Supermarkets
AI for supermarkets that shops your whole catalog, branch by branch
Shoppers ask in their own words. The assistant finds the products, picks the packs, keeps to the branch's prices and fills the basket.
In short
Hephon Commerce is an AI shopping assistant for supermarkets and grocery retailers. Shoppers ask for products, lists, recipes or the cheapest option in Arabic, Arabizi or English, and it searches the live catalog with each branch's prices and stock and fills the basket.
It works in the supermarket's own app and website, on its WhatsApp Business number and on phone calls, and nothing is ordered until the shopper confirms.
Updated
What does grocery AI need to get right in a supermarket?
A supermarket is not a fashion store with a chat window. These are the details that decide whether a basket is right.
- Big catalogs
- Keyword and meaning search over every department, checked against the shopper's message. It never assumes food.
- Pack sizes
- 1 L or 2 L, 6 eggs or 15: recipes and lists pick the pack that covers what is needed for the least money.
- Branch prices
- Each branch's own prices and stock, so the basket is the one that will be delivered.
- Recipes
- "Kabsa for 10" becomes ingredient lines with amounts, the right packs and one tap to add them all.
- Budgets and cheapest
- "Under 50 riyals", "cheapest first" and "more options" are understood and kept for follow-ups.
- Halal by the server
- Alcohol, pork and tobacco removed before the assistant sees the catalog, in every channel.
Can it find the right product in a big catalog?
A supermarket catalog has tens of thousands of products, many with near-identical names, and shoppers describe them in every way: "7aleeb" in Arabizi, حليب in Arabic, "milk" in English, a brand name, a misspelling. Hephon Commerce searches by keyword and by meaning at once, over Arabic script, Arabizi and English, so "tomato" finds "Tomatoes" and a brand written in Arabic finds the product listed in English.
Search alone is not enough, because it always returns something. Before results are shown, a fast classifier checks each of the top results against what the shopper actually wrote and drops the ones that do not fit. Snacks for a basketball night show snacks, not basketballs. The assistant also never assumes a shopper wants food: if your store sells phone chargers, a request for a charger gets chargers.
A list in one message, such as "milk, bread and eggs", comes back as a row of choices per item. "More options" leaves out what the shopper has already seen, and "something similar" stays in the same category.
What does a conversation look like?
Two requests to the live demo store, each in a new chat.
- Shopper:
عندكم حليب المراعي؟
Do you have Almarai milk?
- Assistant:
أبشر، موجود. تحب كامل الدسم ولا خالي الدسم؟
Sure, we have it. Would you like full fat or fat free?
Showed 8 milk cards, Almarai full fat and fat free 1 L first, then other brands with their offers.
- Shopper:
what is your cheapest rice?
- Assistant:
Our cheapest rice is Min Dayaa Egyptian Rice 900 g at $1.05. Would you like me to add it to your basket?
Showed 8 rice cards from the lowest price up.
How does it handle branch prices, pack sizes and budgets?
Every branch is its own store in Hephon Commerce, with its own prices and stock. The shopper only sees what their branch can deliver, at that branch's price, in your currency. On WhatsApp the assistant can ask where the shopper is before it shows anything priced, and a typed area is placed at the nearest branch.
Pack sizes matter most in recipes and lists. A dish for ten people becomes ingredient lines with amounts in grams, millilitres or pieces, and for each line the assistant picks the pack that covers the amount for the least money and how many to buy. Staples the shopper probably has are listed but left out of "Add all". See shoppable recipes for real baskets from the demo store.
Budgets are part of the search, not a filter applied afterwards. A price limit per product ("rice under 20 riyals") and one budget for a whole list ("snacks for the school week under 50 riyals") are both understood, and both hold for follow-up questions. "Cheapest" shows what passed the relevance check from the lowest price up.
Halal rules, co-operatives and your team
Halal on the server
A supermarket can hide alcohol, pork and tobacco, or all three for a halal catalog. Each product is judged by an AI model rather than a word list, and the server removes what the store never sells before the assistant sees the catalog, on every channel. A product that has not been checked yet stays hidden. A recipe in a halal store never includes those ingredients.
Co-operatives and multi-branch chains
Co-operative societies and regional chains often run many branches with different ranges and prices. Each branch is set up as its own store, so a shopper in one district never gets a basket priced for another. If a shopper moves to another branch on WhatsApp, the basket follows, and for items the new branch does not sell the assistant offers substitutes from that branch.
One inbox for the team
Every conversation, typed, voice note or call with a transcript, lands in one live inbox. A person can take over any chat, and a shopper can ask for a person at any time. Handover to your help desk is possible by integration.
When Hephon Commerce is not the right fit
- No online catalog yet. The assistant shops your live products, prices and stock. A supermarket without them should start there.
- In-store technology. It is not shelf monitoring, pricing optimisation or demand forecasting. It is the conversation with the shopper.
- Support-only needs. If you mostly need answers about deliveries and refunds, a support tool fits better.
Live in three steps.
- 1
Connect your catalog
With every branch's prices and stock, from your platform, a feed or our API.
- 2
Set your rules and test
Dialect, products you never sell, handover. Then tests generated from your own catalog.
- 3
Open a channel
Your app, your WhatsApp Business number or phone orders, one at a time or together.
Supermarkets ask.
See it on your own catalog.
We set up a demo with your products, your branches and your shoppers' languages.
