How Ghia transformed their operations without an ERP overhaul - Crafty Crow AI Strategy + Workflow Automation

Ghia, a rapidly-growing non-alcoholic beverage brand, saved countless hours by automating their sales order management across channels without replacing their entire system. Here’s how they did it.

About Ghia

For non-alcoholic beverage brands, scaling operations often means dealing with dozens of distributors—each with their own ordering systems and processes. Unlike other CPG categories where a single distributor like UNFI might suffice, beverage brands face unique complexities that make back-office automation challenging without expensive enterprise solutions.

Ghia was in this exact situation. Ghia is a premium non-alcoholic aperitif that launched in 2020 – right when the world was shutting down due to the pandemic – and immediately became a hit, via a robust DTC / ecommerce channel. Fast-forward a few years, and they’re now found at retailers like Whole Foods Market and Target.

However, as they grew, so did their operational challenges—until they found a middle ground between fully manual processes and costly, long ERP implementations.

The Challenge: Manual work

Ghia's operations team faced a common growth obstacle: an increasing volume of orders that required hours of manual data processing. With each new distributor came another variation of purchase order formats, another inbox to monitor, and another system to reconcile.

"The absolute biggest problem we were facing was the level of manual work," explains Joy Chua-Schwartz, Ghia’s Chief Operating Officer. "The data entry and data reconciliation across sales, operations and finance took hours of someone’s time everyday and we were underutilizing this person’s skills as a result."

This situation will sound familiar to many growing CPG brands. As you add more retail partners and distributors, your back-office workload doesn't just increase linearly—it compounds. Each new relationship introduces unique requirements that strain existing processes.

For Ghia, this meant:

Manually processing distributor-emailed orders
Transferring data between systems (often re-typing the same information)
Creating order confirmations by hand
Manually sending invoices in QuickBooks
Reconciling data across multiple platforms

The Exploration: When traditional solutions don’t fit

Like many brands in their position, Ghia initially explored standard solutions, but quickly realized the limitations.

"We had looked for off-the-shelf solutions, but they often required a complete overhaul of the existing processes, which we didn't have the time or resources to undertake," Joy shared.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) integrations are often presented as the solution to these challenges. But these approaches come with substantial drawbacks for growing brands:

High implementation costs: EDI integrations can cost thousands per trading partner
Long timelines: 6-12 months is typical for traditional ERP implementations
Staffing requirements: Dedicated personnel to project-manage the transition
Rigid structures: Your processes must conform to the software, not vice versa

For a non-alcoholic beverage brand like Ghia working with numerous distributors, the economics simply didn't make sense.

The EDI pricing model becomes particularly problematic with only a few orders per month from each distributor, when brands have to pay so much money upfront for the integration, and there are 30 to 50 distributors that need to all be integrated.

The Approach: Working with existing processes

When Ghia connected with Crafty Crow, they found a fundamentally different philosophy: adaptation rather than replacement.

The Crafty Crow approach is to learn each of our clients’ systems, find a way to work with them, and make the processes better, as well as more automated. This approach differs from other software providers, who often force clients to adhere to the software providers’ opinion of how to do work.

"It was a breath of fresh air to hear, 'I want to understand your process and work with you to figure out a better way', instead of, 'You need to completely change the way that you're doing things’”, Joy recalled.

This approach stems from our founder’s background in data automation for customs brokerage and credit risk management—both being environments where accuracy is non-negotiable, and where operational processes are often complex and established.

The Crafty Crow process begins with:

Visualization: On a virtual whiteboard, we visualized the flow of all of these processes that generally live in someone’s head. We covered edge cases and what to do in every situation.
Understanding: Taking the time to learn not just what was being done, but why it was done that way – which uncovered the workarounds, instead of automating the workarounds.
Targeted Automation: Identifying where technology could remove manual steps without disrupting the overall workflow.

