As Canadian retailers look to source more products domestically amid higher prices and trade uncertainty, Canadian wholesale marketplace Purchs is using artificial intelligence (AI) to make it easier for them to find and order home-grown products.

“It’s very challenging for a retailer to divert the spending that they currently do through the U.S. and importing from other countries over to a domestic supply chain because it’s hard to find those suppliers,” Marcia Woods, founder and chief executive officer of Purchs said to FoodNX in an interview.

“So we very much wanted to find a way to make it easier for Canadian retailers to find Canadian brands.”

Purchs is a wholesale marketplace where vendors can sell products to more than 28,000 small and independent retailers across Canada. Founded in 2016, the company recently updated its ordering system.

Ordering by text

The company also now offers AI-powered shopping. “And so then AI comes along, and we realized we could do what we always wanted to do, which was to make it really easy for a retailer to be able to buy whatever it is that they want just through their phone,” Woods said.

Retailers can text an order directly to the Purchs platform, providing a faster and easier way to order products.

“That text message is then turned into a clean Purchs order and sent to the supplier, so the supplier can act on it immediately,” she said.

“We really have been able to take all of those emails and phone calls and spreadsheets that retailers typically use, and we’ve created an opportunity for them to basically reduce their order management time by about 50 per cent. Retailers spend about 80 per cent of their day just in replenishment, which leaves very little time for anything else.”

Purchs allows retailers to interact directly with an AI agent called Purcy. “The first thing that they can do is basically interact with Purcy by text, and Purcy can add a product to their catalog, and then Purcy can place the order for them, and then they can also ask Purcy, ‘Where is my order?’” Woods said.

History in the grocery business

Woods' background in the grocery business helped inspire the platform.

“I’ve always had a real passion for food and for the industry. I grew up in a grocery store. My family owned a very small general store, all through my adolescence and early teens, in a place called Kintore, Ont.”

Her goal is to help both suppliers and retailers grow and compete against the big grocers in Canada. “Enterprise companies, they’ve spent their way out of this with automated third-party systems, but that doesn’t work for independent small chains,” she said.

Purchs also uses “embedded geofencing” to help retailers determine whether a product is made in Canada and available for delivery in their region.

“That’s another problem that retailers face is they get really excited about getting a product but they spend sometimes days and weeks trying to figure out if they can even get that product. So using Purchs, not only can they get visibility into what’s available to them but they can also be confident that that product is in fact available to their region,” Woods said.

Elbows Up ‘movement’

Consumers are today making known their feelings about buying Canadian grocery products.

“It’s the pressure that consumers are putting on stores around the Elbows Up movement, and so what we’re seeing is this influx: 63 per cent of grocers are trying to divert their listings and their assortments over to more domestic supply. They want to do it because that’s what their consumers want to.”

“This isn’t just a trend. This is a movement, and there’s a big difference,” she said.

Woods said the Purchs AI system will continue to improve as it processes more information. “Because this is all generative AI, our system is getting smarter and smarter all the time.”

The company also plans to add predictive technology to the platform.

“Our agentic (AI) is actually not only monitoring their order history but it’s also monitoring that against signals that are coming from other outside and inside influences that enable us to actually make the order for them.”

Producers can offer products on the Purchs platform for free and Woods is hoping those who are looking to grow will join. If they decide to add the AI capabilities, they are charged a subscription fee.

“We have vendors who are emerging domestic Canadian brands that are looking to grow and want to get more exposure and discovered by more retailers.

"This is a great way to get in; get your foot in the door, and now you have a system that not only gives you the ability to be discovered, but it also creates a massive amount of efficiency in how you do wholesale sales, which then gives you way more time,” Woods said.

“You can optimize your time to do more sales, more marketing, more demos to grow your brand.”