Hardware stores
How do we quote a bill of materials without typing every line?
Eva takes the list or photo, searches each line in your catalog, verifies the product record before quoting and hands technical judgment to your team.
In a hardware store almost nothing is asked for by its correct name. A photo of a broken part arrives, a jobsite list lands as a PDF, a message says «I need pipe», and somebody wants to know whether it is in stock right now. Each of those means searching an enormous catalog, confirming size and quantity, and answering quickly before the customer walks to the store across the street.
Eva is an AI sales agent with a built-in CRM that takes the first stretch of that work: it asks the missing questions on your website, by email, on Instagram, on Messenger or on WhatsApp, searches your catalog, verifies the product record before quoting, and leaves the thread in the CRM with follow-up scheduled. This page describes that for a hardware store or a building-supply counter.
Constructora Vega
online
Today
I need 40 sacks of gray cement, 20 pieces of 3/8 rebar and 5 kilos of 2.5-inch nails. Can you quote me?
08:03
Sure: gray cement 50 kg at 245 pesos per sack, 3/8 rebar at 198 pesos apiece and 2.5-inch nails at 38 pesos per kilo. The total is 13,950 pesos and everything is in stock. Shall I prepare it?
08:03
Yes, prepare it. Do you deliver to the jobsite?
08:04
We do, jobsite delivery is included in your area. Here is your order and the bank-transfer payment link.
Order_1276.pdf
08:05
Payment confirmed · 13,950 pesos
Payment received. Your material heads to the jobsite today and the invoice is on its way. I will let you know when the truck is close.
08:11
I need 40 sacks of gray cement, 20 pieces of 3/8 rebar and 5 kilos of 2.5-inch nails. Can you quote me?
08:03
Sure: gray cement 50 kg at 245 pesos per sack, 3/8 rebar at 198 pesos apiece and 2.5-inch nails at 38 pesos per kilo. The total is 13,950 pesos and everything is in stock. Shall I prepare it?
08:03
Yes, prepare it. Do you deliver to the jobsite?
08:04
We do, jobsite delivery is included in your area. Here is your order and the bank-transfer payment link.
Order_1276.pdf
08:05
Payment confirmed · 13,950 pesos
Payment received. Your material heads to the jobsite today and the invoice is on its way. I will let you know when the truck is close.
08:11
What Eva did meanwhile
Catalog
3 line items verified
Full stock
Looked up in your real catalog
Payment and invoice
Order_1276.pdf generated
Payment link · bank transfer
CRM
Constructora Vega · 13,950 pesos
A jobsite list quoted on the spot, collected, invoiced and scheduled for delivery.
- Quotes
- Charges
- Books
- Logs it in the CRM
- Follows up
From $229 USD a month · setup from $579 USD · live in 5 business days → See pricing
The problem
The daily problem
- The catalog is enormous and uneven: some codes move every day and some have not moved in years, and knowing which is which sits in the head of whoever is at the counter.
- «I need pipe» is not quotable: size, quantity, unit and the job it is for are missing, and often the customer does not know the technical name — they just have the part in their hand.
- The jobsite list arrives as a PDF, a spreadsheet or a photo, with line items, quantities and units, and it has to be typed in line by line before a single price can go out.
A day with Eva
A day with Eva
A contractor writes at eleven at night with a photo of a part and a short message asking whether you have it. Eva answers in seconds, matches that image against your catalog images and proposes candidates with a confidence level and the evidence behind it. Then it asks what is missing before anything can be quoted: size, quantity, unit, where it is needed and by when.
When a jobsite list arrives instead, Eva takes it as a file and searches your catalog line by line, pulls the verified record and answers using only the fields you marked visible. What is not in the catalog does not get invented: when a line has no match or verification is incomplete, Eva says so, asks for a person on your team and hands over the thread with the list already captured.
Some questions are not catalog questions but judgment questions: which pump lifts water to that height, which gauge suits that installation. Eva does not improvise a recommendation there. It escalates to a person on your team and hands over the conversation with the photo, the measurements and the context already assembled, so whoever knows answers knowing what it is about.
The thread then does not go cold. Eva creates or updates the contact and the opportunity, schedules follow-up and comes back on its own, with sequences of up to five steps and delays of up to 180 days. When the customer says yes, Eva can create a SPEI bank-transfer payment link in Mexico and issue the CFDI tax invoice once the tax profile is complete. The moment a person on your team replies in the thread, Eva goes quiet.
Concrete workflows
Three concrete workflows
Quote a bill of materials
Eva takes the list as a file or as text, searches each line item in your catalog, returns up to 25 candidates per search, verifies the record and flags what it could not find.
The list is quoted from your data
Catalog
Cement · rebar · nails
Stock
All 3 lines complete
Prices
Your counter list
Gray cement at 245 pesos per sack, 3/8 rebar at 198 apiece and nails at 38 per kilo: 13,950 pesos for the full list, jobsite delivery included.
Identify the part from a photo
The customer sends a photo of the part. Eva matches it against catalog images and returns candidates with a confidence level; price and availability are confirmed against the product record.
Whatever the customer sends, Eva understands
Follow-up, payment and invoice
Eva leaves the opportunity in the CRM, follows up for days or months without anyone remembering, and in Mexico creates the SPEI payment link and issues the CFDI when the tax profile is complete.
Collects and invoices on its own
Payment link · transfer or card
Payment confirmed
Invoice_A241.pdf
CFDI 4.0 invoice issued and sent
Typical integration: Your catalog arrives as a file or through an API, with codes, descriptions, sizes and prices. The agent's tools can call HTTP endpoints in your point of sale, your inventory system or your supplier portal to check stock, price or order status, when those systems expose them. What gets connected is decided during implementation rather than promised beforehand.
We configure everything for you.
online sales in six months
Serviacero Comercial, a steel distributor, multiplied its online sales more than fourfold in six months with Eva answering and quoting immediately.
Read the full storyQuestions
FAQ
Can it identify a part from a photo?
Yes, with an explicit condition. Eva matches the photo against your catalog images and returns candidates with a confidence level and the evidence behind it; those are candidates, not a verdict. Price, availability and variants are confirmed against the product record before anything is quoted.
Will it recommend which material or equipment to use?
No. Eva answers with the information you loaded — spec sheet, dimensions, compatibility, price — but technical judgment belongs to your people: which equipment carries a load, which gauge suits an installation, which material survives a particular use. When a conversation gets there, Eva asks for a person and hands over the thread with the context already assembled.
Does it know what I have in stock and at what price?
It knows what your catalog says. Sources connected through an API sync every 24 hours and file sources refresh when you upload them again; if an update fails, Eva keeps serving the last good version. For stock and price by the minute, expose a live lookup from your system and connect it as a tool.
Does it replace my point of sale?
No. Eva sits on the conversation side: messages, contacts, opportunities and follow-up. The register, the daily close, inventory and purchasing stay in your system. What Eva can read or write from it depends on that system's endpoints, authentication and contract.
Does it handle invoicing?
In Mexico, Eva issues and stores CFDI tax invoices through Facturapi for eligible charges, triggered by the confirmed payment and keeping the PDF and XML. It requires a complete tax profile and valid configuration; when the tax data is incomplete the invoice stays pending instead of going out wrong.
Put Eva to work.
Send us the last ten requests you received, photos included. We will show you how Eva would answer them, with your prices and your rules.
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