Ordering channels
An order sent as a PDF is read the same as one typed at ten.
A typed email, a forwarded thread, a photographed list, a PDF - all of it becomes the same priced line, on the same catalogue, at the same price.
Email order automation reads a wholesale order wherever it lands in an inbox - typed in the body, forwarded from another thread, a photographed list, or a PDF - and turns it into priced order lines against the wholesaler's own catalogue, at that customer's own price, the same way a WhatsApp message is read.
Not every customer types an order straight into a message. Some forward the same list they send every week, buried three replies deep in a thread nobody has cleaned up. Some photograph what is pinned to the kitchen wall and attach it. Some send a PDF because that is what their own ordering system produces. None of that should mean re-typing it by hand at five in the morning, and it does not - it goes through the same reading, matching and pricing as any other channel.
How it works
- 01The order arrives by email in whatever shape it takes - typed into the body, forwarded from a chain with three replies above it, a photo of a handwritten list, or a PDF.
- 02Text is read out of it - directly if it is typed, or from the image or document if it is a photo or a PDF.
- 03Each line is matched against the wholesaler's own catalogue, in the words the email actually used, not a fixed product name.
- 04That customer's own pricing applies automatically, the same as on any other channel.
- 05Anything it cannot place with confidence is held in its own lane rather than guessed.
- 06The priced order joins the buy list, the picking sheet and the round, with nobody re-typing it from the inbox.
Plainly
What it will not do on its own
- It does not reply inside the email thread itself - a held-back line is answered by a person on the same thread the order came in on.
- A poor scan, a photo taken at an angle, or a PDF that is a photo of a photo, can read badly; that line goes into the held-back lane rather than being guessed.
- It reads the inbox it is given for ordering - it does not sort or manage the wholesaler's wider mailbox.
- It does not negotiate a price or send a written quote back over email - it turns what was ordered into priced lines, nothing more.
Questions people ask
- What counts as email order automation?
- Email order automation reads an order wherever it lands in an inbox - typed in the body, forwarded from another thread, a photographed list, or a PDF - and turns it into priced order lines against the wholesaler's own catalogue, with nobody re-typing it by hand.
- Can it read a PDF or a photo, not just typed text?
- Yes. Text is read out of a photographed list or a PDF the same way it is read from typed text, and each line is matched against the catalogue in the words that were actually used.
- What happens to a forwarded email chain with several replies in it?
- The order lines are read out of the chain and matched to the catalogue. Anything the system cannot place with confidence - which a messy chain makes more likely - is held back and asked about rather than guessed.
- Does this work alongside WhatsApp ordering, or instead of it?
- Alongside it. A customer who emails is read the same way as one who sends a WhatsApp message, and both end up as priced lines on the same buy list and picking sheet.
Give us one night.
Send us one evening's orders. We run the night next to you. In the morning you compare the two.