Seven channels, a small team and an inbox that never empties
Founded in 1990, Aquacadabra now despatches more than 600,000 orders a year from an 18,000 sq ft warehouse, selling through its own website, Amazon, eBay, OnBuy, Temu, Tesco and B&Q. Customer service sits with a core team of four, led by Perry Taylor.
Almost every message meant detective work. To answer a simple “where’s my order?”, an agent had to check StoreFeeder, the carrier’s tracking and the marketplace before writing a reply, which took around four and a half minutes. On a busy Monday the inbox could hold nearly 300 messages.
Cancellations were the most stressful job of all. A request had to be caught before the order was processed. If it wasn’t, Aquacadabra paid to ship the parcel out, paid again to bring it back, and the customer had a poor experience of having to reject delivery. So the team started at 6:30am and checked the inbox every 30 to 60 minutes through the day, including weekends. Even then, mistakes happened: one order was refunded but missed cancellation in StoreFeeder, and went out anyway.
At the same time, money was quietly leaking out of the business. Late Parcelforce deliveries, lost Royal Mail parcels and refunds that Amazon would reimburse all needed claims, each with its own evidence and strict deadline. With no time to track thousands of parcels, most of those claims were simply never made.
“Some mornings, we would open our inbox to nearly 300 messages. Just seeing that number was overwhelming and immediately put the team under pressure before the day had even begun. So much valuable time was spent sifting through spam, notifications and messages that required no action, just to identify what actually needed our attention.”
Why Shipherd
What won the team over was accuracy and partnership. Shipherd’s AI gave more accurate answers than other AI tools the team had tried and set up was incredibly easy. Shipherd’s team worked alongside Aquacadabra every week to fit the system around how it actually works, down to its own rules for delays, returns, refunds and address changes.
“What really sets Shipherd apart is the people behind it. They haven’t just provided us with a system and left us to get on with it. They’ve taken the time to understand our business, the challenges we face and how we operate. When we identify an issue or an opportunity to improve something, they’re proactive in finding a solution. It feels like a genuine partnership, with a team that’s as committed to improving our business as we are.”
Every message arrives with the answer ready
Shipherd works inside Aquacadabra’s existing set up. When a message comes in, it works out what the customer needs, checks the order in StoreFeeder, the carrier’s tracking and the marketplace, and drafts a reply that follows Aquacadabra’s own policies and tone. The agent checks it and sends it with one click. Shipherd also flags when a customer seems frustrated, so the team knows to take extra care.
Before
~4.5 min
per delivery-status enquiry, across three systems
- StoreFeeder
- carrier tracking
- marketplace
After
~30 sec
to review the prepared reply and send
The time saved is large. A delivery-status enquiry that used to take around four and a half minutes of checking across systems now takes about 30 seconds to review and send.
Aquacadabra has chosen to keep a person approving every customer reply. For retailers who want to go further, Shipherd can also send replies on its own, one type of enquiry at a time, once they are confident in the results.
Routine jobs now run on their own
Behind the scenes, Shipherd takes care of the jobs customers never see:
- Order cancellations. When a customer asks to cancel, Shipherd checks whether the order has been despatched. If it hasn’t, it cancels it straight away and leaves a clear note for the team to refund. If it has, it flags the ticket for a person. This runs evenings and weekends too, so nobody has to watch the inbox. The next step in progress is hands off the wheel - auto refund and notifying the customer.
- Inbox clean-up. Spam, out-of-office replies and system notifications are cleared automatically, so the team only sees messages that need attention.
- Address changes. Requests to change a delivery address are checked against Aquacadabra’s way of operating and updated in StoreFeeder.
Cancellation request · Sunday 07:12
- Order found
- Not yet despatched
- Cancelled
Cancelled, refund note left for the team · no agent needed
“Automated cancellations are the best thing we’ve done. We used to worry they’d be missed over a weekend or when someone was on holiday. Now we don’t panic, because we know Shipherd will catch them.”
Getting back money that used to be lost
Carrier claims
Shipherd tracks every Aquacadabra parcel, tens of thousands a week, against each carrier’s delivery promise and contractual obligations. When a parcel is late or lost, the claim is prepared with the evidence the carrier needs and filed before the deadline. Hundreds of parcels are eligible for claims every week, around 70% of estimated claim value is recovered (about 1 - 3% of shipping costs): money it would never have thought to claim before. Carrier invoices are autoreconciled and Shipherd's insights not only identify incorrect charges, but also help identify surcharges and oversize penalties with recommendations that help cut shipping costs.
Guaranteed service, delivered late
- Evidence attached
- Filed before deadline
Claim filed. Money owed back to you.
Amazon SAFE-T claims
When Amazon refunds a customer on an order Aquacadabra shipped itself (often known as Fulfilled by Merchant or Seller Fulfilled Prime) the seller can often claim that money back through Amazon’s SAFE-T process, but only with the right evidence and within a tight window. Shipherd reviews every refund, works out which are eligible and handles the claims. Since going live, Aquacadabra has recovered £10,500 in the first two months alone.
- July 2026
- £5,460
- August 2026
- approximately £5,100
- First two months
- £10,500
“We’re now recovering thousands of pounds every month that would previously have been written off.”
“As a Managing Director, one of the most frustrating things is knowing your business is losing money simply because you don’t have the time or resources to recover it. For years, we accepted certain Amazon refunds and carrier losses as part of doing business. Shipherd has completely changed that. We’re now recovering thousands of pounds every month that would previously have been written off. That’s real money going straight back into the business, without adding to our team’s workload. From a commercial perspective, the value is undeniable.”
The results
- A calmer inbox. Six in ten messages arrive with a reply ready to send, and the clutter is gone before the team logs in.
- Faster answers. Delivery-status enquiries take seconds instead of minutes, with fewer replies needed per customer.
- No more cancellation watch. Cancellations are handled around the clock, including weekends and holidays.
- Money back. More than £5,000 a month from Amazon and 1 - 3% of shipping costs from carriers, recovered without adding work for the team.
“You can see the difference in how many replies each message takes, because we’re sending one-click answers based on what Shipherd’s AI advises.”
“Since introducing Shipherd, we start the day with a much more manageable inbox: unnecessary messages filtered out, cancelled orders handled and much more taken care of automatically. And we’re achieving this without increasing our headcount. For us, Shipherd has been a real game changer.”
What's next
Aquacadabra is now extending Shipherd into two more areas. A damage-evidence tool, in trial since October 2026, guides customers in collecting the right images of damaged items and checks them automatically, so the team can settle cases quickly and fairly and claim from the carrier. And Shipherd is building supplier invoice checks, matching every supplier invoice against Aquacadabra’s purchase orders to catch price errors that currently take hours of manual checking to reconcile.