Buddy & Selly is Europe's leading re-commerce retailer for buying and selling pre-owned designer fashion. Since its founding in Hamburg in 2012, the company has stood for sustainability and convenient all-round service. Its vision: slow fashion instead of fast fashion – for a more conscious and sustainable fashion world.
Until recently, though, customer service was a challenge. Countless standard requests had to be handled manually every day – despite an existing helpdesk solution with Zendesk. Questions about order status, returns, refunds and buying conditions came up especially often.
Yvonne Tornow, Head of Customer Service at Buddy & Selly, remembers:
"Our support team was extremely burdened by routine requests. There was hardly any time left for the issues that really need personal care."
The challenge: manual processes, long waiting times
What makes Buddy & Selly special: there are two complex business models at once – buying and selling luxury pre-owned fashion. This created a huge service workload, since both processes come with lots of recurring questions.
The consequence: long handling times and growing pressure on the team. For a company that sees sustainability and customer satisfaction as core values, it was clear – a solution was needed.
"We wanted to give our customers fast answers without losing quality. At the same time, we had to relieve our team to work efficiently in the long run," explains Yvonne Tornow.
The solution: chatbot "Buddy" & Ticket Automation
Together with melibo, Buddy & Selly kicked off the automation project on November 22. First, the existing systems – Zendesk and Plentymarkets – were analyzed and prepared. Then melibo's experts developed a tailor-made chatbot perfectly matched to the company's needs.
On December 20, it was time: chatbot "Buddy" went live. Since then, it has answered standard requests directly on the website – around the clock, in seconds and with no waiting. In parallel, development of the Ticket Automation began, which went live shortly after, on January 15.
The results: 86% automation, 97% recognition rate
The results didn't take long:
- 86% automation rate for requests about order status, returns and buying conditions.
- 30,000 conversations in no time.
- 97% recognition rate – the chatbot reliably understands almost every request.
For customers, that means answers with no waiting, around the clock. For the service team, it means far less routine work and more time for complex, advice-heavy issues.
"Today, most recurring requests run fully automatically. Our team can finally focus on the cases where human intuition is needed. That's huge added value – for us and for our customers," says Yvonne Tornow.
An ongoing process
Automation at Buddy & Selly isn't a finished project – it keeps evolving. More and more topics are being integrated, so the share of automated requests keeps growing.
"We don't see melibo as a tool, but as a partner. Together, we keep developing our service and create a customer experience that's modern, sustainable and efficient," sums up Tornow.
Conclusion: sustainability meets smart automation
Buddy & Selly shows how e-commerce customer service with AI and Ticket Automation leads to more efficiency, satisfaction and sustainability. The company successfully combines modern technology with the vision of a more sustainable fashion world – strengthening both its team and its relationships with customers.
