AI for wholesale: from email to ERP without typing
Every morning 60 emails with orders and questions. All processed manually. Until now. This is how order automation works for wholesale in practice.
TerenceEvery morning the same ritual: inbox open, 60 emails with orders, questions and complaints. Process them one by one. Look up product numbers, check quantities, type orders into AFAS or Exact. It's work that someone has to do, but it no longer has to be done by a human.
The pain of wholesale
Wholesale companies have a specific problem: high transaction volume, low margin per order. Every minute lost to manual processing counts double. The most common time-wasters:
- Order processing via email, customers send orders in PDF, Excel or plain text. Everything must be manually entered into the ERP.
- Stock information, customers call or email to ask if something is in stock. Look up and report back each time.
- Complaints and returns, standard procedure, but re-explained and registered every time.
- Price quotes, customers regularly ask for specific price agreements. Look up, calculate, email back.
Average wholesale company spends 3 hours daily on manual email order processing
What AI can handle automatically
AI reads unstructured emails and understands the intent. A customer who writes "can you deliver 200 units art. 4821-B by Thursday?", the system recognises the product, checks inventory and queues the order in AFAS or Exact Online. Without anyone having to read it.
- Order processing, email, PDF or Excel automatically converted to ERP order. 60–70% of all orders can run fully automatically.
- Stock information, automatic response by email or WhatsApp with current availability
- Complaint handling, standard complaints recognised and automatically routed to the right department
- Invoice processing, incoming invoices automatically matched with orders and forwarded for approval
No complex software changes, no new ERP system. We connect AI to your existing AFAS, Exact Online or other package. You keep your familiar environment, the data entry disappears.
How a wholesale company uses AI in practice
A technical wholesale company in manufacturing processed 45 order emails daily manually, 4 minutes per order is 3 hours per day. After implementing an order agent, manual work dropped by 70%. Error rate in addresses and product numbers: from 8% to less than 1%.
What does it cost and what does it yield?
Order automation for a medium-sized wholesale company typically costs €4,500–€8,000 one-time, plus a monthly retainer for management and updates. With 3 hours of daily savings on an employee at €45/hour, annual savings are €30,000+. Payback period: 2–3 months.
Ready to get started?
Request a free consultation. We look together at where you are losing time.
Schedule free callReady to take the step?
Most wholesale companies still work completely manually. The first to automate in your niche has a serious competitive advantage: faster order processing, fewer errors, higher customer satisfaction.