AI-Powered Procurement Agent
We built a digital procurement assistant that automates the messy, manual workflow of sourcing products from dozens of suppliers. Instead of juggling PDFs, emails, and spreadsheets, the buyer now uploads files in any format, sees all prices in one dashboard, gets smart suggestions on what to restock, and can place orders with one click.
Luxury Goods Wholesaler
Wholesale Retail
Client Partner
A wholesale buyer in the luxury goods space partnered with Purple Block to streamline and automate their procurement workflow—moving away from a fragmented, manual buying process to a centralized, intelligent sourcing platform.
The Challenge
Bulk buyers and independent retailers often procure products from a wide array of suppliers, each of whom shares price lists in varying formats—Excel sheets, PDFs, emails, or website dashboards. These files rarely follow a consistent structure, making it difficult to compare prices, validate stock availability, or make timely, data-driven decisions.
Manual Process Burden
- Manually extracting product prices and availability from different files
- Reconciling stock needs with supplier offerings
- Comparing costs across suppliers to identify the best deals
- Placing orders manually via email or phone
Business Impact
- Slower buying cycles
- Missed opportunities due to delayed actions
- Errors in order placement
- Inefficient use of working capital
Digitization Requirements
- The client wanted to digitize this process—without disrupting their existing supplier ecosystem.
Our Solution
Smart Search, Comparison & Pivoting Tools
- Buyers can now filter and compare prices and stock availability across multiple suppliers with ease.
- Real-time sorting by price, brand, supplier name, or SKU helps identify the most cost-effective sourcing options instantly.
- Built-in pivoting features allow buyers to analyze supplier trends, pricing fluctuations, and inventory dynamics.
Intelligent Inventory Integration
- Integrated with the client's local inventory system to detect low-stock alerts in real time.
- On detecting gaps, the system triggers a procurement assistant (agentic module) that recommends replenishment options and asks for approval to auto-place orders.
Automated Order Execution
- Once the buyer confirms the selection, the system auto-generates purchase orders and sends them to the selected suppliers via email or API.
- For recurring purchases, workflows can be fully automated—turning the sourcing function into a "review and approve" process.
Future-ready Enhancements
- Cross-country supplier comparison for global procurement teams
- Price recommendation engine trained on historical trends and supplier performance
- Audit logs and analytics for past decisions, savings, and performance benchmarking
The Impact
| Key Metric | Approx. Improvement |
|---|---|
| Time Saved on Procurement | ~70% reduction |
| Order Turnaround | From 2-3 days to <3 hours |
| Cost Savings | ~10-15% improvement |
| Error Reduction | >90% drop in mismatch errors |
| Automation Coverage | 80% of monthly orders |
This solution is now a product-ready, agentic procurement assistant that not only consolidates pricing and availability data but also actively manages stock levels, recommends purchases, and executes orders. The implementation resulted in ~70% reduction in time spent reviewing supplier price lists, procurement cycles reduced from 2–3 days to under 3 hours, ~10–15% average cost improvement via price-based supplier selection, >90% drop in pricing/order mismatch errors, and 80% of monthly orders now fully or semi-automated. Key decisions have shifted to "approve or reject" mode through an agentic interface, making the entire sourcing process more strategic and insight-led.
"The AI procurement system has revolutionized our inventory management. We're making smarter buying decisions with less effort, resulting in fewer stockouts and less capital tied up in slow-moving inventory."
Procurement Team
Luxury Goods Wholesaler
In a nutshell
We built a digital procurement assistant that automates the messy, manual workflow of sourcing products from dozens of suppliers. Instead of juggling PDFs, emails, and spreadsheets, the buyer now uploads files in any format, sees all prices in one dashboard, gets smart suggestions on what to restock, and can place orders with one click. It saves time, reduces errors, and makes sure they never miss a good deal.
