AI workflows for wholesalers and distributors.
Businesses that buy goods in bulk and sell them on to retailers, trades and other businesses.
Who does this work
- General manager
- Purchasing manager
- Sales manager
107 workflow templates for e-commerce and retail ready to adapt, and 37 workflows identified across the industry.
Updated
- Prepare a brief before a key customer or partner conversationIllustrative
- Turn a buyer's request into a proposal or quoteIllustrative
- Allocate landed costs to unit costs
- Audit how an online store reads to AI assistants
- Build the store facts file
Workflow templates for e-commerce and retail
These are written for e-commerce and retail as a whole and apply across the industry, wholesalers and distributors included.
Show all 107 workflow templates
Affiliate onboardingA programme owner brings a new affiliate or creator in: the code and link the store gave are checked against the programme rules and a test at checkout, then a welcome pack and a dated first-weeks checklist are prepared. A person sends, creates and pays.Workflow templateAnalysis planBefore anyone opens the spreadsheet, the owner or manager gets a one-page plan: the question restated, the hypotheses, the fields and periods needed, and the result that would change the decision. It runs no analysis and states no finding. You own the question and the criteria.Workflow templateAnnual operating budgetFor an owner or finance lead preparing next year: revenue and costs by month and by team, built from this year's figures and each budget owner's drivers, every assumption written down, capital purchases listed apart, the whole checked against cash, and the questions leadership has to settle.Workflow templateApp data requirementsWhen the requirements for an internal app leave fields or actions unclear, the business systems analyst gets one data specification: entities, fields, who reads and writes each, and every unresolved name as a question. Nothing is built or changed.Workflow templateBank reconciliation preparationBefore the month is signed off, your bookkeeper holds one bank reconciliation for one account: every statement line matched to the books or explained, every open item aged, a proof that the two balances agree, and the entries still to make. Nothing is posted until a person approves.Workflow templateBatch distribution traceWhen the quality lead needs to know where one production batch went, they get a map from the batch record to every recorded shipment: quantities, transfers and repacking links, with each gap in the trace written as a question. It decides no hold and contacts nobody.Workflow templateBill of lading field checkWhen a draft bill of lading arrives before it is issued, the documentation specialist gets a field-by-field comparison with the booking, the shipper's instructions and the packing list, with every difference marked. Nothing is issued or corrected.Workflow templateBusiness continuity planFor an owner or operations manager: the activities the business cannot stop for long, how long each can be down and how much data it can lose, what each depends on, the fallback for each, and named owners, deputies, contacts and a test date, ready for a competent reviewer and the owner's approval.Workflow templateBusiness model assumptions reviewBefore you commit money to a new or revised business model, see it block by block with every claim marked evidenced or assumed, the riskiest assumptions ranked, and the cheapest test for each. You choose what to test; no projection or valuation is made.Workflow templateCampaign audience checkWhen an audience export is ready for review, the campaign owner gets it segmented with reconciled counts, the exclusions applied and the records whose contact status needs checking, with conflicts, stale records and duplicates kept visible.Workflow templateCampaign build sheetWhen an approved campaign brief is ready to become a setup specification, the campaign operator gets one build sheet: names, audiences, exclusions, destinations, budgets and measurement fields, with every unresolved setting and missing asset marked as a gap. Nothing is built or spent.Workflow templateCampaign claim evidence registerAn account lead gets a register that pairs each draft campaign claim with the evidence the client supplied, its source date, proposed qualified wording and the approvals still missing. Unsupported or stale claims are blocked; only approved wording is released.Workflow templateCarrier freight invoice checkThe freight auditor gets a carrier invoice checked line by line against the shipment export and the rate confirmation: duplicate lines, rate differences and extra charges with no delivery or waiting-time record, each tied to its shipment. Accounts payable decides what to pay or dispute.Workflow templateCarrier performance reviewThe shipping lead gets a lane-by-lane comparison of carriers from the delivery export and the freight charges: on-time delivery, damage, tracking gaps and cost, each with the shipments behind it. A person decides whether to raise issues or change carrier.Workflow templateCategory sourcing planFor the buyer or operations lead who owns one spend category, such as packaging or IT hardware: its