Custom pet portraits and engraved keepsakes — beautiful when they land, expensive when a customer disputes the likeness.
Every Pawtrait order is one-of-a-kind, which meant every order was a subjective judgment call. A customer would upload a blurry photo, receive a faithful portrait, then decide it "didn't look like Buddy" and open a chargeback. Custom goods are non-returnable, so each dispute was a total loss — product, labor and shipping — and the bank almost always sided with the cardholder because there was no record of an approval.
We built a mandatory proof-approval step into the fulfillment flow using ProofRoom. After purchase, the customer reviews a digital proof, requests revisions, and signs off with a timestamped, logged approval before anything is made. That approval — plus the revision trail — becomes the evidence packet that ships with any dispute response. We paired it with clearer PDP expectations and a photo-quality guide to reduce revisions up front.
With a captured approval standing behind every custom order, illegitimate "not as described" disputes collapsed and the winnable ones were winnable. Chargebacks fell 45%, dispute win-rate improved dramatically, and revision cycles per order dropped thanks to the photo guide.
