How Cocolab Opened a New Sales Channel Without Changing Their Stack

Sep 1, 2025

Natalie Ma

Table of Content

The Challenge

The Solution

The Result

The Outcome

Industry: Health and Wellness

Category: Dental Care

Company: Cocolab

Segment: Mid-Market

The Challenge: Small Orders, Manual Translation

Cocolab wanted to sell into Dental Service Organizations (DSOs) nationwide, but the operational math did not make sense.

DSOs operate inside their own procurement systems. They do not place orders through a brand’s Shopify storefront. Instead, they send structured purchase orders, typically via email, which vendors must manually process.

Each DSO purchase order required someone on the operations team to:

Open the email
Review the PDF
Manually type SKUs and quantities into Shopify Plus
Confirm pricing and shipping
Let the order sync into NetSuite and shipping platform

Each order took about 5 minutes to enter. The average order value per clinic was around $100.

That meant the cost of labor just to create the order before fulfillment, COGS or shipping. A small order required the same handling time as a much larger wholesale PO.

“We wanted to sell to DSOs, but retyping every order into Shopify will create too much friction for the team,” - Chris Spratt, CFO

The issue was not demand. It was manual translation between systems.

The Challenge: Small Orders, Manual Translation

Cocolab wanted to sell into Dental Service Organizations (DSOs) nationwide, but the operational math did not make sense.

Each DSO purchase order required someone on the operations team to:

Open the email
Review the PDF
Manually type SKUs and quantities into Shopify Plus
Confirm pricing and shipping
Let the order sync into NetSuite and shipping platform

Each order took about 5 minutes to enter. The average order value per clinic was around $100.

That meant the cost of labor just to create the order before fulfillment, COGS or shipping. A small order required the same handling time as a much larger wholesale PO.

“We wanted to sell to DSOs, but retyping every order into Shopify will create too much friction for the team,” - Chris Spratt, CFO

The issue was not demand. It was manual translation between systems.

The Solution: Eliminate the Human Bridge

Cocolab partnered with Buddy to automate the gap between incoming DSO POs and their internal stack.

Standard process: DSO system → Human → Shopify Plus
New process: DSO system → Buddy → Shopify Plus

Buddy automatically:

Parsed purchase orders from Gmail
Structured SKUs and quantities
Created the order directly inside Shopify Plus

The team would then review the order before pushing it into Netsuite. Manual data entry was removed.

The Result: From 5 Minutes to 1

Before Buddy:

~5 minutes per order
Manual SKU entry
Channel felt inefficient

After Buddy:

<1 minute review and approval
No retyping
Clean system sync across Shopify, NetSuite and ShipHero

By reducing handling time by 80 percent, Cocolab made $100 orders economically viable.

“We no longer had to debate whether small DSO orders were worth the effort. The team would just review and approve.” - Chris Spratt, CFO

The Outcome: Sales Expansion Without Operational Drag

Cocolab did not change their stack nor add headcount. They also did not require DSOs to adapt to their systems.

With Buddy, that shift turned an operationally unattractive channel into one they could confidently pursue.

Sometimes growth is not blocked by demand. It is blocked by manual entry between systems.

Book a demo to see how Buddy can turn your operations into an engine for growth.

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