How Buckle Me Baby Coats Reduced 95% of Returns
Using a size finder quiz, this Shark Tank brand helped customers purchase the right apparel and avoided 23.4K coat returns in one year—reinvesting every dollar saved back into the business.
About Buckle Me Baby Coats
Buckle Me Baby Coats invented children's coats designed for car seat safety. Afraid of the dangers that regular children winter coats create in a car crash, founder Dahlia Rizk set out to create an easier, safer alternative.
If you are a true fan of Shark Tank, Dahlia's story should sound familiar. She secured a deal with Daymond John during episode seven of season 12, and set her sights on conquering her next major challenge: reducing exchanges.
Company Info
The Challenge
After her big Shark Tank win, Dahlia's next step for Buckle Me Baby Coats was clear: reduce exchanges. At the time she discovered Octane AI, she had a few challenges—including the seasonality of her winter coats business—but the biggest issue was her exceptionally high exchange rates. Before Octane AI, the brand was processing approximately 20 returns and exchanges per day.
The Solution
Buckle Me Baby Coats' quiz helps customers match the exact size and level of warmth that they need for their children. Instead of a static size chart that site visitors tend to overlook during the shopping process, now Buckle Me Baby Coats has an interactive quiz that teaches shoppers how to select the right size.
Standardizing Sizes Across Lines
The first challenge—inconsistency in sizes between coat lines—was fixed by standardizing sizes. Dahlia told us: "I don't know that I would have thought of making the sizes consistent between lines if we didn't have the quiz." During the quiz building process, Dahlia realized it would be much easier to make all coats consistent across styles and body size.
Interactive Size Education
With sizing standardized, the next step was addressing size education. The quiz gives customers an interactive tool to help them understand what size they need—instead of hoping they'll read a static size chart, the quiz actively guides them to the right choice.
Child-Specific Questions
The quiz asks about the child's age, height, weight, and typical clothing size to determine the perfect coat fit.
Warmth Level Matching
Questions about climate and usage help match customers to the right level of warmth for their needs.
Visual Size Guides
Interactive visuals help parents understand sizing better than traditional text-based size charts.
Personalized Recommendations
Each customer receives a tailored recommendation based on their specific answers, not generic suggestions.
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The Full Story
The Safety Story Behind the Brand
The American Academy of Pediatrics and the NHTSA both recommend taking traditional coats off in the car seat. The coat is going to add padding underneath the harness which creates space, and that space is dangerous for a child.
“In a crash it can lead to critical brain, neck and spine injuries. But most busy parents find it really hard to take the coat off every trip, so I designed a coat that can stay on safely and be used with the harness correctly all in one easy step.”
–Dahlia Rizk, Founder, Buckle Me Baby Coats
The Exchange Problem
While the product solved a critical safety problem, Dahlia faced a different kind of challenge running her ecommerce business: an exceptionally high return and exchange rate.
“My return and exchange rate was out of this world—just very, very high at the time I approached Octane AI. I knew there were several problems contributing to that. The first one ties into how many times we redid the coat sizes and the inconsistency between all the different lines of coats. I'm not a designer, I don't have a production background. So these are things I learned along the way that influenced my return rate. The second was that people didn't really read the size charts I had on the site.”
–Dahlia Rizk, Founder, Buckle Me Baby Coats
From 20 Per Day to 20 Per Week
The transformation was dramatic. Before implementing the Octane AI quiz, Buckle Me Baby Coats was dealing with approximately 20 returns and exchanges every single day. That's a massive operational burden for any small business.
BEFORE THE QUIZ:
- ~10,000 coats sold per year
- 20 returns/exchanges per DAY
- High operational costs from processing returns
- Customer frustration from sizing mistakes
AFTER THE QUIZ:
- ~40,000 coats sold per year
- 20 returns/exchanges per WEEK
- Money saved reinvested into growth
- Happy customers getting the right size first time
That's 4x more sales with 95% fewer returns! The size finder quiz became invaluable for the lifeblood of the business.
The Quiz Building Process
One unexpected benefit of building the quiz was discovering opportunities to improve the product itself. When mapping out the quiz logic, Dahlia realized that standardizing sizes across all coat lines would make the quiz much simpler—and also make shopping easier for customers.
“I don't know that I would have thought of making the sizes consistent between lines if we didn't have the quiz. That was actually a side effect of building the quiz—it helped me realize we needed to standardize.”
–Dahlia Rizk, Founder, Buckle Me Baby Coats
The Financial Impact
Beyond just reducing the headache of processing returns, the quiz had a direct financial impact. With 23,400 fewer returns in one year, Buckle Me Baby Coats saved significantly on:
- Return shipping costs
- Restocking and inspection labor
- Customer service time
- Lost revenue from customers who didn't repurchase
“The size finder quiz has been invaluable at reducing my exchange and return rate dramatically. It's been wonderful for the lifeblood of my business. All of this money that I've saved on returns and exchanges I now reinvest every dollar back into the business.”
–Dahlia Rizk, Founder, Buckle Me Baby Coats
Key Takeaways for Apparel Brands
- Size finder quizzes can dramatically reduce return rates for apparel brands
- Interactive quizzes educate customers better than static size charts
- Building a quiz can reveal opportunities to improve your product (like standardizing sizes)
- Money saved on returns can be reinvested to grow the business
- Quizzes work especially well for complex sizing decisions like children's apparel
- A good quiz experience builds customer confidence and reduces purchase anxiety
Watch the Full Interview
Learn more about how Buckle Me Baby Coats uses a quiz to reduce returns, their Shark Tank story, and how they're taking advantage of TikTok organically.
The Results
The size finder quiz became invaluable for the lifeblood of the business, dramatically reducing returns and increasing revenue.
From approximately 20 returns/exchanges per day to just 20 per week.
The quiz along with pop-ups helped lift overall store revenue.
In one year, the quiz prevented approximately 23,400 coat returns.
High conversion rate showing strong customer engagement with the quiz.
"The size finder quiz has been invaluable at reducing my exchange and return rate dramatically. It's been wonderful for the lifeblood of my business. All of this money that I've saved on returns and exchanges I now reinvest every dollar back into the business."
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