MQLFlow

E-commerce Order Automation Case Study

Knowing what to automate first, then AI that keeps customers updated

Our audit showed a retailer where their team's time was going and the return on each automation. Then we built their top priority: AI that turns supplier emails into customer updates.

Topics

Results

  • 11

    automations designed and costed, each with the time it would save

  • 110+1

    hours per month of work identified for automation across the business

  • 12+2

    hours per month gained to focus on customers, from the order automation alone

Services we delivered

AI consulting

AI consulting that turned a questionnaire, a workshop and an audit of the client's systems and processes into a clear view of where automation would save time and what to do first.

  • Processes mapped and systems reviewed across the business, including the team's own automations
  • Solution design: a workflow design for each recommended automation
  • An efficiency impact report, with the time saved, build cost and expected ROI of each automation
  • Software recommendations and longer-term options, including direct integration with supplier systems

E-commerce automation

We automated the order process across their Shopify store, purchasing mailbox and order database, so every order line stays accurate.

  • Orders, purchase orders and cancellations in one order database, line by line
  • Suppliers chased on a timetable, with an alert when one still hasn't replied
  • Carrier names standardised for Shopify, so each shipment is recorded correctly

AI integration

AI integration that interprets each supplier reply, in whatever form it comes, and turns it into an accurate order update.

  • AI judgement on free text and attachments, not a fixed template
  • Understands relative dates, misspellings, partial order numbers and partial shipments
  • A confidence score on every update, with uncertain ones sent to the team to check first

The brief

Our client is an e-commerce retailer serving the US and UK markets through Shopify, with most products shipped direct from the manufacturers. They keep prices competitive by running a lean team, so every hour matters. They had already automated some tasks themselves and wanted expert help to go further, so they brought us in for AI consulting to audit their systems and processes and find where automation would save the most time.

Of everything our audit found, their most immediate need was the order process: customers wanted to know when their order would ship, but ship dates and tracking arrived as supplier emails, each written differently and sometimes in an attachment, and the team relayed them and chased late replies by hand. Including the wait for a supplier's reply, a customer could wait one to two business days for an update. Connecting directly to supplier systems was a longer-term goal, so they needed AI that could interpret any supplier's email, and a custom Shopify integration to update the order and the customer. We designed and built the e-commerce automation that now does both.

Considerations

We designed the solution around what mattered most to the client and their customers.

  • Every supplier writes differently. Ship dates and tracking arrive in free text or attachments, with dates like "next Monday" and orders that ship in parts, so it took AI judgement, not fixed rules.
  • Nothing guessed. A customer should only ever see a confirmed ship date and the right tracking number, so anything the AI isn't sure of goes to the team to check first.
  • Timely supplier chases. A chasing timetable had to catch missing ship dates and tracking early, before a customer had to ask.
  • Built into their own systems. It works with their Shopify store, purchasing mailbox and existing purchase orders, and runs in the client's own accounts, so they own it.

Approach

We audited across the business first, so the client could choose what to automate on time saved, cost and return, then built their top priority with their team.

  • A full audit. After a questionnaire for the team and a consultation workshop, we reviewed their systems and the automations they had already built, and mapped processes from order handling and quoting to supplier onboarding and customer reviews, using the team's own time figures.
  • A costed roadmap and impact report. Each recommended automation came with a workflow design, the time it would save, its build cost and expected ROI, and our report set out the efficiency gains across the business. We presented it to the client and agreed the priorities with them.
  • Built and tested with the team. We built the order automation first, as their top priority, and tested it with their team against every kind of supplier reply, from misspelled dates and PDF attachments to forwarded emails, and their feedback shaped the daily review digest.

Solution

AI order automation that interprets every supplier's emails, updates each order in Shopify and keeps customers informed, bringing in the team only when the AI isn't sure.

  • Interprets every reply. AI separates the supplier's latest reply from the email thread, reads any attachment, and extracts the ship date, tracking number, carrier and items, even from misspellings or partial order numbers.
  • Every order line tracked. Orders, purchase orders and cancellations flow from Shopify into one order database, so orders that ship in parts or on revised dates stay accurate.
  • Checked before it's applied. Each update is matched to the right purchase order, supplier and items, with a confidence score. Anything uncertain goes to the team in one daily digest.
  • Suppliers chased automatically. A follow-up goes out after two days without a reply and again when tracking is missing, and the team is alerted if a supplier still hasn't answered.
  • Customers kept informed. New and changed ship dates are emailed automatically, items shipping together share one email, and tracking is added to the order in Shopify.

Result

The order process now runs automatically end to end, from a new Shopify order to the customer's shipping update. The lean team gained 12+ hours per month from this first project alone, time back to spend on customers.

  • Faster answers for customers. Customers get their ship date and tracking once the supplier confirms them, without waiting for someone to pass them on.
  • Accurate updates from every supplier. Replies are understood however they're written, and the team only checks the ones the AI isn't sure of.
  • Suppliers kept on track. Every supplier on the system is chased on a timetable, so missing ship dates and tracking come to light early.
  • A clear plan for what's next. The client knows where automation will save the most time across the business, and the next projects are already scoped.
  • Growing with the business. The client has since extended the system and asked us to take on more.

Notes

  1. 1.The total of our audit's time-saving estimates for the 11 recommended automations, from the team's own time figures. ↩
  2. 2.Our audit's estimate for the order process, from the client's own time figures. ↩

Is your team copying details from emails into your systems by hand?

Book a call. Whether it's supplier confirmations, orders or customer requests, tell us what lands in your inbox and we'll show you how AI could handle it, or start with an audit of where automation would save your team the most time.

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