spend and suppliers on one page, where it sits on a supply-risk and spend matrix, the value levers the evidence supports, and a dated sourcing plan. A person chooses the approach.Workflow templateChurn risk and save planOnce a quarter, the owner or account lead sees why customers really left, read from your own cancellation notes and records, how many left for each cause, and one change to try for each, with an owner, a start date and the count that will show whether it helped. A person decides every change.Workflow templateClient campaign performance reportAt the weekly or monthly reporting cutoff, the analyst gets a client report in the agency's format from the exports supplied: source figures, a drafted narrative, anomalies and discussion points. Gaps stay gaps, and every explanation is labelled a hypothesis.Workflow templateClient schedule to ledger reconciliationWhen a client's subledger schedule and trial balance disagree, the responsible accountant gets one worksheet: both balances proved, every timing difference and unexplained entry listed, and the next step for each. Nothing is posted; every explanation waits for a person.Workflow templateCloud spend variance bridgeWhen cloud or tooling costs move away from budget, the finance lead and the engineering manager get a bridge from budget to actual by service and cost owner, with usage beside each large move, the unallocated and shared costs, and the questions each side must answer.Workflow templateComparison claim checkA manager holding a claim such as "version B converts better" and two groups of numbers gets back the method used, the size of the difference, how uncertain it is, the assumptions checked, and plain wording for what the data does and does not support. The manager decides what to do.Workflow templateCompetitor profile from public pagesYour marketing lead gets a dated profile of a named competitor, built only from its public pages: what they say, sell and charge, kept apart from what that suggests and the questions it raises for you. Any figure no page states is marked unavailable, never estimated.Workflow templateComplaint and refund request handlingA customer complains or asks for money back, and whoever handles it gets your policy's answer: the order matched, each condition checked, the amount worked out, any refund set out for a named person to approve, and a reply ready to edit and send.Workflow templateComponent inventory auditWhen patterns come up for review, the design-system owner gets an inventory built from the library export and its documentation: every component with its naming, token and state gaps, and the pairs that may overlap. Nothing is merged on appearance; the owner decides.Workflow templateComponent specificationWhen an approved reusable component needs documenting, the design-system owner gets one specification of its variants, states, usage rules and accessibility notes, set beside the existing patterns, with every gap or clash written as a choice for the owner.Workflow templateCost of poor quality worksheetAn owner or operations lead who senses that rework, scrap and returns are costly gets one worksheet: the failure costs already on record, sorted by category, with estimates, gaps and unresolved allocations listed. The owner decides what to fix first.Workflow templateCreative fatigue reviewWhen a campaign's reach or response pattern prompts a creative review, the paid media lead gets frequency and response set against the campaign's own baseline, by creative and audience, with other explanations marked and options to test.Workflow templateCreative test evidence reviewWhen a batch of ad creative is ready for review, the creative strategist and media lead get an evidence table by creative, angle, format and hook, with tentative learning and next-test options. No winner or loser is named, and thin evidence is held back.Workflow templateCreator campaign performance reportWhen a creator campaign closes, the marketing lead gets one report built from the store's own orders: what each creator brought in and cost, every creator ranked under a metric set beforehand, and a proposed next step for each. Every number is labelled measured, supplied or estimated.Workflow templateCreator campaign planBefore a creator campaign starts, the marketing lead gets one plan: the goal, each creator's deal and deliverables, a base and a conservative budget checked against the budget supplied, the dates, the set-up before launch and the decisions. A person approves the spend.Workflow templateCreator commission statementEach month, the finance lead gets a draft statement of what every creator has earned, worked from the store's orders export: commission under the programme's rules, flat fees, amounts carried under the minimum, and a payout list. A person approves it; finance pays.Workflow templateCreator content reuse planA brand marketer sees which published creator posts may be reused on which of the brand's channels, read only from the usage rights they supply, with every placement ending before the rights do. Where the rights are silent or unclear, the question goes to whoever reviews contracts.Workflow templateCreator discovery longlistBefore anyone scores or contacts a