When a buyer's AI agent
asks for wholesale prices

What is happening

Some buyers now use AI assistants to help them buy. A shop owner might ask an assistant to find makers of a product who sell wholesale, then draft an enquiry to each one. Some tools send the message themselves. Others leave it for the buyer to send.

Nobody has reliable public figures on how common this is. It is early. But the steps that help an AI tool read your terms correctly also help a busy human buyer, so they are worth doing now.

How to recognise one

• Very structured. Numbered lines, every field filled in, the same layout you might see in a form.
• A set reply format. A request to answer in a particular layout, or through a link.
• A note about who sent it. For example, "sent by an assistant on behalf of [name]".
• Checklist questions. Minimum order, case size, lead time, payment terms and recommended retail price, all at once.

Often you cannot tell, and you do not need to. Reply to the business behind it, as you would to anyone.

What to put on your site

An assistant researching wholesale suppliers reads your website's text. Help it get the facts right.

• A wholesale or trade page, linked from your homepage or footer, with a plain title such as "Wholesale".
• Your terms as text. Minimum order, case sizes, lead times, delivery areas, and payment terms for new accounts.
• How to get prices. If you do not publish trade prices, say so plainly: "Trade price list on request. Email [address] with your shop name and website."
• Product facts on product pages, as text, not only in images: sizes, materials, ingredients, care and barcodes if you have them.
• A clear way to ask. An email address, or a form with labelled fields.
• No accidental blocks. Check that robots.txt and your host's bot settings let in the AI visitors you want. See OAI-SearchBot vs GPTBot vs ChatGPT-User.

How to reply

• Reply to the business, not the tool. Use the buyer's name and company. Ask who will approve the order.
• Use clear, labelled lines. Product, Case size, Unit price (excl. VAT), Minimum order, Lead time, Payment terms, Valid until. A person or a tool can read these.
• Check the details back. A tool may have picked the wrong size, colour or product from your site. If something looks odd, ask.
• Ask for what you need before you open an account: company name, address, website, whether they sell in a shop or online, and their VAT number if they have one.
• Send your own terms. Quote on your wholesale terms, not on terms the request proposes.

For layouts you can copy, see How to reply to a request for quote.

What not to agree to

• Prices fixed for a long period you have not decided on.
• Exclusivity, penalties or the buyer's standard terms before you have read them properly.
• An order with no confirmed contact, delivery address or way to pay.
• Credit terms for a new account you have not checked.

A short note at the end of your reply makes your position clear.

Please note: these are our current wholesale terms, valid until [date]. We will treat an order as placed only when we confirm it in writing to [buyer's company]. We have not agreed to [fixed prices beyond this date / your standard terms]. We are happy to discuss these with the person approving this order.

A note like this states your position. It is not a guarantee. What binds you depends on the wording and on what both sides do, and the rules differ between countries. If a request asks you to accept terms you are unsure about, check with an adviser.

Keep a person in charge of your own replies

If you use AI to help draft your replies, a person should check and send anything with a price or a promise in it. Keep a record of what was sent, by whom, and what it was based on. Tools on both sides can misread a size or a quantity. A person checking is the simplest guard.

Give agents a structured way to ask

Kavel's free quote request page lets buyers list products and quantities in labelled fields, and lets AI agents send the same request as data. Each request arrives in your inbox, and you reply to the buyer directly. Kavel's draft format for these requests is described at /agents/quote-requests/.

QuoteDesk is a tool Kavel has built that reads a quote request and drafts a reply priced from your own price list. It never sends anything to the buyer. A person checks and sends every reply. You can try the demo or get started free on your own price list. See QuoteDesk for wholesale.

Written with AI.