Quick commerce
AI for quick commerce: from a sentence to a confirmed basket
Shoppers say what they need in one message. The assistant checks the dark store that will deliver, fills the basket and hands over a checkout to confirm.
In short
Hephon Commerce is an AI shopping assistant for quick commerce and grocery delivery apps. A shopper types, sends a voice note or calls with what they need, and it searches the stock of the dark store or branch that will deliver, fills the basket and builds a checkout the shopper confirms.
It runs inside your app, on your WhatsApp Business number and on calls, in Arabic, Arabizi, English and French.
Updated
Where does AI save time in quick commerce?
Delivery takes minutes. Building the basket should not take longer than the ride.
- Ordering in a sentence
- A whole list in one message, a voice note, or "the cheapest one". No browsing three aisles for three items.
- The usual, remembered
- With the shopper's consent, it remembers the products they buy regularly, so "my usual" is a short request.
- Stock per dark store
- Only what the store that will deliver has in stock, at its price.
- Substitutions decided early
- Out-of-stock items cannot be added, and the shopper can say up front what to do if one runs out at packing.
- WhatsApp and in-app
- The same basket in your app and on your WhatsApp Business number.
- Calls in under a second
- Voice orders by phone and WhatsApp call, read back and confirmed on the keypad.
How does ordering in a sentence work?
Quick commerce shoppers usually know what they want. The slow part is the app: search one item, scroll, add, search the next. With Hephon Commerce the shopper writes the list as they would text a friend, "milk, bread and eggs", and the assistant searches every item in one step and shows a row of choices for each.
It understands the shortcuts people use: "the cheapest one", "more options", "something similar", "any of these on offer?", a brand name in Arabic for a product listed in English, Arabizi like "7aleeb" for milk. Each search's top results are checked against what the shopper actually asked before they are shown.
- Shopper:
milk, bread and eggs
- Assistant:
Which specific brand or type of milk, bread, and eggs would you like to add?
Searched the three items in one step and showed 24 matches, 8 per item, from $1.00 pita to organic eggs.
How does it handle dark-store stock and substitutions?
Each dark store or branch is its own store in Hephon Commerce, with its own stock and prices. The shopper is only offered what the store that will deliver has, and out-of-stock products cannot be added to the basket on any channel. If a shopper asks for one by name, the assistant says it is out of stock and offers something in stock instead.
Stock still changes between the order and the packing. When the retailer turns it on, the assistant asks the shopper once, after adding to the basket, what to do if an item is unavailable at packing time: a similar replacement, leave it out, or a specific product. The store can set its default, and the answer is recorded with the basket.
On WhatsApp, the assistant can ask where the shopper is before it shows any prices, so the basket is built from the right store from the first message. If the shopper changes location, the basket moves with them and the assistant offers substitutes for items the new store does not stock.
Which channels can shoppers order on?
In your app. An SDK for iOS, Android and the web, with React Native and Flutter. The assistant's basket is in sync with your app's cart, so the shopper checks out the way they always do.
On WhatsApp. Your WhatsApp Business number answers with product cards, builds the basket and sends a checkout the shopper confirms with a tap. Voice notes are understood too.
On calls. Shoppers can call your WhatsApp number, or talk live inside your app, and order by voice. The call service listens before it transcribes, ignores clips with no speech, notices when a sentence stopped half way, and starts the product search while the caller is still finishing. Replies come in under a second. Before anything is ordered the basket is read back, and the caller presses 1 to confirm. A caller can always be handed to a person.
What it does not do
- No order without a confirm. It never places an order on a typed or spoken yes alone.
- No rider or warehouse tools. It does not dispatch drivers, plan routes or manage picking. Orders go to your platform or your team.
- No memory without consent. Usual items are remembered only if you turn memory on and the shopper agrees.
- No self-serve sign-up. Access is by invitation, after a demo on your catalog.
Live in three steps.
- 1
Connect each store
Every dark store or branch with its own stock and prices, from your platform or our API.
- 2
Test on your catalog
Requests generated from your products, in your shoppers' languages, run before launch.
- 3
Open your channels
In your app, on WhatsApp, and on calls when you are ready.
Quick commerce, answered.
See it on your own catalog.
We set up a demo with your products, your branches and your shoppers' languages.
