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
- Order processing: reads orders from email, WhatsApp or PDF, matches products, checks pricing, creates the order.
- Stock and forecasting: learns real sales history and adjusts reorder points for seasonality and supplier lead times.
- Customer chat: answers trade queries and takes reorders over email or WhatsApp.
- Invoice chasing: sends polite, personal reminders automatically on the right day.
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, stock and demand forecasting, customer chat, and invoice chasing are the four areas distributors feel first: orders retyped from email, stock counts guessed on a Friday, overdue invoices nobody chases, and customer queries waiting for a free desk.
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.