The Solution: Automating without overhauling

Rather than replacing Ghia's systems, Crafty Crow implemented a series of targeted automations that preserved their existing processes while eliminating manual work:

Automated Order Ingestion: Automatically process distributor-emailed orders from a specified inbox directly into their business systems, based on Ghia's existing SOPs
Platform Integration: Seamless connection between their Faire marketplace orders and their business systems
Sales to Inventory Management: Automated workflows in their Inventory Management System to pick, pack, ship, and invoice wholesale orders as they are shipped via parcel and freight, to ensure accurate inventory counts
Automated Invoicing: Implementation of a process to auto-send invoices according to SOPs defined by Ghia's operations team

Unlike traditional EDI implementations that require months of work, these automations were implemented in about a month, with minimal disruption to ongoing operations.

The Results: Transformation without disruption

The impact was immediate and significant. Tasks that once consumed hours each day became automated, allowing the team to focus on more strategic work.

Beyond just the time savings, the process itself provided clarity.

Along the way, we documented every standard operating procedure that was previously done manually, along with information on how the automation worked, and what to watch out for when operators edited data that synced between systems.

Most importantly, this was achieved without the massive disruption, expense, and timeline of a traditional system overhaul. Ghia maintained their existing workflows while eliminating the manual work within them.

At Crafty Crow, our job is not only to sell software, but to enable our clients to succeed, which means providing a high level of service quality beyond what other software service providers offer.

As Joy put it, "You've continued to provide us with a level of service that I didn't expect. I thought that you would deliver on certain automations, and that would be it, and we'd never hear from you again. Instead, you've invested in our team and our processes and in many ways feel like you're a member of our team, which is not always the case for a software provider."

Key Takeaways for CPG Brands

Ghia's experience offers several valuable insights for other growing CPG brands facing similar challenges:

Document your processes: Having a visual map or flowchart of your processes provides clarity that can reveal opportunities to improve these processes, or automate them completely.
Look for the middle ground: As more AI and automation tooling comes online, look for solutions that help you automate your team’s work without moving to an expensive ERP or a complete EDI implementation. Consider benefits like flexibility, a lower time-to-value, and cost-effectiveness.
Prioritize adaptation over replacement: Working with your existing systems is often faster, less disruptive, and more cost-effective than replacing them entirely.
Choose tech partners who understand your industry: The unique challenges of CPG distribution require specific expertise that generic automation tools and software providers often lack.
Start earlier than you think: Joy recommends Crafty Crow to “startups that are younger and are figuring out their processes, or trying to improve their processes.”

Moving forward to focus on the business

For growing CPG brands—especially those in the beverage category—the path between manual processes and enterprise systems often seems nonexistent. You're either too small for costly ERP / EDI integrations or drowning in manual work that limits your growth.

Ghia's experience demonstrates that there is indeed a middle path: targeted automation that works with your existing processes rather than replacing them entirely.

If your CPG brand is hitting that awkward middle stage—where manual processes are becoming unsustainable but enterprise solutions seem excessive—know that alternatives exist.

"What would I say to someone on the fence about working with Crafty Crow? I would say give it a try because you won't be disappointed,” Joy shared.

---

Is your company struggling with manual work? Learn how Crafty Crow can help you automate without overhauling your entire system. Book a consultation today.

Ghia, a rapidly-growing non-alcoholic beverage brand, saved countless hours by automating their sales order management across channels without replacing their entire system. Here’s how they did it.

About Ghia

For non-alcoholic beverage brands, scaling operations often means dealing with dozens of distributors—each with their own ordering systems and processes. Unlike other CPG categories where a single distributor like UNFI might suffice, beverage brands face unique complexities that make back-office automation challenging without expensive enterprise solutions.

Ghia was in this exact situation. Ghia is a premium non-alcoholic aperitif that launched in 2020 – right when the world was shutting down due to the pandemic – and immediately became a hit, via a robust DTC / ecommerce channel. Fast-forward a few years, and they’re now found at retailers like Whole Foods Market and Target.

However, as they grew, so did their operational challenges—until they found a middle ground between fully manual processes and costly, long ERP implementations.

