Import & Distribution

Consumer Goods Distribution & Sales (B2B Food & Disposables)

Distribution & Sales of Food Products and Disposables (B2B)

A 70-item order that took a sales rep 7 minutes to key in became an order that captures itself straight from the customer's WhatsApp, flows into the handheld terminals and is approved — even at 3 a.m.

WhatsApp Business API
Accounting system (SQL)
Handheld terminal order-intake system
Supabase
AI for free-text parsing
Email / FTP
Challenge

The Challenge

At a B2B distribution company for food products and disposables, field sales reps spent roughly 80% of their day keying in orders instead of selling. Customers send orders in free-text WhatsApp messages, and the rep types them in item by item on a handheld terminal — entering a large order (up to 70 items from a catalog of around 2,000 products) took up to 7 minutes. In practice, the reps had become clerks in the field. The difficulty didn't end with volume: customers use their own abbreviations (C=carton, U=units), non-standard product names and spelling mistakes, and every customer has fixed preferences ('this customer always orders by the carton'). Above all was the pricing problem: 'it pulls price list 1 at 70 shekels, but I actually charge 45', plus the fear that the system would pull an old price after a price increase — in a competitive market where every mistake erodes trust.

Solution

The Solution

We built an end-to-end automated intake pipeline for WhatsApp orders. When a customer sends a free-text order to the existing business number, the system identifies them by phone number and parses the message using a combination of code logic (fixed abbreviations such as C=carton, U=units) and AI (non-standard product names, substitutes and spelling errors), and matches quantities and units to the customer's preferences from their history. Prices are pulled from the invoice and order history in the existing accounting system — the most recent valid price for that specific customer, not a default and not an old price that lagged behind an increase — and the system automatically alerts and notifies the customer when a price has changed. Customer, item, inventory and pricing data sync from the accounting system to a local Supabase database every two hours, and every order goes through an inventory availability check and rounding to minimum quantities before intake. The processed order is automatically injected into the handheld terminal system as a planned order for the rep's review — keeping human control in place — and the customer receives an immediate confirmation with an item summary and final price, 24/7, including orders sent overnight.

Our Approach

Connecting the WhatsApp Business API to the existing business number
Hybrid parsing engine: code logic for fixed abbreviations (C/U) + AI for free text, non-standard names, substitutes and spelling errors
Automatic customer identification by phone number and matching to preferences from history (units/cartons, frequently ordered items)
Connection to the accounting system's SQL to pull customers, items, inventory and prices, with automatic sync every two hours to a local Supabase database
Pulling the most recent valid price for each customer (ignoring orders with substitutes/notes) + automatic customer notification on a price change
Inventory availability and order-validity check (rounding to minimum quantities) before intake
Injecting the processed order into the handheld terminal system as a planned order for the rep's review, including a change log
Immediate WhatsApp confirmation to the customer with item summary, final price and status — 24/7 including overnight orders

Technologies Used

WhatsApp Business APIAccounting system (SQL)Handheld terminal order-intake systemSupabaseAI for free-text parsingEmail / FTP

The service behind this project

Business Automation
Results

The Results

Orders that arrive on WhatsApp are captured, priced, checked against inventory and entered into the handheld terminal system automatically — instead of manual keying of up to 7 minutes per large order. The reps were freed from the clerk-in-the-field role and returned to focusing on selling, without giving up control: every order waits for their approval as a planned order on the terminal. Customers get an immediate confirmation at any hour — including orders sent overnight — and pricing is based on each customer's real historical price, with a proactive alert on price changes that protects trust with the customer. (The client did not define numeric cost-saving targets, so the results are described qualitatively rather than in numbers.)
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