IWA Wine Accessories Reduces WISMO Queries by 47% With Narvar

‍IWA Wine Accessories (IWA) is dedicated to helping consumers create a rich and cultured wine lifestyle. Since the 1980s, the company has served wine enthusiasts with an expansive assortment of tools and equipment — from corkscrews and glassware to wine storage and preservation systems.

“We offer everything for the wine lover, except for the wine.”
— Ben Argov, President, IWA Wine Accessories

IWA focuses on building long-term relationships with consumers as their passion for wine evolves. Many shoppers first discover IWA while exploring wine as a new hobby — perhaps purchasing their first corkscrew or set of glasses — and continue returning as their collections grow to include wine coolers, storage systems, and other specialized equipment.

“We like to engage customers when they are first discovering wine and beginning to learn about it,” explains Ben Argov, President, IWA Wine Accessories. “Maybe they’re in exploration or discovery mode. As they become more passionate, they keep coming back if they have a good experience.”

Creating a seamless journey at every step — from purchase to delivery — plays a critical role in earning that loyalty.

Complex post-purchase operations make consistency challenging

The business originally began as a mail-order catalog in the early 1980s, and has since expanded into ecommerce, with shoppers now purchasing through both the catalog and the company’s website.

The company operates across five distinct business units. In addition to the IWA flagship wine accessories brand, the company manufactures CellarPro cooling units, Le Cache refrigerated wine cabinets and WineKeeper preservation equipment, and runs a wholesale operation.

To support this variety of channels and product lines, IWA fulfills orders using a wide range of last-mile delivery partners. Smaller items ship via parcel carriers like FedEx, UPS, and USPS, while larger items — such as wine cabinets or cooling units — require LTL freight or specialized inside delivery services.

Despite these varied shipping methods and sales channels, all orders ultimately flow through the technology stack and most are fulfilled by the company’s Petaluma warehouse.

“All orders flow through our online system and most ship from our Petaluma warehouse. Regardless of order size, sales channel, or fulfillment method, every customer deserves the same exceptional post-purchase experience.”

— Ben Argov, President, IWA Wine Accessories

Prior to Narvar, IWA relied on NetSuite’s out-of-the-box emails for all orders, which only notified shoppers when an order was fulfilled. Once a package left the warehouse, the company had no way of providing shoppers visibility into their order status or delivery date.

Shoppers had no easy way to track deliveries, and the IWA team lacked insight into shipping exceptions or delays. As a result, customer service teams often fielded “Where Is My Order?” (WISMO) inquiries that more frequent, transparent delivery updates could have prevented.

The difference between confidence and chaos? Delivery visibility

Because shoppers were only notified when orders shipped, they often lacked clarity about when their package would arrive. “We’d hear things like, ‘The carrier says it was delivered, but I never received it,’” says Ben.

Delivery visibility was especially important for shipments requiring a signature. For example, FedEx requires signatures on orders above $500, and preservation equipment that ships with compressed gases falls under HAZMAT regulations and cannot be left unattended at the door.

“We’d get calls from customers saying, ‘I’m not going to be home to sign for this — what should I do?’” Ben explains.

For the IWA team, the gap between knowing when a package shipped and being able to tell shoppers when it would arrive created unnecessary friction.

“Going from simply knowing a package had shipped to being able to tell the customer when it will arrive was really important in increasing delivery confidence and reducing support volume.”
 — Ben Argov, President, IWA Wine Accessories

To support this operational complexity and deliver the transparent, easy experience consumers expect, IWA needed a more sophisticated post-purchase platform.

Turning post-purchase into a competitive advantage with Narvar 

As IWA looked to improve delivery visibility and reduce support inquiries, the team evaluated several post-purchase platforms. 

Ultimately, Narvar stood out for its ability to support the complexity of IWA’s fulfillment environment — particularly shipments that require LTL freight and specialized inside delivery. Narvar also offered a broader set of solutions to improve transparency and communication throughout the purchase journey.