The Challenge: Manual work

Ghia's operations team faced a common growth obstacle: an increasing volume of orders that required hours of manual data processing. With each new distributor came another variation of purchase order formats, another inbox to monitor, and another system to reconcile.

"The absolute biggest problem we were facing was the level of manual work," explains Joy Chua-Schwartz, Ghia’s Chief Operating Officer. "The data entry and data reconciliation across sales, operations and finance took hours of someone’s time everyday and we were underutilizing this person’s skills as a result."

This situation will sound familiar to many growing CPG brands. As you add more retail partners and distributors, your back-office workload doesn't just increase linearly—it compounds. Each new relationship introduces unique requirements that strain existing processes.

For Ghia, this meant:

Manually processing distributor-emailed orders
Transferring data between systems (often re-typing the same information)
Creating order confirmations by hand
Manually sending invoices in QuickBooks
Reconciling data across multiple platforms

The Exploration: When traditional solutions don’t fit

Like many brands in their position, Ghia initially explored standard solutions, but quickly realized the limitations.

"We had looked for off-the-shelf solutions, but they often required a complete overhaul of the existing processes, which we didn't have the time or resources to undertake," Joy shared.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) integrations are often presented as the solution to these challenges. But these approaches come with substantial drawbacks for growing brands:

High implementation costs: EDI integrations can cost thousands per trading partner
Long timelines: 6-12 months is typical for traditional ERP implementations
Staffing requirements: Dedicated personnel to project-manage the transition
Rigid structures: Your processes must conform to the software, not vice versa

For a non-alcoholic beverage brand like Ghia working with numerous distributors, the economics simply didn't make sense.

The EDI pricing model becomes particularly problematic with only a few orders per month from each distributor, when brands have to pay so much money upfront for the integration, and there are 30 to 50 distributors that need to all be integrated.

The Approach: Working with existing processes

When Ghia connected with Crafty Crow, they found a fundamentally different philosophy: adaptation rather than replacement.

The Crafty Crow approach is to learn each of our clients’ systems, find a way to work with them, and make the processes better, as well as more automated. This approach differs from other software providers, who often force clients to adhere to the software providers’ opinion of how to do work.

"It was a breath of fresh air to hear, 'I want to understand your process and work with you to figure out a better way', instead of, 'You need to completely change the way that you're doing things’”, Joy recalled.

This approach stems from our founder’s background in data automation for customs brokerage and credit risk management—both being environments where accuracy is non-negotiable, and where operational processes are often complex and established.

The Crafty Crow process begins with:

Visualization: On a virtual whiteboard, we visualized the flow of all of these processes that generally live in someone’s head. We covered edge cases and what to do in every situation.
Understanding: Taking the time to learn not just what was being done, but why it was done that way – which uncovered the workarounds, instead of automating the workarounds.
Targeted Automation: Identifying where technology could remove manual steps without disrupting the overall workflow.

The Solution: Automating without overhauling

Rather than replacing Ghia's systems, Crafty Crow implemented a series of targeted automations that preserved their existing processes while eliminating manual work:

Automated Order Ingestion: Automatically process distributor-emailed orders from a specified inbox directly into their business systems, based on Ghia's existing SOPs
Platform Integration: Seamless connection between their Faire marketplace orders and their business systems
Sales to Inventory Management: Automated workflows in their Inventory Management System to pick, pack, ship, and invoice wholesale orders as they are shipped via parcel and freight, to ensure accurate inventory counts
Automated Invoicing: Implementation of a process to auto-send invoices according to SOPs defined by Ghia's operations team

Unlike traditional EDI implementations that require months of work, these automations were implemented in about a month, with minimal disruption to ongoing operations.

The Results: Transformation without disruption

The impact was immediate and significant. Tasks that once consumed hours each day became automated, allowing the team to focus on more strategic work.

Beyond just the time savings, the process itself provided clarity.

Along the way, we documented every standard operating procedure that was previously done manually, along with information on how the automation worked, and what to watch out for when operators edited data that synced between systems.

Most importantly, this was achieved without the massive disruption, expense, and timeline of a traditional system overhaul. Ghia maintained their existing workflows while eliminating the manual work within them.

