Introduction

With a natural business-savvy knack for fashion and the credentials to prove it, Sabrina Zohar founded Softwear in the wake of an enormous life event. Inspired by her mother who overcame a serious medical condition within two months, Sabrina knew it was time to start something big on her own. Within a few months, Softwear sales were skyrocketing. 

“Everything you see from the company is done by me or my part-time assistant,” notes Sabrina, Founder & CEO of Softwear. “I enjoy being heavily involved in all aspects of the business because it allows me to learn and understand how to do everything. But with our success, we definitely ran into some growing pains.”

Keeping up with shipping issues and rising customer expectations can feel impossible.

Building a successful ecommerce business naturally has its ups and downs. But with additional sales and pressures during a global pandemic, shipping challenges and customer needs were on the rise.

Virtually handling all business processes on her own, Sabrina quickly became familiar with the post-purchase process. Managing 200-300 orders per week, on top of designing and marketing product launches, visiting the factory, and personally fulfilling and shipping orders, was easily a full-time job-and-a-half. As a result, she had little time to deal with difficult processes outside of her control. “If a package was ever lost and needed to be tracked down and ultimately refunded or replaced, the carrier approval claim process would often take up to two weeks,” Sabrina recalls. “It was pretty horrible and out of control.”

In the midst of COVID-19 shutdowns, carrier crises, lost packages, and inefficient claims processes, Sabrina knew she needed a solution.

A superior post-purchase experience puts your brand at the forefront of high customer satisfaction.

Before long, Sabrina found her answer. “I saw Route package protection on the checkout of another merchant’s website and thought ‘Wait, this is exactly what I need to help solve our challenges with Softwear!’” Softwear’s partnership with Route soon developed into a strong, beneficial relationship.

Route’s technology helps support Softwear’s processes by significantly cutting down customer inquiries and order issue resolution time— all while still maintaining a high customer satisfaction score. The visual tracking keeps customers in the loop with real-time shipping updates, and order protection gives customers peace of mind and security. Hundreds of customer calls per week were reduced to just two, and the 2-week back-and-forth with carriers turned into instant resolution with a replacement or refund. “Especially in this post-COVID world of uncertainty, customers love to feel the security and guarantee of Route,” Sabrina observes. “And I’ve loved the time and cost savings for myself and the business. Route has allowed us to focus on creating a next-level experience and brand, and it makes us the problem-solving heroes in the eyes of customers.”

“No matter what, I want people to remember Softwear’s quality and community. I love that Route embodies a very similar, humanized experience."

With Route, Sabrina has also felt a strong sense of support and community that aligns with what she strives to provide her customers. “No matter what, I want people to remember Softwear’s quality and community.” Sabrina explains, “Every person with a piece of Softwear has a piece of me, in a way! I love that Route embodies a very similar, humanized experience. That level of experience sometimes seems rare in the tech and ecommerce world, but I feel it with Route.”

For Sabrina, Route has been a no-brainer to support the buyer experience as Softwear’s influence and customers continue to grow and flourish.