B2B Supplier Workflows to Automate on WhatsApp, Ranked
These are the six buyer conversations a distributor, wholesaler or trade supplier should automate first, ranked by how much time or revenue each one recovers. The ranking assumes a business with a few hundred trade accounts, a small sales and customer service team, buyers who message on WhatsApp and send purchase orders by email, and stock, prices, customers and invoices kept in an accounting or ERP system, sometimes alongside an online store. Each one links to a recipe page with a description you can paste into AeroChat, what to connect and what you still decide.
For the market data and plan sizing, see the B2B suppliers overview.
The ranking at a glance
| Rank | Workflow | What it recovers | Why it ranks here |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Product and stock questions | Orders that go to the supplier who answers first | The most frequent question, and the one buyers ask several suppliers at once |
| 2 | Quote requests | Sales time spent matching lines to product codes | Each quote reaches sales ready to price |
| 3 | Order placement and repeat orders | Order entry time, and errors from retyping | Repeat orders are most of a supplier’s volume |
| 4 | Order status and delivery | Customer service time on “where is my PO” | High volume, and the answer is a lookup |
| 5 | Account and invoice questions | Finance time on copies and balances, and faster payment | A buyer who gets the invoice copy today can pay today |
| 6 | Sales rep handover | Margin and relationships | Low volume, high stakes, and every setup needs it before going live |
The six workflows
1. Answer product and stock questions
A buyer writes “Do you have 500 pcs of M8 bolts in stock? What’s the lead time for 2000?”. AeroChat finds the product by name or code in your system, says how many are available now and the lead time for the rest, sends the spec sheet or certificate if asked, and gives a price only once it knows which account is asking. This ranks first because buyers often send the same question to two or three suppliers, and the first clear answer usually gets the order.
Product and stock questions recipe
2. Prepare quote requests for sales
A buyer sends a list of 30 items, half by name and half by their own codes. AeroChat matches each line to your product codes, asks about the unclear ones, applies your minimum order quantities and creates a draft quote in your system with the delivery address and date needed, for sales to price.
3. Take orders and repeat orders
“Same as last month but double the cable ties.” AeroChat reads back the last order from your system, applies the change, confirms the delivery details and creates the order as a draft for your order desk. Prepaid buyers get a payment link. Accounts on credit terms never do.
4. Answer order status and delivery questions
“When is PO 4471 shipping?” AeroChat checks the account, finds the order and gives the status and delivery date from your system or your store. Late orders are flagged to your team with the account name.
5. Answer account and invoice questions
“Can you send me the invoice for last week’s delivery?” and “what is our outstanding balance?” AeroChat checks the buyer is an authorised contact for the account, sends the invoice copy or the balance from your accounting system, and passes disputes to your finance team.
Account and invoice questions recipe
6. Hand negotiations and key accounts to the sales rep
Credit terms, special prices, large projects, unhappy key accounts and new trade account enquiries need a person. AeroChat collects the details, hands the conversation to the right sales rep and tells the buyer when to expect a reply. It ranks last because the volume is low. Set it up before any other workflow goes live.
What they connect to
- Your accounting or ERP system for products, stock, price levels, customers and their contacts, payment terms, orders and invoices. Xero, QuickBooks Online or Oracle NetSuite connect through their APIs: approve AeroChat’s access in Xero or QuickBooks Online when AeroChat asks, or for NetSuite, have your administrator create an access token for AeroChat and paste it in. Every workflow checks the customer record first.
- Your online store. If you sell to trade buyers on Shopify or WordPress, both are built in, and products, stock and orders come from there.
- Airwallex, built in, for prepaid orders. HitPay and Stripe connect through their APIs if you already use them.
- Your courier. If it has a public API, AeroChat reads tracking from it.
- WhatsApp and email (Gmail or Office 365) in one inbox, so the quote discussed on WhatsApp and the PO sent by email sit together.
Using a different system? If it has a public API, it connects to AeroChat the same way: describe what you want, paste in its key, and it runs.
Can’t find your tool? Message us in the chat on this page and we’ll tell you how it connects.
What stays with your team
- Credit terms, credit limits and any special price.
- Pricing a quote. AeroChat prepares it, sales prices it.
- Approving draft orders, if you want a person to check them before they go to the warehouse.
- Invoice disputes, claims for short or damaged deliveries, and returns.
- New trade account approvals.
- Any buyer it cannot match to an account, before trade prices or order details are shared.
Each recipe hands these over with the details collected, so your team picks up the conversation without asking the buyer to repeat themselves.
How they fit together
The account check is the base. Every workflow matches the buyer’s phone number or email to a contact on a customer record in your system before it shares a trade price, an order or an invoice. Stock questions lead into quotes, quotes lead into orders, and orders lead into status questions, so each workflow reads from and writes to the same system your team already uses. The sales rep handover runs alongside all of them. When a buyer asks for 60-day terms in the middle of an order, the order pauses and the rep takes over.
You can paste the recipes one at a time. When you paste the second, AeroChat sees what you already have and adds to it rather than building a duplicate.
Build your first one
Start with product and stock questions and the sales rep handover together. Connect your accounting or ERP system, paste both, and test from a number that is not on any customer record to check it gives list price only.
Start your 7-day free trial. No credit card needed.
On Shopify? Install AeroChat from the Shopify App Store.