AI suggested orders, shelf photos and stock-out forecast
At the shop, Suggest fills the order with what the shop is due for and what shops like it buy, each with a reason. The AI reads shelf audit photos for your share of the shelf, missing items and competitor prices. Each dealer item gets a run-out date, with the season counted.
PLANSScale only
The problem it solves
- Salesmen take the same five items at every shop and never offer what the shop is due for.
- Shelf audits come back as photos nobody has time to look at.
- A dealer runs out in the festive month because last month's sales rate was used to reorder.
- New salesmen do not know a shop's buying pattern.
How it works
- At a shop, the salesman opens the party in the SmartMy Distribution app and presses Suggest. The order fills with up to 8 items, each with its quantity, price and a reason such as Usually bought every 14 days.
- The salesman changes or removes lines and places the order as usual. Nothing is ordered until he does.
- After a shelf audit with photos, the app asks the AI to read the shelf. It shows your share of the shelf and how many of your items were not seen. The office can repeat it with Read the Shelf with AI.
- Every night the dealer stock cover works out each item's forecast sales a day, adjusted for the season from last year. It also works out the Runs Out On date.
- Reports > Dealers and Stock > Dealer Stock Cover > Running Out in 7 Days lists what to restock. The control tower raises an alert for the area manager.
Everything it does
Suggested order
- Due items: what the shop bought in the last 180 days (a dealer's orders, or a retailer's secondary sales). Also how often, the usual quantity and days since it last bought. An item is due at 80 % of its usual gap
- Peer items: what up to 50 shops like it bought in the last 90 days that it does not. Peers are the same area for a retailer, the same dealer group for a dealer. The top 5 are offered
- With AI on for the user: the AI picks and orders at most 8 items, using only the items given. Each has a reason of 10 words or fewer
- Without AI, with the credits used up or when the AI cannot answer: the same list by rule. Due items come first, then up to 3 peer items
- Prices from the party's price list; quantities in whole units, at least 1
- A dealer with an open replenishment proposal, or items at their minimum, gets those quantities instead, by stock and with no AI call
Shelf photo reading
- Works on shelf audit forms with photo questions
- Sends the audit's photos and the names of up to 150 of your saleable items
- Keeps on the audit: Share of Shelf (AI, %), Our Items Not Seen, and Competitor Items Seen (with price where a tag is readable). Also an AI Note and Read by AI On
- The AI is told to answer only from what is visible and not to guess prices
- Competitor items found are kept as text on the audit; they are not added to your competitor price records
Stock-out forecast (no AI)
- Sales a day over the last 90 days, times a season factor. The factor is the dealer's sales of the coming 30 days last year against the 90 days before them
- The season factor is kept between half and double; with no history it is 1
- Forecast Sales a Day, Season and Runs Out On on the Dealer Stock Cover
- A statistical forecast: no AI call, no credits, and you can see how it was worked out
- The same forecast sets dealers' minimum and maximum for auto-replenishment
AI calls, what is saved, limits
- Two model calls exist on this page: dist_suggest (fast tier) when Suggest is pressed with AI on, and dist_shelf (smart tier) for each shelf reading. The model is chosen on our side
- Suggest sends the item names and buying figures of the shop and its peers, with no names of people
- Saved without review: the shelf reading fields on the audit. Not saved: a suggestion, until the salesman places the order
- Each call needs AI switched on for the user, is logged in AI Usage and is counted on the plan's AI credits
- A call waits up to 3 minutes. If the AI service is away, Suggest falls back to the rule and the shelf can be read later from the office
Who uses it
SalesmanPresses Suggest at the shop, edits the order, and takes shelf photos in the audit.
Area managerReads shelf share and missing items by outlet, and acts on items running out at dealers.
Distribution managerReads the Dealer Stock Cover with its run-out dates and plans stock with dealers.
AdministratorSwitches AI on for the users who may use it and watches AI Usage.
Where you use it
- The SmartMy Distribution app: Suggest on a party's order, and the shelf reading right after a shelf audit with photos. Built and in testing, not in the app stores yet
- Web: Read the Shelf with AI on a shelf audit; Reports > Dealers and Stock > Dealer Stock Cover with Running Out in 7 Days; Reports > Control Tower
- Not on the dealer portal for the AI suggestion: the portal's Running low card uses the stock figures, not AI
- Not on WhatsApp
What you control
Settings
- AI switched on per user
- Fixed in the code: 180 days of the shop's history, 90 days of peers, up to 8 items, 7 days for Running Out
- Stock norms of the entity or dealer group, which the stock cover uses
Notifications
- Control Tower Alert: an item forecast to run out within 7 days, to the area manager, in the app and as a phone notification
Questions
Does the AI place orders by itself?
No. Suggest only fills the order on the salesman's screen. He changes it and places it. The AI never saves an order.What happens when our AI credits run out?
Suggest still works by rule: due items from the shop's history and items its peers buy. Shelf reading stops until the credits renew or more are bought. The stock-out forecast never uses AI.How accurate is the shelf reading?
It is an estimate from the photos. The AI is told to answer only from what is visible and not to guess prices. Good light and a straight photo of the whole shelf help. It has not yet been tried at a customer.What data leaves our system?
For Suggest, item names and buying figures, no people's names. For shelf reading, the photos and your item names. Calls go to the AI service of your SmartMy subscription and are logged in AI Usage.Is the stock-out forecast AI?
No. It is last 90 days' sales a day, adjusted by last year's season, which you can check by hand. That keeps it free of credits and easy to explain to a dealer.Related features
RETAILERS AND FIELD SALESVisit forms and shelf auditsYour own forms for salesmen to fill at a visit: surveys, feedback, and shelf audits whose yes or no questions earn points. Each audit scores the outlet.DEALER STOCK AND MESSAGESDealer stock ledger, stock cover and suggested reorderEach dealer's stock of your items as a ledger, with its damaged and expired goods. See how many days of sales it holds, and the reorder that brings it back to your norm. One click turns the suggestion into a dealer order.LARGE NETWORKSAuto-replenishment for dealersEach dealer gets a minimum and a maximum per item from its forecast sales and your lead time. Every day, where stock has fallen to the minimum, an order up to the maximum is proposed. It is placed, suggested to the dealer, or held for your office.LARGE NETWORKSControl tower alertsEvery morning SmartMy Distribution checks the network and raises alerts for the right area manager. Dealers not ordering, retailers who stopped buying, stock-outs, late dealer figures, salesmen without visits or away from the shops. The manager closes each one as Dealt With.LARGE NETWORKSThe salesman app, also offlineThe SmartMy Distribution app for Android and iPhone runs the salesman's day: the beat, visits, orders, collections, forms and new retailers. On Scale it keeps working without signal and sends what was done, in order, when the phone is back online.LARGE NETWORKSDuplicate outlets caught by photoA salesman adds a shop that is already there under another name. The AI compares its shop photo with the photos of the outlets nearby and lists the likely pair. An area manager merges them, and the shop's history ends up on one outlet.
See your market on it.
Tell us how many dealers and salesmen you have, and how orders and claims reach you today. We will set up your dealers, price lists and beats with you.