Coca-Cola uses AI to improve retailer ordering in Malaysia
Coca-Cola is utilizing AI to advocate which merchandise Malaysian retailers ought to order and in what portions by its Coke Buddy platform.
The Perfect Basket function uses Coca-Cola’s Central Recommendation Engine to analyse earlier orders, ordering frequency, seasonality, climate, and buying patterns amongst related companies.
Coca-Cola stated Coke Buddy at present helps about 39,000 stores throughout Malaysia. The firm describes Coke Buddy as a self-ordering platform that permits retailers to purchase merchandise by its app, web site, or WhatsApp, with personalised order strategies and order monitoring additionally out there.
Perfect Basket builds on these current ordering capabilities by recommending each merchandise and portions earlier than a retailer completes an order. Retailers can overview the suggestions and retain management over what they buy.
How Perfect Basket guides retailer orders
Coke Buddy already uses earlier buy historical past to recommend merchandise a retailer is probably going to order once more. Perfect Basket provides different alerts, together with seasonality, climate, ordering frequency, and buying traits amongst comparable companies.
Perfect Basket recommends merchandise and portions earlier than retailers submit their orders by Coke Buddy. Fulfilment is dealt with individually by Coca-Cola Refreshments Malaysia or its suppliers beneath current gross sales and distribution preparations.
Coca-Cola stated its gross sales groups stay concerned with retailers alongside the digital ordering system, whereas retailers retain management over the ultimate buying determination.
Coca-Cola not too long ago disclosed utilization figures for Perfect Basket following its Perfect Basket, Perfect Ride marketing campaign, which ran from January to April 2026. The marketing campaign inspired retailers to use the advice function when putting orders and obtained greater than 4,500 entries from over 4,000 retailers in Malaysia.
During the marketing campaign, 83% of taking part retailers adopted Perfect Basket suggestions, in accordance to Coca-Cola. The determine applies solely to retailers collaborating in the marketing campaign, not the total community of about 39,000 retailers supported by Coke Buddy.
Coca-Cola additionally stated taking part retailers that adopted the suggestions recorded larger gross sales income progress than comparable stores. The firm didn’t disclose the scale of the distinction or present detailed efficiency knowledge displaying how particular person suggestions affected gross sales or stock ranges.
The out there Malaysian marketing campaign knowledge doesn’t present figures for forecast accuracy, inventory availability, stock ranges, or logistics prices.
Suggested orders lengthen past Malaysia
Coca-Cola has deployed related suggested-order capabilities elsewhere in its bottling community. In its first-quarter 2024 outcomes, the corporate stated it and its bottling companions had linked almost eight million clients to B2B platforms globally, whereas AI-enabled suggested-order capabilities had reached greater than three million retailers in Latin America.
Coca-Cola has stated these programs mix buyer knowledge, exterior data, and AI to generate predictive order suggestions. Then-chief government James Quincey stated in 2024 that digital ordering additionally permits retailers to modify deliveries with out ready for a salesman to go to.
Coca-Cola has additionally linked advised orders to modifications in its gross sales course of. Quincey stated AI-generated orders enable pre-sales employees to spend much less time taking routine orders and extra time on account improvement, whereas retailers proceed to make the ultimate buying determination.
Coca-Cola has reported outcomes from earlier pilots utilizing related advice programs. In its second-quarter 2024 earnings name, the corporate stated retailers receiving AI-generated product suggestions primarily based on earlier orders and market knowledge had been greater than 30% extra doubtless to buy the really useful SKUs in preliminary pilots. These outcomes didn’t relate particularly to Perfect Basket in Malaysia.
In a separate demand-prediction mission, Coca-Cola mixed historic gross sales knowledge with climate and geolocation data to generate replenishment suggestions. CIO Neeraj Tolmare informed Fortune in 2025 {that a} three-country pilot recorded gross sales 7% to 8% larger than retailers that weren’t utilizing the AI algorithm.
Perfect Basket stays out there after the marketing campaign. Coca-Cola stated it plans to proceed growing Coke Buddy and the advice function utilizing retailer suggestions and knowledge, whereas retailers will proceed to have entry to the corporate’s gross sales representatives alongside the digital ordering system.
(Photo by Mahbod Akhzami)
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