Case studies / Sumena
An AI-enhanced webshop and warehouse stack for a food-waste fighter
Sumena is an Estonian impact retailer fighting food waste by selling near-expiry, damaged-packaging, and discontinued groceries at 30–80% off, operating an online shop and six physical stores.
- Traffic after rebrand
- 2x growth
- Revenue
- 2x month-on-month
Challenge
Sumena’s product mix changes daily — different suppliers, different expiry dates, different stock levels — and manual customer support, pricing, and stock planning created delays, inaccurate forecasts, and missed sales as the business grew.
Solution
- Responsive webshop. Modern e-commerce front end built to handle the rapid product turnover that comes with near-expiry inventory.
- Intelligent sourcing module. Forecasts future stock needs and estimates sourcing costs based on seasonality, trends, and supplier behavior.
- Warehouse management system. Connects sourcing, stock, and storefront so the team sees the same picture across channels.
- AI-driven chatbot. 24/7 customer support that understands user queries and guides purchases.
- ML on browsing and purchase data. Predicts product popularity and supports pricing decisions, reducing both overstock and stockouts.
- AI
- Backend
- PHP
- Self-Service
- UX
Result
- Traffic doubled after the rebrand and new webshop launch.
- Revenue grew 2× month-on-month following the relaunch.
- Manual customer support workload reduced through 24/7 AI handling of common queries.
- Pricing and stock decisions are now data-driven rather than gut-driven.
Key takeaway
A small impact retailer doesn’t need a Silicon Valley budget to get AI-enhanced e-commerce — it needs the right modules in the right places.
