A consumer electronics brand selling through Shopify, Amazon, Walmart and wholesale had an eight-person operations team doing the same manual steps on around 300 orders a day.
01The problem
Returns, reports, stock counts, supplier chasing and order problems were all handled by hand across four sales channels. As the case study puts it, everything was “10 minutes more manual than it should be, multiplied by 300 orders a day.”
An assessment found more than 32 hours a week of work that could be automated, worth about $78,000 a year in labour.
02What was built
Five automations were built to process returns, prepare daily reports, reconcile stock, follow up with suppliers and handle order problems across four sales channels.
Work started with a one-week assessment, followed by seven weeks of development. Returns automation went live in week three. Routine tasks run automatically; unusual cases still need human approval.
03How it works
- 01Returns
Checks each return, creates the label and records, emails the customer, refunds on delivery and flags faulty products.
- 02Reports
Four daily reports, each with a written summary, arrive before the team starts work.
- 03Stock
Each night it reconciles stock across four systems, fixes the known errors and flags the real problems.
- 04Suppliers and exceptions
It sends purchase orders, reads supplier replies, chases delays and prepares one-click fixes for order problems.
04What changed
In the first 60 days, manual operations work fell from 32 hours a week to 4.5. 85% of returns are processed with no one involved, inventory accuracy rose from 94.2% to 99.1%, and order problems take 6 minutes to resolve instead of 25.
“We were drowning in manual processes across four channels and didn’t know where to start with automation.”
Operations Manager (unnamed)
What this could look like for your clients
Your clients who sell online repeat the same returns, stock and supplier tasks hundreds of times a week. A similar agent could take those off their team, so staff only handle the cases that genuinely need a person.