Sellers of wine and spirits receive many new B2B services

Provi, a B2B online marketplace featuring more than 1,400 alcoholic beverage distributors, has launched new services to streamline retail chains’ often complex purchasing needs.

At the end of February 2024, the marketplace company introduced enhanced enterprise management and procurement software and services, including a revamped way for retail chains to manage corporate approval of purchasing and expanded capabilities to punch out from procurement software to order from distributors’ online catalogs.

Provi said it launched EDI support tailored specifically for distributors operating at scale to better accommodate retail chains placing orders through electronic data interchange.

In order to improve the way retail chains manage orders for all their locations, Provi introduced an upgraded approval queue designed to let chains’ regional procurement managers use a single computer interface to view and act on product requests from multiple retail store locations. At the same time, the approval queue provides corporate executives with a centralized view of their national beverage purchasing program as sourced from various distributors.

Taylor Frendahl, director of strategic sourcing at restaurant chain P.F. Chang’s, said in a Provi press release that the consolidated approval feature had proven to be a true game-changer for their company. He added that the capability to approve, reject and monitor all orders across multiple locations in one comprehensive view had enhanced efficiency and streamlined decision-making processes.

Provi says that its new EDI support “facilitates the direct flow of order data to distributors’ enterprise resource planning systems, offering enhanced visibility into post-order changes, delivery dates and critical information between chains and their distributors.”

Going forward, Provi plans to support “split mandates,” which will let chains establish corporate beverage purchasing programs while also granting each store location autonomy in their beer and wine selections to address local demand.