The adoption of new technologies in the retail sector has been increasingly essential to generate value, operational efficiency, and market competitiveness in businesses, such as for 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 Generating Value’ at APAS Show 2025, exploring how artificial intelligence and omnichannel are reshaping the relationship and sales approach in B2B through WhatsApp. As a result, technological innovations have enhanced the seller’s performance as an allied force in results with a 34% increase in the average purchase ticket in direct physical space with the distributor, in addition to the growth of sales made through digital channels.
The advancement of using AI agents to automate and personalize the purchasing journey, especially on platforms where small and medium retailers are already present, reveals the strategy adopted by Mondelēz Brazil, aiming to leverage productivity through a resource so strong and common for the Brazilian population. ‘Selling on WhatsApp will not replace physical sellers. The trend is to grow, but also to make the distributor’s seller move from order taker to sales leader, boosting their average ticket, looking at execution, categories, out-of-stock items, building relationships, and analyzing less-sold products for efficient business management. Technology comes to add value and strengthen retail sales, implementing omnichannel for greater reach and AI agents for optimization and personalization of the experience,’ Livia reveals.
This performance is even more expressive with the recent launch of Yalo: Oris. Presented as the first intelligent sales agent, the technology brings a new kind of “digital employee” designed to replicate the best human sellers, operating at scale and data-driven. The agent is capable of understanding voice messages, making strategic recommendations, acting proactively, and selling in a contextualized, personalized, and scalable way on any channel, including voice calls and WhatsApp. Throughout the panel, companies revealed that the digitalization of traditional channels has been impacting the market in an agile and efficient manner, from major industry brands to small neighborhood retailers who have not yet implemented other digital tools in processes due to reasons like investment, uncertainty, and lack of knowledge. Additionally, the artificial intelligence integrated into platforms enables more direct communication aligned with different consumer profiles, avoiding frictions during the journey.
“With our partnership at Mondelez Brazil, we boosted the company’s B2B sales by over 15% via WhatsApp. I often hear that retailers aim to digitize customers, but the truth is they are already highly digitized, and the challenge is to find them on the right channels where they are present and active. With the arrival of new technologies, we didn’t reduce the workforce; we increased and strengthened it. Where to start? The first step is to live the experience, test, adapt, explore – and then implement consistently and coherently with your business, achieving your strategically crafted goals in the action plan,” explains Andres.
The launch of Oris reinforces the vision that technology acts as an allied force, not substitutive, for sellers. The digital employee has the capacity to triple conversion rates compared to traditional e-commerce and increase the average ticket by up to 40%, optimizing the final customer’s shopping journey and enabling human sellers to perform more elaborate, creative, and strategic activities.
‘Innovations have come to support us, as well as the integration of sales channels. Of course, there are obstacles, but it is by facing them that we can evolve, improve processes, increase sales, unite workforces, team members, customers, partners, and then bring the business closer to success in its entirety. Transforming requires attitude, not just openness to the new, but experiencing in practice the significant advantages of new technologies. In fact, it can transform an operation,’ concludes Andrés Stella.
