The Project

Bars, Bakeries, and the Coca-Cola Company

The WhatsApp sales channel project began with a survey of a closed group of 20 business owners and culminated in a rollout of the solution to hundreds of Coca-Cola resellers across Brazil. The experience involves seamless ordering and contact with Coca-Cola via WhatsApp, with support from sales representatives at crucial points in the journey, but not during the critical process of day-to-day orders.

The Challenge

Transforming the sales process

Outracoisa* was invited to participate in a major challenge for Coca-Cola's distribution chain. Digitizing the sales process for small retailers, reducing friction, accelerating processes, and bringing greater convenience and intelligence. The challenge included mapping the purchasing journey of bar and bakery owners and understanding which part should remain human and which could be replaced by a robot. We realized that user profiles varied greatly in terms of culture and proficiency in using digital tools.

The Process

One step at a time

The first phase of the process involved a prototype for internal use by Coca-Cola and the bottling companies responsible for distribution. Retailers and sales representatives were interviewed, a thorough immersion into the possibilities WhatsApp offered at the time took place (the feature list and WhatsApp policies evolved throughout the process). In the second phase, with a more structured pilot, we released the solution to a control group of 20 local retailers that were able to provide us with diverse feedback. We realized that the personas responsible for placing orders vary significantly, and the solution was more enthusiastically received by those with greater digital maturity. We gathered the learnings, refined the workflows and phraseology, and moved on to the third phase, which was released to a much larger number of retailers, with the bot being tested at 120 points of sale in Brasília, São Paulo, and Ribeirão Preto. Soon after, it was also enabled in Manaus, reaching a total of 200 customers. At this point, the focus was on adjusting logistics, infrastructure, and internal processes. Finally, the fourth phase was opening the doors to thousands of retailers across Brazil.

The Solution

Ease and intelligence in the palm of your hand

The WhatsApp bot focuses on allowing retailers to take frictionless orders, but they can also make other requests, such as refrigerator repairs and invoice issuance. Besides the convenience and speed, it also boasts intelligence, capable of programmatically predicting when a particular product will be out of stock at a given establishment and suggesting advance purchases to avoid empty refrigerators.