creator, the brand marketer gets a dated longlist from public pages and the names the team supplied: where each creator posts, how they were found, where their follower count came from, whether they already talk about your category, and why they are on the list.Workflow templateCreator outreach draftingA brand marketer gets a first message and three follow-ups for each chosen creator, written for the way that creator can be reached, opening on something they made and stating only the brand's standard offer. A person reads every message and sends it from the brand's own account.Workflow templateCreator programme setupA brand owner or marketing lead writes the rules for working with creators once, in one file: products and cleared statements, platforms, how creators are paid with the arithmetic behind it, codes, payouts, disclosure, brand safety and roles. Every line is the owner's ruling, marked with its source.Workflow templateCreator publication trackingA brand marketer sees, creator by creator, what was agreed against what actually went live: each post checked for its disclosure, code, link and approved version, dated checks that it is still up, and every gap set out as a fix to ask for or a decision to make. A person sends every message.Workflow templateCreator rosterThe programme owner keeps one record of every creator the brand works with: where each relationship stands, what each creator still owes the brand, what the brand still owes each creator, and when rights and exclusivity end. It is built from the files the owner supplies; nothing is sent or paid.Workflow templateCRM field ownership mapBefore a CRM sync or field mapping changes, the systems owner gets a field map from the supplied exports and sample records: each field's source, match keys and conflict rule, with unclear keys, consent fields and duplicates left as questions for each field's owner.Workflow templateCurrent experience baselineBefore a redesign, the design lead gets a baseline built from the captures and page list they supply: each page read with its content and design observations, the patterns that recur, and the pages outside the evidence. The lead confirms the baseline and sets the scope.Workflow templateCustomer feedback themesEach month your support lead sees what customers keep telling you: tickets, disputes, reviews and survey comments grouped into themes with counts and quotations, the three issues most worth fixing with a proposed fix and owner, and a note for customers once a fix ships. A person decides every fix.Workflow templateCustomer reply draftingEvery customer gets the reply your best person would write. Hand over the customer's message, your tone guide and your approved answers, and get back a draft in your voice where every statement and every promise traces to something you approved. A person on your team reads it, edits it and sends it.Workflow templateCustomer satisfaction detractor follow-upEvery week your support lead gets each low satisfaction or recommendation score with the ticket behind it: the customer's own words, what went wrong as far as the ticket shows, a suggested owner and a draft message, plus the trend and a warning wherever the numbers are too thin to read. A person sends every message.Workflow templateDashboard briefBefore anyone builds the dashboard, the requester gets one brief that settles the work: the decisions it serves, what is shown, each metric's definition, the filters, notes on every source and who refreshes it. The requester approves what is shown and the definitions.Workflow templateDataset profileBefore anyone joins or relies on a new export, the analyst gets one profile of it: what one row stands for, where keys repeat, what is missing, which values look odd, and a numbered list of questions for the data owner. No data is changed and no verdict is given.Workflow templateDated stock exposure listBefore the next production or replenishment order, the supply planner gets a batch-by-batch list of stated dates, quantities and locations set against each retailer's acceptance rules, showing which batches need a decision. The quality owner and supply lead decide.Workflow templateDemand and supply reviewThe operations lead gets one monthly review from the demand plan, confirmed supply and stock: where confirmed and likely demand outrun supply, what that does to inventory, and the decision each function head has to make. Sales ambition stays separate and nothing is forecast beyond your figures.Workflow templateDesign handoff recordBefore engineering starts, the design owner gets one record built from the approved design: every state, token, breakpoint and content rule either covered or flagged, with each unstated behaviour written as a question. The engineer confirms the questions are resolved.Workflow templateEmail sequence draftingPeople who asked to hear from you get emails worth opening: a welcome, a nurture sequence or a new customer's onboarding, drafted in your voice, each email with one job and one ask, every claim traced to your own facts, and a clear end. You read, load and send them yourself.Workflow templateFreight shortage record packetWhen a receiver reports missing or damaged freight, the claims coordinator gets