IWA ultimately implemented Narvar Track, Notify, and Promise, drawn to the ability to set delivery expectations at checkout, strategically tune estimated delivery dates (EDDs) based on carrier transit times, and leverage Promise’s machine learning models uniquely trained on billions of Narvar network data points. IWA Wine could also keep shoppers informed throughout the delivery journey with proactive updates through Track and Notify.

And Narvar allowed IWA to provide these updates within a fully branded experience that matches the look and feel of its website. 

After implementing Narvar Track, Notify, and Promise, IWA began delivering proactive shipment updates and clearer delivery expectations across its ecommerce and catalog orders.

WISMO queries drop by 47% with Narvar

With Narvar, IWA reduced “Where Is My Order?” (WISMO) inquiries year over year by 47%.

“At the end of the day, there has to be a clear ROI — and for us, one of the key ways that showed up was in the reduction of WISMO inquiries. This impact comes from setting accurate, achievable delivery expectations at checkout, and reinforcing them with transparent, proactive updates throughout the delivery journey.” 
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 — Ben Argov, President, IWA Wine Accessories

The reduction in WISMO queries reflects the trusted, reliable post-purchase experience IWA has built in partnership with Narvar. As Ben notes, shoppers value delivery accuracy and reliability over speed — when expectations are clearly set and consistently met, trust follows.

Beyond operational efficiency, the improved communication experience also strengthened IWA’s brand. Narvar’s branded tracking pages and delivery notifications created a more polished and consistent post-purchase journey for shoppers.

“Our fulfillment emails look nice and the post-purchase experience is significantly upgraded. While this leads to customers wanting to come back, the simple truth is that we also take pride in providing a heightened level of service. I think it’s important that our communications look good and land well for our customers.”
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 — Ben Argov, President, IWA Wine Accessories

For IWA, delivering clear, well-organized updates throughout the shipping journey also supports the company’s long-term focus on customer relationships.

“Having a clear, organized post-purchase experience with multiple touchpoints is important for building that long-term relationship with customers.” 
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— Ben Argov, President, IWA Wine Accessories

Website conversions up 19% with Narvar 

In addition to improving post-purchase visibility, IWA implemented Narvar Promise to provide clearer delivery expectations earlier in the shopping journey.

Displaying accurate estimated delivery dates helped give shoppers greater confidence before completing their purchase. As a result, IWA saw measurable improvements in website performance, including a 10% increase in checkout conversion rates and a 19% increase in conversion on product detail pages (PDPs).

“Promise was an important part of our decision to choose Narvar,” says Ben. “The other providers we considered didn’t offer an estimated delivery date solution that would work for us.” 

For IWA, flexibility in delivery predictions was critical. The company ships a mix of parcel and freight orders, each requiring different delivery timelines.

Parcel shipments sent via FedEx and UPS use Narvar’s predictive delivery algorithms. Larger items that ship via LTL freight use customized delivery windows that account for preparation time and extended transit ranges.

“Narvar’s delivery predictions were more customizable than the other providers we considered,” Ben explains. “With our LTL shipments, we needed to be able to shape delivery expectations differently than our FedEx and UPS deliveries. We chose Narvar, in part, because of the dynamic, predictive delivery date models and EDD customization.”

Unlocking a transparent, reliable post-purchase experience

With Narvar, IWA has strengthened both its operational efficiency and the shopper experience.

Proactive delivery updates reduce support inquiries while also improving the consumer experience, and accurate delivery expectations give shoppers greater confidence to buy. Together, these improvements allow IWA to deliver the clear, consistent experience today’s consumers expect.

“Customers aren’t as focused on how long delivery takes — what they really want to know is when their package will arrive. Transparency is no longer optional. It’s required. Narvar empowers us to provide just that.”
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 — Ben Argov, President, IWA Wine Accessories

For a company focused on building long-term relationships with wine enthusiasts, that transparency matters.

By delivering transparent, reliable, and actionable information from checkout through delivery, IWA is better positioned to support consumers as their passion for wine — and their collections — continue to grow.