A 25-person DTC brand does not have a “returns department” and a “CS team.” It has one or two people who live in Shopify tickets, the warehouse RMA queue, and the same email thread that starts with “where is my order” and ends with “can I exchange.”
That queue is the seat. Not a website chatbot. The owner already pays for it. Leverwork runs it. The door is the calculator.
What the seat actually touches
In a mid-size brand the same hire is usually doing:
- Tier-1 tickets (WISMO, address changes, “is this in stock”)
- Return authorizations and restock notes that ops will ignore if the label is wrong
- Exchange logic that the helpdesk macros always get slightly wrong
- Escalations that are really AP or warehouse, not “be nicer to the customer”
A night shift of VAs does not fix the exception queue. A chatbot does not post the RMA. This is a support seat with returns bolted on — the ecommerce version of the same AP/support seats we already wrote for 3PL, dental, construction, and agencies.
If you want the general cost of bleeding on support, we cover that separately: Your E-commerce Brand Is Bleeding Money on Customer Service. This post is the seat buy.
Why “just hire another CS rep” fails
Volume is spiky. Returns peak after launches and holidays. A second hire sits idle half the year and still cannot clear the exception pile during the other half. The owner ends up in the queue themselves.
The owner math (illustrative, labeled)
Use the CS/returns coordinator's actual loaded seat cost, including wages, benefits, and employer costs. Compare a VA stack on quality, rework, availability, and ownership rather than an assumed savings figure.
Live Standard: Talk to us for current pricing, up to 2 FTE roles. Target go-live: about 30 days from kickoff. Your timeline is set in your SOW.
Illustrative (not a client result): Standard can cover returns and tier-1 CS as two roles under one partnership — closer to replacing a night shift than buying another chatbot. Run the brand’s actual wages in the calculator.
If Shopify, the 3PL, and the helpdesk all have to agree before a refund posts, that is Complex (Talk to us). Same offer, more seats.
Who this is for
Owners of ecommerce / DTC brands in the 20–80 range who already pay for CS or returns ops. Not a marketplace reseller. Not a dropshipper. Not a CPA firm.
Next step
Calculate the seat. If the math holds, Standard is the usual starting point. Talk to us for current pricing.