one packet lining up dispatch quantities, warehouse scans, bill of lading, proof of delivery, photos and the customer report, with each unanswered question listed. It assigns no fault and sends nothing.Workflow templateHelp article from a resolved issueTurn every answer your team works out once into an article the next customer finds on their own. Hand over a resolved ticket and your list of articles; get back a draft in your customers' words, with their details removed and every step traced to the ticket. Your knowledge-base owner decides what goes live.Workflow templateHelp centre gap reviewOnce a period, your support lead sees what the help centre is missing, read from that period's tickets and search log: questions agents answered by hand, articles that fell short, articles search could not find, and one gap list ranked by the tickets an article could have saved. The lead decides what is written.Workflow templateInbound demand or claim intake recordWhen a demand, claim or subpoena arrives, the company's lawyer gets one intake record the same day: who sent it, what it asks, every date it states, the facts and citations it relies on, related matters, where the records are, and a question on keeping them. It rates nothing and recommends nothing. Prepares work for a lawyer. Not legal advice.Workflow templateInbound receiving exception traceWhen what arrived does not match the advance shipment notice, the receiving supervisor or inventory controller gets the notice, the packing list and the scans side by side by item and lot, with missing references and questions to investigate. Nothing is adjusted and nobody is contacted.Workflow templateInherited campaign auditWhen an agency takes over an account or prepares a campaign health review, the media or analytics lead gets an inventory of what is running against the client's plan: mismatched offers, disagreeing destination pages, missing measurement evidence, and an owner for each follow-up.Workflow templateJourney accessibility findingsWhen a user journey is ready for accessibility review, the reviewer gets a finding list: each finding with its task impact and evidence, the manual checks still required and the limits of the review. The reviewer verifies every finding and agrees fixes with the design owner.Workflow templateKit component availability checkThe stock or online-store lead gets every kit beside the quantity actually sellable, the component that limits it, the stock records that disagree and the listings that promise more than can be built. Nothing is changed until a person decides.Workflow templateLapsed-customer win-backOnce a month, the owner or account manager sees which regular customers have gone far longer than usual without ordering, ranked by what each bought in their last active year, with open complaints set aside for a call and a short note drafted for the rest, using only approved offers. A person approves every note.Workflow templateLaunch checklistWhoever owns a launch date gets one dated checklist for the weeks before, the day itself and the weeks after, with an owner on every line. Each announcement is written out so the approver sees exactly what goes out, to whom and from where before saying go. Nothing is announced by the assistant.Workflow templateMetric definition reconciliationWhen two reports give different numbers for one metric, the owner gets a page: the definitions side by side, the gap bridged step by step from supplied records, each cause marked shown or not, and a proposed common measure. The owner chooses.Workflow templateMissed dock window recovery briefThe dispatch supervisor gets one brief when a truck misses its dock appointment and the reports disagree: each stated arrival time, the receiving cutoff, the appointment record and the questions that need a decision. It contacts no one and books nothing.Workflow templateNotification channel planWhen a business event needs to notify people, the integration owner gets one channel plan from the event definitions: trigger, urgency, who is told by which channel, what needs confirmation, fallbacks and reply handling. Consent and message rules stay as questions. Nothing is sent.Workflow templateOperations KPI scorecardOnce a month the operations manager gets one red-amber-green page for the ten or fewer measures that run the operation: each value worked out from your own exports, its trend, what moved and why in the owner's words, and the action agreed for every red. You set the measures and decide the actions.Workflow templateOrder size comparisonWhen a supplier offers a bigger discounted order, the inventory planner gets each quantity costed the same way: yearly cost, cash tied up, months of cover and storage fit. The planner chooses the quantity; nothing is ordered.Workflow templatePackaging artwork handoff checkBefore packaging artwork goes to print, the packaging owner gets a checklist that matches each file to the approved product facts, pack sizes, variants and printer specifications, with version conflicts, missing files and missing approvals listed. It writes and judges no label claim.Workflow templatePayroll preparation and timesheet reviewBefore each payroll run, the owner gets one sheet built from the