From Hard-Coded to Human-Centered: How Shepard Rebuilt Commerce to Move at the Speed of Events

When people talk about “commerce transformation,” it’s usually in the context of retail or traditional B2B. But what happens when your business doesn’t fit neatly into either of those boxes?

That’s the challenge Shepard brought to us.

Shepard, one of America’s largest event production companies, supports more than 700 events a year, each with its own pricing, products, logistics, contracts, and timelines. Nothing is static. Very little is repeatable in the way traditional storefronts are. And the cost of getting something wrong, whether that’s a shipping address, a date, or a price, can be significant for both Shepard and their customers.

When we started working together, Shepard was live on Salesforce. But as Sarah Aivaz, Customer Advocate at Shepard, put it, being live didn’t mean being enabled.

A System That Worked, But Didn’t Scale

Before Saltbox Mgmt entered the picture, Shepard had already been through multiple implementation efforts over many years. The pattern was familiar.

• Heavy customization

• Hard-coded storefront logic

• Long turnaround times for even small changes

• A reliance on development teams for day-to-day updates

Simple things, like changing a menu option on the ecommerce site, required code. Storefronts were rigid. And because Shepard is so event-driven, that rigidity slowed everything down.

As Sarah described it, the team had effectively built a system that functioned, but didn’t reflect how the business actually operates.

“We’re not a single storefront retailer. We’re running hundreds of unique events every year. Each one is different, and that complexity just wasn’t accounted for in how the system was originally built.”

Shifting the Mindset: From Custom Fixes to Strategic Design

One of the first things we focused on wasn’t technology. It was approach.

Instead of reacting to one-off issues, we stepped back with Shepard to understand what actually needs to be different per event, what should be standardized, and where flexibility truly matters.

Sarah described it as a “teach us how to fish” moment.

“What Saltbox did differently was analyze our problem and say, ‘We can enable you to do this yourselves.’ That shift alone has been huge for us.”

Rather than defaulting to more custom objects and logic, we worked together to lean into standard Salesforce capabilities, layering in configuration and thoughtful extensions only where they were truly necessary.

This was especially important for a Salesforce org that had accumulated 150+ custom objects over time.

“Your team looks at those and says, ‘You don’t need this customization. Let’s rethink how this is modeled.’ That’s a very different conversation than we’ve had with other partners.”

One Storefront, Hundreds of Personalized Experiences

One of Shepard’s biggest challenges was scale.

Running separate storefronts for every event would have been cost-prohibitive. Treating all events the same would have broken the business. Rather than starting from scratch, we worked with Shepard to take an existing single-storefront concept and re-architect it so it could actually support the way their business operates today and where it needs to go next.

Together, we focused on strengthening the underlying data model and logic so the storefront could dynamically adapt based on the event, the account, and the specific contract and pricing rules tied to that relationship, without relying on hard-coded behavior.

When an exhibitor logs in, they’re automatically presented with their event, not a list of hundreds to choose from. From there, they can still see other events tied to their account, but the experience is guided and intentional.

Sarah explained it using a great analogy.

“We went from a very flat model, to more of a rectangle, and now we’re building the cube. Customers can look at things by event, by account, or both, without having to call us.”

This personalization isn’t just about convenience. In Shepard’s world, accuracy is critical. The system has to guide customers toward the right decisions because the wrong one can be expensive.

Speed That Actually Changes the Business

The most dramatic shift has been turnaround time.

Historically, standing up a new event storefront could take around 45 days. That included manual data entry, PDF creation, and multiple handoffs between systems.

Today, Shepard is piloting storefront creation that can happen in as little as a week.

That doesn’t just save time. It fundamentally changes how the business operates.

“We’re targeting shaving 10 days off our standard turnaround time. That’s huge for us.”

It also improves data accuracy, reduces swivel-chair work, and gives teams confidence that what’s being published is correct.

Data Governance Before AI, On Purpose

One of the most refreshing parts of working with Sarah is how intentional she is about the future.

There’s excitement about AI, automation, and self-service, but not at the expense of customer experience.

“If we don’t have the right data model, AI just creates more work. For us and for our customers.”

Before introducing chatbots or AI-driven recommendations, Shepard is currently focused on mastering event data, facility data, and pricing and production details.

This governance ensures that when automation is introduced, it helps rather than frustrates.

“I’d rather have a human with the right answer than a half-baked AI experience.”

Real Results, Without Being Pushy

Since launching their new experience, Shepard has seen tangible business impact.

One standout metric is a 20% increase in non-exclusive revenue.

What’s notable is how that growth happened.

There was no aggressive upsell strategy. Instead, better visualization, clearer navigation, and more intuitive product groupings made it easier for customers to understand what Shepard offers and what they might need.

“It’s not about being pushy. It’s about showing people what’s available, when it’s relevant.”

That same philosophy extends to future plans, from richer product visualization to account-level insights that help customers understand their spend across events.

Why This Partnership Works

Near the end of our conversation, Sarah said something that really stuck with me.

“Saltbox doesn’t build something just to rebuild it later. You think about how it’s going to live, how it’s going to be sustained, even if someone else implements the next phase.”

That mindset, designing for longevity, enablement, and change, is what this work has really been about.

Not just rebuilding commerce.

But rebuilding confidence, clarity, and momentum.