Lehigh Case Study

50%↓
Reduced Return Rate

8%↓
Annualized Return Rate

What is your biggest success story with Albert 2 Pro?
“We work with companies that carry a broad range of footwear that we offer to employees of big industrial brands. Within our business model is a free shipping and free returns policy. We have to get the fit right in order to be sure we aren’t receiving returns, because returns are the bane of any online business. We’ve managed to reduce our return rate by 50% using Aetrex’s FitGenius Technology and their Albert 2 Pro, and that has certainly been our biggest success.”

Which metrics garnered from Albert 2 Pro have dramatically improved your business?
“We have used the Albert 2 Pro to collect emails and phone numbers. We send both emails and SMS to those who opt in to remind them of things specific to our business model like their subsidy becoming available or to remind them that their renewal period is coming up. We also utilize SMS and email to make sure employees are put in the proper and safe footwear by emailing/texting them to purchase their footwear within certain timelines. Once we get information and create a personal profile, we can feed them information that they need and that’s relevant to them to create a streamlined customer experience.”

How has Albert 2 Pro (in conjunction with Aetrex’s FitGenius™ AI platform) helped reduce returns?
“Return rate is one of the big reasons we utilize Aetrex in our integrative process. Right now, our annualized return rate is 8%, although our trailing return rate over the last 3 months is 7.6%. We are significantly lower than the marketplace when it comes to return rate. We had a 13%-15% return rate when we had just started with Aetrex (20%-24% with new customers), which means this is a 50% decrease in returns for us since utilizing FitGenius & Albert 2 Pro Technology. This is significantly lower than the industry standard, which can trend between 30-40 percent.”

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Return rate is one of the big reasons we utilize Aetrex in our integrative process. Right now, our annualized return rate is 8%, although our trailing return rate over the last 3 months is 7.6%. We are significantly lower than the marketplace when it comes to return rate.
- Jeff Stern | SVP Lehigh Brand GM at Rocky Brands, Inc., Lehigh CustomFit

What other benefits have you experienced?

Lowered Liability Costs in the Workwear Space
“....In relation to our partners, a specific customer has shared a major benefit in reducing workers’ compensation claims. This specific client had received around 40 million dollars a year in workers’ compensation claims related to slips, trips, and falls caused by improper footwear. Within the first year of working with them, we were able to get their workers’ compensation claims below 20 million dollars. The cost to them was around 1-2 million dollars, so this was a fantastic ROI.”

Proper Sizing for Safety
“Another great benefit FitGenius has provided is properly sizing our customers in “WIDE” footwear. A lot of people are in the wrong footwear because they either don’t understand their feet or they have a vanity block that says “I don’t want to wear a wide shoe.” So, what we find very frequently is someone will come in and we’ll advise them that they’re a 10.5 wide, and they’ll say “well… I wear an 11.5.” There’s a reason they wear that 11.5, and it’s because in the footwear world when you take up the length, you’re also taking up the width. This poses a threat in the industrial workers’ industry to safety, because to be wearing footwear that improperly fits the length of your feet can increase risk of slips and falls. FitGenius provides an accurate scan that you can’t disagree with once you see it, and improves workplace safety which is something Lehigh spanly supports.”

Ability to offer Ideal Footwear Recommendations & Curated Collections
“We have thousands of partners, and each partner offers a different product catalog to their employees based on their specific industry and safety ratings. Each catalog selection by partner includes specific footwear product recommendations that are curated and featured on an individual branded website for their employees. We use FitGenius and return data to help us refine our recommendations to these employees. And, we are able to optimize this curated selection along the way based on FitGenius scores we collect in real time. With this process, we are able to offer the best fitting safety products to each of our partners and their employees to ensure optimal safety in their workplace. This is another way FitGenius and return data helps us ensure the safety protocol and a high level of customer service. It really gives us the confidence to know we are offering the right products for the job and for each employee.”

Customer Service & Loyalty
“Having the scanner in a mobile format rather than a fixed retail store outlet is a game changer for us to provide an unchallenging and accurate fitting process, which in turn is providing great customer service and improving loyalty. When working with companies with such a robust catalog/footwear collection, we’ve used Aetrex’s scanning to provide the best fit in an industrial environment. Comfort and durability is priority number one for this clientele, and we’re able to provide that when we use Aetrex’s Albert 2 Pro to scan them.”