalable and consistent across channels — amplifying its value and enabling more efficient, higher-quality support throughout.
KEY OUTCOMES
in annual cost savings by reducing product returns