timesheet and roster exports: hours by person and type, every missing punch and odd entry raised as a question, and an estimated total. Nothing is keyed in, submitted or paid until a person approves.Workflow templatePrice change reviewBefore prices change, the owner or finance lead gets one review: the margin on each product or service from the sales and cost exports, how costs have moved, what each proposed price does to sales and gross profit across a stated range of customer responses, and dated competitor prices. It recommends no price.Workflow templateProduct pricing optionsA product owner weighing how to price or package a product gets one options brief: what each customer group uses, the willingness-to-pay evidence held with stated kept apart from observed, what each option would bill every account, the uncertainties and the tests. It recommends no price.Workflow templateProduct recall customer contact planOnce your business has issued a recall, the customer care lead gets the contact plan: affected customers from the order export, the approved notice word for word, drafts that offer only the remedies you run, and a tracker that counts a customer done only when the item is back or repaired.Workflow templateProduct sample feedback revision listAfter each round of samples, your product lead gets one revision list by sample version and feature: the changes people agree on, the feedback that conflicts, and drafted notes for the next supplier brief. The product owner decides.Workflow templateRange margin by channel reviewWhen a wholesale offer or a promotion changes the economics of a range, the finance lead gets a margin worksheet for every product in every channel, showing which cost layers are in each figure and which gaps are still open. It invents no cost and changes no price.Workflow templateRelease notes draftThe product owner gets draft release notes for one shipped release, in words users recognize: what is new, changed, removed and fixed, the steps users must take, and the known limitations. Only what was supplied is described. The owner checks and publishes.Workflow templateSearch exclusion conflict checkThe paid search specialist gets a list of live keywords that a live exclusion may be blocking, each with the level where the exclusion applies and the campaign intent it touches. They are clues from the text; the specialist decides what to change.Workflow templateService inbox routing planWhen a new service inbox is being set up, the service owner gets a routing plan: each approved address, the queue it should reach and who owns it, checks to run before it goes live, and the wrong-address risks, loop risks and unconfirmed queue owners still open. Nothing is configured.Workflow templateService roster optionsFor a department manager building a rota for expected occupancy, covers or events: two or three roster options side by side, with each role's need, the staff confirmed available, the periods left uncovered and the labor-cost assumptions you supplied. You verify and approve; nothing is published.Workflow templateSmallest useful release scopeA product owner or founder with more features than capacity gets one page: what is in the first release and what is deferred, all tied to one user outcome, with the reason for each cut. The owner decides the scope; no effort is estimated beyond what is supplied.Workflow templateStale ticket sweepOnce a week the support lead gets one sheet of what the queue is hiding: tickets with no real activity past their limit, tickets left waiting on the customer with the three ways out of each, likely duplicates, and each person's load weighed by size and age. A person makes every move.Workflow templateSubscription billing exception sheetBefore a subscription billing run, or when a customer disputes a charge, the billing specialist gets a sheet tying each account's plan, quantity and invoice lines to the approved price mapping and the seat or usage records, with doubtful matches kept open.Workflow templateSupplier bill review and payment-run preparationBefore each payment run, the person who approves it gets one sheet: every supplier bill checked against its purchase order and what was received, duplicates and changed bank details stopped, credits shown, and a proposed run with its total. Nothing is paid until a person approves.Workflow templateSupplier delivery date checkThe purchasing or operations person gets one comparison from the open purchase orders and the supplier replies: promised and revised dates side by side, the orders each change puts at risk, and the follow-ups still unanswered. No supplier is contacted.Workflow templateSupplier issue noticeWhen a supplier bills for more than was ordered or received, or falls short of an agreed delivery or quality target, the buyer gets a formal notice ready for approval: each problem set against the record, the evidence listed, what the supplier must do and the date to reply by. A person approves and sends it.Workflow templateSupplier performance scorecardOnce a quarter, the buyer or operations lead scores each key supplier from the business's own order and receiving exports: on-time delivery, fill rate, defects and returns, price against agreed terms and order