Founded by former Division I Track & Field athletes, Wolf & Shepherd is built on a simple promise: to equip hard-working professionals with footwear that can keep up with them. Demand for the company’s dress shoes, which combine timeless styles with athletic innovation and comfort, is on an incredible trajectory—but this level of growth has come with new challenges. 

“We're growing over 100% every year, so scalability is critical for us,” says Karen Novotny, Director of Operations at Wolf & Shepherd. “The more tools and systems we have that can grow with the overall organization and integrate with our Shopify instance, the easier that growth is to manage and continue.”

Wolf & Shepherd began seeking alternative tracking and return processing solutions in early 2021. According to Karen, “We had been on another return software, and we were finding that we had to handle a lot of exceptions outside of the software.” Not only did this manual processing add to the company’s administrative burden, it limited Wolf & Shepherd’s ability to make data-driven decisions. 

“With all these exceptions, it was hard for us to track what the numbers really were and what was really happening,” Karen shares.

Finding the right fit with Narvar

As Wolf & Shepherd began evaluating alternatives, the team prioritized solutions that would be easy for customers to use, provide a seamless order processing experience, and remain flexible enough to manage frequent policy and location changes. This flexibility was particularly important, as COVID-19 lockdowns resulted in a number of instances in which the retailer had to update customer addresses when processing exchanges.

“As we went through all of those requirements, Narvar rose to the top,” notes Karen. “There were a lot of companies that had user-friendly interfaces, but when it came down to other components, they didn't necessarily all come together.”

In particular, Wolf & Shepherd found that Narvar’s automated order communication and notification tools were well-suited to meeting pressing tracking and return management software needs.

As an example, Wolf & Shepherd ships most of its items out within 15 hours of an order being placed. The ability to automate order communications enables the company to easily confirm with customers that their orders shipped that quickly. The same tools can also be used to update customers who have made pre-order purchases that their items have been received and shipped.

“We're an internet startup, which means that customers have to trust us from the first touchpoint. It’s important that we’re careful with that trust and that we treat it as a priority with every system we build.”

Karen Novotny
Director of Operations at Wolf & Shepherd

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A step in the right direction

Since implementing Narvar Track, Notify, and Return products, Wolf & Shepherd has seen a 13% decrease in customer questions related to the returns process, including customer requests for refund status updates. Customer satisfaction is also strong—the retailer’s average tracking experience satisfaction score currently sits at 4.39 out of 5 stars.

Internally, Wolf & Shepherd’s Narvar implementation has driven a number of positive changes. Return processing has become notably easier for the company’s customer service team. “It's hard on agents when you have five different ways of doing something,” Karen explains. “So when the process became consistent with Narvar, it made things so much easier.”

Narvar Return also proved especially helpful during a recent warehouse move. Compared to the retailer’s former, spreadsheet-driven return process, “Narvar allowed Wolf & Shepherd to continue processing refunds as returns were received mid-move, even if the boxes hadn’t yet been opened,” explains Karen. “To ensure customer satisfaction during our warehouse move, we temporarily processed refunds early, upon the delivery scan, which was only possible thanks to Narvar.”  

“At Wolf & Shepherd, we’re committed to building customer trust. Narvar's ease of use and reliability make it an important tool for us,” says Karen. “We look forward to continuing to scale and grow our business with Narvar’s support.”