The adoption of new technologies in the retail sector has become increasingly essential to generate value, operational efficiency, and market competitiveness for businesses, such as consumer goods companies. The topic was discussed by Andrés Stella, COO of Yalo, and Livia Seabra, Director of E-commerce and Emerging Channels at Mondelēz Brazil, in the panel ‘New Technologies in Value Generation’ at APAS Show 2025, exploring how artificial intelligence and omnichannel strategies are reshaping B2B relationships and sales methods through WhatsApp. As a result, technological innovations have enhanced the performance of sales representatives as allies in driving results, with a 34% increase in average purchase orders in direct physical sales with distributors, alongside growth in digital channel sales.
The advancement of AI agents to automate and personalize the purchasing journey, especially on platforms where small and medium-sized retailers already operate, reveals the strategy adopted by Mondelēz Brazil to boost productivity through a tool that is both powerful and familiar to the Brazilian population. ‘Selling on WhatsApp won’t replace physical sales representatives. The trend is growth, but also transforming distributors’ sales reps from order-takers into sales leaders, increasing their average order value, focusing on execution, categories, stockouts, building relationships, and analyzing slow-moving products for efficient business management. Technology is here to complement and strengthen retail sales, implementing omnichannel strategies for greater reach and AI agents to optimize and personalize the experience,’ explains Livia.
This performance is even more impressive with Yalo’s recent launch: Oris. Introduced as the first intelligent sales agent, the technology brings a new kind of ‘digital employee’ designed to replicate the best human salespeople, operating at scale and data-driven. The agent can understand voice messages, make strategic recommendations, act proactively, and sell in a contextualized, personalized, and scalable manner across any channel, including voice calls and WhatsApp. During the panel, the companies revealed that the digitalization of traditional channels has impacted the market swiftly and efficiently, from major industry brands to small neighborhood retailers that have yet to adopt other digital tools due to challenges like investment, uncertainty, and lack of knowledge. Additionally, AI integrated into platforms enables more direct and tailored communication for different consumer profiles, reducing friction in the purchasing journey.
‘Through our partnership with Mondelēz Brazil, we boosted the company’s B2B sales by over 15% via WhatsApp. I often hear that retailers aim to digitize their customers, but the truth is they are already highly digitized—the challenge is reaching them on the right channels where they are active. With new technologies, we don’t reduce the workforce; we enhance and strengthen it. Where to start? The first step is experiencing it—testing, adapting, exploring—and then implementing it consistently and coherently with your business, strategically meeting your action plan goals,’ explains Andrés.
The launch of Oris reinforces the vision of technology as an ally, not a replacement, for salespeople. The digital employee can triple conversion rates compared to traditional e-commerce and increase average order value by up to 40%, optimizing the end-customer’s purchasing journey while enabling human sales reps to focus on more complex, creative, and strategic tasks.
‘Innovations exist to support us, just like the integration of sales channels. Of course, there are obstacles, but it’s by facing them that we evolve, refine processes, increase sales, unite teams, customers, partners—and ultimately bring the business closer to full success. Transformation requires action, not just openness to change, but experiencing the significant advantages of new technologies firsthand can truly revolutionize an operation,’ concludes Andrés Stella.
