Robbie Thain
Founder, CEO
Learn how former Coca-Cola executives launched nFuse to fix broken CPG retail ordering using AI messaging apps to boost operational efficiency and cut costs.
A regional sales director stares at his phone in the back room of a busy grocery store. He just watched a successful sampling event move seventy units in three hours. Now he must convince the store manager to log into a clunky wholesale portal to reorder before the weekend rush. The manager simply rolls her eyes and walks away.
Two former Coca-Cola executives recently launched nFuse to fix the broken retail ordering process by allowing buyers to place orders directly through familiar text messaging apps. This conversational commerce approach removes friction from the supply chain and frees field teams to focus on creating live brand experiences that actually drive consumer demand.
The disconnect between creating consumer demand and getting product on the physical shelf is a constant frustration for marketing operators. You run an incredible activation where people sample the new product and want to buy it immediately. The store runs out of stock rapidly. The retailer must log into a separate digital portal, remember their secure password, and search a complex catalog to restock the missing inventory.
Industry analysts report that conventional platforms see a dismal ten to fifteen percent adoption rate among enterprise retailers. Store managers are busy handling floor spills, sudden staffing shortages, and endless vendor delivery delays. They simply do not have the time or patience for another piece of proprietary software. This heavy friction kills sales momentum right when your new product launch needs it the most.
The end outcome is empty shelves and wasted promotional dollars. Recent funding from venture groups like Eleven Ventures and LAUNCHub highlights the massive scale of this operational problem. The wholesale ordering sector represents a five trillion dollar global market segment that remains entirely underserved by traditional e-commerce setups. Rising energy cost pressures and tight operating margins make distribution efficiency a top priority for every major consumer brand today.
If a retail partner struggles to place a restock order, they will happily fill that empty shelf space with a direct competitor. The traditional approach requires brands to hire large call center teams or deploy field reps just to manually collect routine orders. This creates bloated overhead costs and pulls attention away from actual retail execution. Brand managers end up with a beautiful activation that produces fog instead of measurable evidence of success.
The founders of nFuse, Stoyan Ivanov and Stefan Radov, recognized this exact operational tension in the field. With over thirty years of combined consumer packaged goods experience, they noticed that store managers already run their businesses through everyday messaging tools. Floor managers frequently send text messages, quick voice notes, and photos of empty displays to communicate with their sales representatives. The nFuse platform formalizes this existing human behavior into a highly structured artificial intelligence ordering system.
Retailers simply send a text or a WhatsApp message to restock their shelves instantly. There is no software to download, no login credential to memorize, and zero technical training required for new staff members. When brands run high volume Costco roadshows that demand massive inventory coordination, this kind of low friction replenishment is non negotiable. The artificial intelligence engine converts natural language requests into confirmed shipment orders within seconds.
A VP of Marketing reflected on our partnership: 'Robbie, it was a pleasure working with you and your team. You turned our launch into an experience that connected with shoppers and built lasting excitement for our brand. We're already looking forward to the next project together.' Our team created a launch experience that resonated with retail shoppers and generated momentum for future collaborations. That hard earned momentum only survives if the physical product actually stays on the shelf.
Conversational commerce eliminates the gap between field marketing success and retail supply chain mechanics. Sales reps stop acting like glorified data entry clerks and start functioning as true brand builders. This operational shift gives your team the capacity to focus on relationship building and high impact retail demonstrations. Replacing failed ordering apps with everyday messaging gives sales reps their time back for what truly matters on the floor.
Getting retail partners to adopt a new system requires removing every possible mental and technical barrier. Combining strong field marketing with seamless ordering creates a closed loop system that protects your total activation budget. Here is the operational playbook for rolling out a text based ordering framework across your distribution network.
You must track clear numbers to prove your Return on Investment to senior leadership and financial stakeholders. Fluffy metrics do not matter to modern marketing operators who need to justify their field activation budgets. You need hard data that connects your operational efficiency directly to your bottom line revenue. Business Insider reports that enterprise clients using nFuse are seeing retailer adoption rates above seventy percent.
This seventy percent uptake is a staggering improvement over the industry average and serves as your primary lead metric. Track the raw number of orders placed via text message versus your traditional digital portals. Monitor the average time it takes a retail manager to complete a routine restock request from start to finish. Watch the platform adoption rate among new store managers during their first thirty days of carrying your product line.
Your lag metrics will validate the entire strategic shift toward conversational commerce. Measure the overall revenue increase per retail outlet closely over a quarterly period. Early data from the initial rollout shows a fifteen to thirty percent revenue bump per participating store. Calculate your exact cost per order reduction across your entire physical distribution network.
When manual processing is removed entirely, the cost per order drops below one dollar. This represents a massive five to twenty times cost reduction compared to traditional sales rep or call center methods. This saved operational capital can immediately fund your next major in store activation or mobile sampling tour. Tracking these metrics systematically proves that your live events lead to repeatable retail sell out.
Imagine a premium beverage brand rolling out a massive campaign, much like the recent in store sampling programs driving trial for zero sugar lineups across thousands of locations. They invest heavily in field marketing teams to spark initial consumer interest and drive immediate trial. Shoppers love the taste of the new beverage, and the initial retail sell out happens at record speed. In a traditional setup, the brand relies on stretched field reps to notice the empty shelves and badger the manager to reorder.
With an AI platform like nFuse, the store manager simply snaps a quick photo of the empty cooler and texts it to an automated number. The restock is processed instantly without any human intervention or delay from the regional sales team. The field reps spend their newly found time setting up secondary aisle displays rather than doing mundane data entry. This approach represents the exact core principle behind coordinating retail and field operations to drive lasting product trial.
This is how smart brands scale operations in a tightening economy without burning out their field staff. Providing real time demand signals across complex retail networks allows you to deploy personalized promotions exactly where they matter most. If you are preparing for a major push and need your field execution to match your digital efficiency, you need a cohesive operational plan. Book a strategy call with our team to align your next retail campaign with proven conversion tactics.
Your next step is simple and requires zero budget to execute today. Ask your top three retail partners how many different applications they are currently required to use for daily ordering, and start looking for ways to cut that number down to zero.
30 Years Experiential & Retail Activation Partner for CPG & Beverage Brands | Multi-Market Demos, Roadshows & Costco/Club Programs That Actually Sell
Since 1995, Makai has been connecting brands with people through live experiences, retail programs, and national activations.
