AI for wholesale distributors
Why distributors need a different kind of AI
Most AI-for-supply-chain companies build for brands: the manufacturers who ship product into distributors. Distributors sit between producers and thousands of trade customers, each with their own pricing, payment terms, and relationship history, which is a different shape of problem.
Brands optimise around their own SKUs, their own production line, their own forecast. Distributors optimise around other people's SKUs, across hundreds of suppliers, for thousands of trade customers. That means the data model, the integrations (Bevica and Xero rather than SAP IBP and NetSuite), and the workflows are all different.
What AI for wholesale distributors actually does
- Trade order intake, live in Conducta today: reads order emails and attachments, matches products and pricing, and queues reviewed orders with draft invoice and warehouse outputs for a named person to review and confirm.
- Inventory intelligence: a planned service being scoped to surface stock cover, run rates and stockout risk so a team can decide where to act.
- Customer chat: a planned service being scoped around trade queries, reorders and human handover.
- Invoice chasing: a planned service being scoped around timely reminders and human review for sensitive cases.
Built by distributors, for distributors
Conducta was built inside a working wholesale distributor, Sip Champagnes, and tested there before being offered to any other business. Every feature has to earn its place in a real P&L, not a pitch deck.
Inside Sip Champagnes, switching Conducta on lifted gross profit by 58% and cut operating loss by 96%, measured against the company's own audited management accounts.
Frequently asked questions
What makes AI for wholesale distributors different from AI for brands?
Brands optimise around their own SKUs, their own production line, their own forecast. Distributors optimise around other people's SKUs, across hundreds of suppliers, for thousands of trade customers, so the data model, integrations, and workflows are all different.
What does AI for wholesale distributors typically automate?
Order processing is often the first workflow because orders retyped from email create immediate cost and error risk. Stock visibility, customer queries and invoice chasing are other operational areas distributors commonly evaluate, but availability depends on the product and provider.
Does AI for wholesale distributors replace an ERP?
No. It is designed to sit on top of the systems a distributor already runs, such as Bevica and Xero, and to connect to most mainstream ERPs and CRMs through their APIs, rather than asking a team to migrate.
Is there proof AI for wholesale distributors works?
Yes. Inside Sip Champagnes, a real London wine and spirits wholesaler, switching Conducta on lifted gross profit by 58% and cut operating loss by 96%, measured against the company's own audited management accounts.
See it running on a real wholesale P&L
Thirty minutes with a founder. Bring your three most painful manual processes.