The challenge
Order exceptions, returns, inventory mismatches and carrier delays at Obvi were handled entirely by hand — spreadsheets, email chains and manual checks across Shopify, their ERP and 3PL portal. Every exception took an ops team member off more important work.
Customers found out about problems when they asked. Inventory often wasn't synced in time to prevent oversells. The team was reactive by design — there was no system to be proactive.
What we built
Event-driven automation that listens to Shopify, ERP and 3PL simultaneously. When an exception fires — return, stockout, carrier delay, address problem — the right action runs automatically: trigger a refund, reship from closest warehouse, alert the supplier, or notify the customer with a new ETA.
Inventory syncs in real time across systems to prevent oversells. Routine exceptions resolve without touching ops. The team sees a clean queue of genuine edge cases instead of a firehose.
The result
- 35 ops hours saved per week on exception handling.
- Order-status support tickets down 30%.
- Fewer oversells through real-time inventory sync.
- Ops team focused on edge cases, not routine exceptions.