AI for wholesalers and logistics
Orders arriving as a PDF, an Excel sheet or a photo of an order list, customers calling to ask where their pallet is, an inside sales team retyping article numbers half the day: in a wholesale business the work is in the processing, not in the selling. AI reads the orders, answers the standard questions and keeps inside sales free for customers who really need attention.
What does AI cost for a wholesaler?
Why inside sales never gets round to selling
Every customer orders in their own way: one emails a PDF from their purchasing system, another sends a photo of a handwritten list through WhatsApp, a third calls. Everything has to go into the ERP, with the right article numbers, the right price agreement and the right delivery date. On top of that come the questions: is it in stock, when will it arrive, where is it. At peak times the inbox fills up and the customer waits.
Three places where AI helps right away
Order intake from the inbox
The assistant reads an order in whatever format it arrives: PDF, Excel, plain email or a photo of an order list. It matches the lines to your article file, applies that customer's price agreement and prepares the order as a draft in your ERP. Unclear lines are flagged, so inside sales only sees the exceptions.
Stock and delivery time questions
Is article X in stock, what is the delivery time, is there an alternative: the assistant checks your stock system and answers right away, through chat, WhatsApp or email. On a backorder it suggests a replacement or passes on the expected date.
Where is my order
The question that comes back every day. The assistant pulls the status from your ERP or the carrier and gives the customer the answer with track and trace, outside office hours too. Inside sales only steps in on a real deviation, such as a pallet that has not arrived.
Situations from daily practice
What an assistant takes over differs per wholesaler. Four situations that come up almost everywhere:
Order list as a photo through WhatsApp
An installer sends a photo of their list from the building site at seven in the morning. The assistant reads the lines, recognises the articles, asks where a quantity or size is missing and prepares the order. At eight, inside sales sees an order that only needs a tick.
Peak hours on the phone
On Monday morning everyone calls at once. The assistant answers, handles questions about stock and delivery times, takes simple orders and prepares the rest with all the details for a call back. The caller is always told they are speaking to an assistant.
Return or damaged delivery
The customer sends a photo of the damaged box or the wrong article. The assistant records the report with order number and photo, checks whether it falls within the return period and prepares the return or replacement delivery. The customer gets a confirmation straight away.
Recurring orders
Customers who order the same thing every month get a proposal at the right moment: the same lines as last time, adjusted for what they have bought since. One click from the customer and the order is in your system.
Try it with a photo
Send a photo of an order list, a packing slip or a damaged delivery in the chat on this site. You will see straight away what the assistant picks up and which follow-up question it asks.
For example
A Tuesday morning at a technical wholesaler
Picture this: at eight o'clock there are sixty emails in the order inbox, twelve of them order lists in four different formats. The assistant has already read them overnight: ten orders are waiting as drafts in the ERP, two are flagged because an article number does not match or a quantity is missing. Inside sales checks the ten in a quarter of an hour, calls the two customers and by nine is talking to the customer who wants to discuss a bigger project. Without the assistant, that would have been a whole morning of retyping.
What does AI cost for a wholesaler?
Fixed price up front, after a free introductory call
Every solution gets a fixed price up front. It depends on what the assistant needs to do (read orders, answer stock questions, catch status questions) and which systems it has to talk to: your ERP, your stock system, the carrier, WhatsApp. After a free introductory call it is in writing: what will and will not be built, what it costs and when it is ready.
- A first version with one clearly scoped process, for example order intake from the inbox
- Integration with your ERP and stock system, no new system for inside sales
- Maintenance and updates optional from €195 per month, cancellable monthly
Want to know first where it pays off most in your business? The Work Scan (€495 excluding VAT) maps that out in a concrete report. If you then have us build it, that amount is credited in full.
More about the Work ScanWhat a Work Scan report looks like
A fictional example report, so you know what you get. It covers an installation company; the set-up is the same for a wholesaler.
Frequently asked questions
Does this work with my ERP?
Usually, yes. Exact, AFAS, SAP Business One, Unit4 and most industry packages have an integration or an import function. If not, the assistant prepares the order in a format your system does read. The integrations page lists what is possible per type of system.
What happens when an order list is unclear?
Then the assistant checks with the customer, or flags the line for inside sales. It does not guess. An order with an uncertain line never goes through automatically.
Does the assistant know the price agreements per customer?
Yes, if they are in your system. The assistant applies the customer price, volume tier or discount as recorded. Agreements that only live in a salesperson's head it does not know; that is a good moment to record them.
What about customer data and the GDPR?
The assistant works inside your own systems and stores nothing beyond what you decide. Which data it may see and what it may pass on, we record in writing beforehand.
Will the customer notice they are talking to an assistant?
Yes, always. On the phone the assistant says so immediately, in the chat and on WhatsApp it is stated. Customers mainly want a quick answer about where their order is; that is what they get.
Read also
Curious what this means for your wholesale business?
Tell us in a short introductory call how orders, stock questions and status questions come in at your company today. You will hear straight away where AI pays off most.
Request an introductory call