confirmations, with the trend, the evidence behind every score and the points to raise. A person decides.Workflow templateSupplier risk alert briefWhen something happens to a supplier you depend on, the buyer gets a dated brief the same day: what happened and who reported it when, what you buy from them, how many days of stock you hold against how long another source would take, how exposed you are, and actions with owners and dates.Workflow templateSupport escalation briefWhen a support case must move to a specialist or manager, the support lead gets one brief: the customer's impact, a dated timeline from the ticket history, the evidence, the fixes tried, the workaround in place and the decision needed. Nothing goes to the customer.Workflow templateSupport service level definitionThe support lead gets reply and resolution targets for every priority level, worked out from the team's own ticket history and the hours the team really has. Each target shows how often the team already meets it, and every gap comes back as a question for the lead to settle.Workflow templateSupport ticket triageYour queue manager opens the morning’s tickets already sorted: each one with a category, a priority and a route, and the reason for all three in a line. The tickets that cannot wait sit at the top, stopped for a person to decide.Workflow templateThirteen-week cash flow forecastThe owner sees cash week by week for the next thirteen weeks: what comes in, what goes out, the lowest point and every week below the floor they set, with each assumption written on the page. The forecast informs the decision; the owner makes it, and nothing is paid or moved.Workflow templateTracking event planBefore analytics goes onto a website or app, the founder or product owner gets one plan: the events and properties worth collecting, when each fires, where it goes, what it is called and who owns it, each tied to a question the business needs answered. The owner approves what is collected.Workflow templateUnshipped order reviewThe fulfilment or customer-service lead gets one aged list of the orders not yet sent, whole or in part: how old each is, what is holding it, who owns the next step, and which orders have none. Nothing is released, moved or sent.Workflow templateUsability test session planBefore a prototype or a confusing flow goes in front of users, the research lead and product owner hold one plan: who to recruit, the tasks in plain words, the neutral prompts, a blank note sheet and how success is counted. Recording and data handling are listed as decisions.Workflow templateUser research planWhen a design decision needs user evidence, the research lead gets one study plan: what the team needs to know, what evidence already exists, method options with their hours, participant criteria, permissions needed, how answers will be read and what the study cannot establish.Workflow templateWeekly owner business briefEach Monday the owner gets about one page built from the exports they supply: cash, last week's sales against the week before, pipeline movement, the week's commitments and a watch list, with one item to look at first. Every figure names its source, and every missing export is named.Workflow templateWholesale order checkWhen a retailer's purchase order arrives, the account owner gets every line set beside the approved quote and the stock plan: products, case packs, prices, delivery locations and dates, with each exception listed. People decide; nothing is confirmed to the buyer.Workflow templateWorkflow inventoryWhen the ownership and status of your automated workflows come up for review, the platform owner gets one inventory built from the exports supplied: environments, enabled states, last run, queued runs and owner gaps. Quiet workflows become questions, not removal lists.Workflow templateWrite an SOP from how the work is doneTurn a walkthrough of how one piece of work is really done into a written procedure anyone on the team can follow: who does each step, how they know it is done, what to do when it goes wrong and when to stop and ask. The owner approves it before anyone relies on it.Workflow templateYard shift handover briefThe outgoing yard or warehouse lead hands the incoming lead one brief: where each trailer stands, how long it has been on site, which dock issues are open and who follows up on each. No trailer is moved and no appointment is changed.Workflow templateYear-end tax packet for the accountantOnce the year's books are closed, the owner or bookkeeper hands the accountant one packet: the documents asked for and what is still missing, every contractor paid over the reporting line with missing tax forms flagged, the year's estimated tax payments, and the questions to ask. It works out no tax.Workflow templateWorkflows identified across e-commerce and retail
Identified for the industry as a whole, so they apply to wholesalers and distributors as well. Marked illustrative: an example of the work, identified, with no workflow template yet.
Show all 35 workflows
The workflows identified for wholesalers and distributors
Marked illustrative: an example of the work, identified, with no workflow template yet.
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