Key Results
Stream, in partnership with Home Furnishings, built the first valid tracking integration for self-delivery operators. It has removed fraudulent A-Z & INR claims, ended held payments and given Home Furnishings the proof to win every dispute.
| Volumes | Valid Tracking Rate | Saving / Order | Trustpilot |
|---|---|---|---|
| 700 Large items per week | 95%+ Amazon VTR compliance | ~80% vs courier cost | ★4.6 from 400+ reviews |
Home Furnishings Case Study Summary
Challenge
- Amazon’s changes to the Valid Tracking Rate (VTR) policy put Home Furnishings at risk of account suspension and automatically awarded A-Z claims
- Relying on a third-party courier to maintain tracking compliance was costing them 80% more compared to their in-house deliveries
Solution
- Stream developed a completely new JSON-based Tracking API tailored for self-delivery operators
- API pushes order and proof of delivery events directly to marketplaces including Amazon, eBay, Temu and B&Q
Impact
- Maintained a compliant Valid Tracking Rate of 95%+ VTR with Amazon
- Eliminated delayed payments and irrefutable ePOD proof wins against fraudulent “item not received” claims
- Boosted Trustpilot score to 4.6 with over 400 reviews due to streamlined operations, better customer communication and real-time tracking
“What it’s provided is irrefutable proof to the marketplaces. When we deliver something sold on Amazon or on eBay and the buyer makes a fraudulent claim, every single tracking event is available. It’s literally there in black and white. There’s not even a 1% chance of the buyer winning that fraudulent claim.”
Home Furnishings
The challenge
Home Furnishings had been successfully selling furniture on Amazon and eBay for nearly two decades.
They also sell through their own websites and a physical store.
Based in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, Home Furnishings processes over 700 orders each week.
The average order value is over £250 on those marketplaces.
Then the compliance landscape shifted.
Amazon updated their Valid Tracking Rate policy in January 2025, requiring all seller-fulfilled orders to meet a minimum 95% VTR over a rolling 30-day period.
For Home Furnishings, delivering in their own fleet of ten vehicles, no integration existed.
The consequences were immediate and potentially business-critical:
- Costly A-Z Claims automatically awarded to customers with no right of appeal
- Seller funds withheld or payments delayed
- Marketplace account health deteriorating with account suspension a real risk
- Where Amazon led, eBay was bound to follow.
To stay live on Amazon and eBay, Home Furnishings were forced to route more orders through a third-party courier.
However, at nearly £55 per order, compared to their own-fleet cost of under £30, that workaround was expensive, prone to damage, and removed the personalised service that defined their brand.
The solution
Home Furnishings approached Stream after exhausting every other option.
No off-the-shelf solution existed for self-delivery operators. So, we built one from scratch, working in partnership with Home Furnishings and Amazon.
The resulting Tracking API enables external users and marketplaces to track order and delivery event history captured in the Stream application.
Tracking event data is ‘pushed’ from Stream to Amazon, eBay and other marketplaces at a number of stages in the order to door process.
Standardised endpoints provide marketplaces with everything they need for compliance measurement including Tracking ID, service level, and promised delivery date.
Buyers are also able to receive tracking updates and notifications proactively by email and / or text message as well as through a dedicated tracking URL specific to each order as part of the standard Stream service.
Linnworks brings further operational efficiencies
Home Furnishings has also recently invested in Linnworks to manage their orders, inventory, listings, warehouse and manufacturing operations more efficiently.
“What’s different for us as a furniture retailer is we manufacture in-house and our products are very customisable. If we take a bed as an example, our customers can choose from different mattress options. They can also choose a different upholstery colour. Drawers or no drawers. The options go on and on. Before we implemented Linnworks, we had to type every order out by hand into a production list. You can only imagine what every Monday felt like when we had several hundred orders to type up. The biggest time and efficiency saving has been creating production lists automatically for the manufacturing shop floor. That’s been revolutionary. “
Not only does Linnworks manage all their orders across multiple marketplaces and their own websites, orders are automatically sent to Stream for route planning and dispatch.
Stream’s Linnworks integration also enables Home Furnishings to automatically update marketplaces with the information required for valid tracking on self-delivered orders including selecting Stream as the recognised carrier in each marketplace and then adding the Stream tracking ID to each order.
Combining Linnworks with Stream has enabled Ifra to spend more time on other areas of the business to help Home Furnishings grow further:
“I already know Amazon and eBay are working. Everything I need to manage those channels is automated and on autopilot. I can now invest my time in new marketplaces and, perhaps most importantly, in our own websites.”
The impact
Home Furnishings now maintains a Valid Tracking Rate of over 95% on Amazon from a position where account suspension was a genuine risk.
“Marketplace tracking gives us more confidence to invest more in new and existing marketplaces. After more than a decade selling through Amazon, eBay and TikTok Shop we know what works for us and what doesn’t. Having Stream and the valid tracking is the icing on the cake. It means we can expand with confidence on those marketplaces. We can also explore others without the risk of fraudulent claims or payment delays. We know we can meet the strictest compliance requirements, as we control the whole operation, including fulfillment.”
Financially
- Home Furnishings seller funds are no longer withheld with payments arriving faster and reliably.
- A greater share of deliveries are now completed by our own fleet. This saves the business 80% compared with couriers.
- Fraudulent “item not received” claims stopped with clear, irrefutable tracking and ePOD. This works across hundreds of weekly orders, with an average order value of £250+.
Operationally
- Zero manual tracking and order uploads. Every order from marketplaces is created in Stream and tracking events pass back automatically via API.
- Administrative time reclaimed and redeployed to customer service.
- Trustpilot rating reached 4.6 with over 400 reviews up from almost none.
Strategically
- Confidence to expand on Amazon and eBay with no compliance risk.
- Looking to add more marketplace sales channels as long as valid tracking exists for self-delivery.
- New marketplace growth decisions now made on commercial merit, not tracking uncertainty.