BUSINESS CASE FOR SAGA COMMERCE

Example case: AI agents for B2B ordering

01 Situation

Agents take the order. People keep the decisions that matter.

Most urgent B2B orders still end on the phone, by my read. Webshops alone did not change that. Agents can, on WhatsApp, email and the phone. Every buyer gets an agent that keeps their company’s rules. Every merchant on Saga gets 4 agents, each with 1 job.

  1. The buyer speaks, types or sends a photo
  2. The agent matches product, stock and price
  3. The agent acts, asks or hands over

North star

Agent speed on urgent orders, without more wrong parts.

Agents act fast, but never break the merchant’s or the buyer’s rules.

  • Business valueurgent orders without waiting for a sales rep, and rep time back
  • Trustinside both sides’ rules, every time
  • Measured byminutes to order, and wrong-part returns level with a sales rep’s, within 1 percentage point

The test case

An auto parts wholesaler on Saga, and the independent garages it supplies. Orders are urgent, parts must fit the exact car, and some are safety parts. That makes it a hard test for agents.

Workshop side · buys from the merchant

Buyer

Workshop lead at an independent garage

  • Orders urgent parts while a car is on the lift
  • Hands busy, often no screen
  • Has an account and contract prices with the merchant

Approver

Workshop owner

  • Signs off any order over the limit the workshop set, for example €300
  • Often away from the workshop

Merchant side · Saga’s customer

Merchant admin

At the parts wholesaler on Saga

  • Sets each : the fit score, out of 100, an agent needs to order alone
  • The only role that can change the merchant’s rules

Sales rep

Inside sales at the merchant

  • Decides safety parts, and weak matches with a fit score under 70
  • Gets every handover with full context

Assumption No formal interviews yet, so these 4 roles are assumed. The workshop visits check the buyer and approver roles. The merchant interviews check the admin and sales rep roles.

One urgent order

The water pump on a Golf in bay 2 has gone. The car is on the lift. The buyer needs a pump today. A timing belt kit goes in too, while the engine is open. This order runs through the case, and plays live in the prototype.

The urgent order today

I expect most urgent orders still come by phone or WhatsApp, not the webshop. The workshop visits and a 2-week call count test it.

About an hourAssumptionFirst call to order placed, mostly waiting. We time it on 30 to 50 of the pilot merchant’s phone orders, before day 1.

  1. CallThe buyer phones the merchant with greasy hands and no part number. If nobody picks up, I expect the buyer orders from the next wholesaler. The workshop visits test it.
  2. Read outA sales rep reads out possible part numbers until 1 matches.
  3. Check by handThe sales rep checks stock, branches and equivalents in the ERP. The buyer waits.
  4. Quote by emailThe price goes out by email. The order never goes through the webshop.
  5. Wait for sign offThe approver is somewhere else. The car stays on the lift, and the bay earns nothing.

With the agents

Same order, minutes instead of an hour.

MinutesAssumptionFirst message to order placed. Pass mark: a median of 5 minutes or less, for orders with no approval, so the agent is judged on what it controls. Orders that need the approver are timed with the wait, as their own group.

  1. Speak, type or send a photoThe buyer calls, sends a WhatsApp voice note or a photo of the plate, or writes an email. The merchant’s ordering agent answers at once and finds the car. A busy bay is loud, so we test calls in a real workshop and refine them there. Voice notes are the backup.
  2. Clarity firstIf 2 versions of a part fit the car, the agent asks which. The same when a detail is missing. 1 short question at a time, never a form.
  3. Live from the ERPStock and contract price live from the ERP, plus the van time. Source and age show on every number, so the buyer knows how fresh it is. 1 order record means the webshop, WhatsApp and email show the same answer.
  4. Act, ask or hand overThe agent scores how well each part fits, out of 100. At or above the merchant’s , 85 to start, it orders. From 70 up to the threshold, it asks the buyer to confirm the part. Under 70, a sales rep decides. Safety parts always go to a person.
  5. People keep controlOver the workshop’s limit, the buyer’s agent sends the exact amount to the approver. 1 tap on their own phone approves or declines it. The part stays held while they decide. Undo lasts 10 minutes or until the van leaves, whichever comes first.
Next: Research

What I know, and what we still need to test.