We built SJ Dixon an internal portal that turns a manufacturer’s spreadsheet into OrderWise import files. Most of that is ordinary code. AI is used where a file needs a judgement, and the product listing lead checks it before export.
SJ Dixon is a family-run wallpaper and decorating supplies business in Wolverhampton. It sells online through Decorating Supplies Direct, for the trade, and Beautiful Walls, for luxury wallpaper. A new manufacturer range has to be listed before it can be sold.
Manufacturers send product data in their own layouts. Each range was copied by hand into up to ten import sheets for OrderWise, SJ Dixon’s stock system.
The product listing lead could get through four or five products a day at best, drafting titles, descriptions and SEO text one at a time and pasting them in.
Customers see the brand, while OrderWise needs the supplier it’s bought from. Wallpaper also needs small sample, large sample and sample roll rows that suppliers never send.
A supplier’s spreadsheet goes in. The portal does the copying and applies SJ Dixon’s house rules, flags anything it isn’t sure about, and produces the import sheets once the listing lead has checked them.
A supplier the portal has seen before is recognised from its column headers and read with plain code. For a new supplier, AI proposes how the columns map onto OrderWise, the listing lead confirms it, and the layout is saved for next time.
Variants are grouped into products and given SJ Dixon’s own product codes. Wallpaper gets its small sample, large sample and sample roll rows added automatically, with the right accounting settings.
AI drafts titles, descriptions and SEO text in each shop’s voice: technical for Decorating Supplies Direct, and about the look for Beautiful Walls. Descriptions come as the three paragraphs the product page already uses, so nobody reformats them by hand. Categories and features can only be picked from that shop’s own lists.
The listing lead checks the flagged cells, approves the import and downloads a pack of import sheets. SJ Dixon’s team then loads it into OrderWise. Images and a later SEO pass stay with them.
“already it looks like a lot less work than what I have to do at the minute.”
Product listing lead, SJ Dixon, at the first demo
The details came from working through real ranges with her. One brand is bought through a different supplier, so OrderWise needs the supplier’s code while every title has to lead with the brand. The portal keeps the manufacturer, the supplier code and the customer-facing brand separate, so those titles no longer need fixing after export.
AI handles the judgement calls: mapping a new supplier’s columns, product codes and copy. Each of those goes through review.
Call
We talked to SJ Dixon about how new ranges were getting onto their two shops, and where the time went.
Brief
A written proposal for a first phase, then a visit to Wolverhampton to watch the listing process and agree the scope.
Proof of concept
We showed the product listing lead a working portal on the kind of supplier files she works with.
Validation
We compared its output with a range she had already listed by hand, then ran real supplier ranges through it and fixed what they turned up.
Production
The portal runs on Laravel Cloud, and SJ Dixon exports real ranges through it, including one of 323 variants processed as a single import.
Next
Possible next steps include handling product images and connecting directly to OrderWise.