At Crafty Crow, our job is not only to sell software, but to enable our clients to succeed, which means providing a high level of service quality beyond what other software service providers offer.

As Joy put it, "You've continued to provide us with a level of service that I didn't expect. I thought that you would deliver on certain automations, and that would be it, and we'd never hear from you again. Instead, you've invested in our team and our processes and in many ways feel like you're a member of our team, which is not always the case for a software provider."

Key Takeaways for CPG Brands

Ghia's experience offers several valuable insights for other growing CPG brands facing similar challenges:

Document your processes: Having a visual map or flowchart of your processes provides clarity that can reveal opportunities to improve these processes, or automate them completely.
Look for the middle ground: As more AI and automation tooling comes online, look for solutions that help you automate your team’s work without moving to an expensive ERP or a complete EDI implementation. Consider benefits like flexibility, a lower time-to-value, and cost-effectiveness.
Prioritize adaptation over replacement: Working with your existing systems is often faster, less disruptive, and more cost-effective than replacing them entirely.
Choose tech partners who understand your industry: The unique challenges of CPG distribution require specific expertise that generic automation tools and software providers often lack.
Start earlier than you think: Joy recommends Crafty Crow to “startups that are younger and are figuring out their processes, or trying to improve their processes.”

Moving forward to focus on the business

For growing CPG brands—especially those in the beverage category—the path between manual processes and enterprise systems often seems nonexistent. You're either too small for costly ERP / EDI integrations or drowning in manual work that limits your growth.

Ghia's experience demonstrates that there is indeed a middle path: targeted automation that works with your existing processes rather than replacing them entirely.

If your CPG brand is hitting that awkward middle stage—where manual processes are becoming unsustainable but enterprise solutions seem excessive—know that alternatives exist.

"What would I say to someone on the fence about working with Crafty Crow? I would say give it a try because you won't be disappointed,” Joy shared.

---

Is your company struggling with manual work? Learn how Crafty Crow can help you automate without overhauling your entire system. Book a consultation today.

Ghia, a rapidly-growing non-alcoholic beverage brand, saved countless hours by automating their sales order management across channels without replacing their entire system. Here’s how they did it.

About Ghia

For non-alcoholic beverage brands, scaling operations often means dealing with dozens of distributors—each with their own ordering systems and processes. Unlike other CPG categories where a single distributor like UNFI might suffice, beverage brands face unique complexities that make back-office automation challenging without expensive enterprise solutions.

Ghia was in this exact situation. Ghia is a premium non-alcoholic aperitif that launched in 2020 – right when the world was shutting down due to the pandemic – and immediately became a hit, via a robust DTC / ecommerce channel. Fast-forward a few years, and they’re now found at retailers like Whole Foods Market and Target.

However, as they grew, so did their operational challenges—until they found a middle ground between fully manual processes and costly, long ERP implementations.

The Challenge: Manual work

Ghia's operations team faced a common growth obstacle: an increasing volume of orders that required hours of manual data processing. With each new distributor came another variation of purchase order formats, another inbox to monitor, and another system to reconcile.

"The absolute biggest problem we were facing was the level of manual work," explains Joy Chua-Schwartz, Ghia’s Chief Operating Officer. "The data entry and data reconciliation across sales, operations and finance took hours of someone’s time everyday and we were underutilizing this person’s skills as a result."

This situation will sound familiar to many growing CPG brands. As you add more retail partners and distributors, your back-office workload doesn't just increase linearly—it compounds. Each new relationship introduces unique requirements that strain existing processes.

For Ghia, this meant:

Manually processing distributor-emailed orders
Transferring data between systems (often re-typing the same information)
Creating order confirmations by hand
Manually sending invoices in QuickBooks
Reconciling data across multiple platforms

The Exploration: When traditional solutions don’t fit

Like many brands in their position, Ghia initially explored standard solutions, but quickly realized the limitations.

"We had looked for off-the-shelf solutions, but they often required a complete overhaul of the existing processes, which we didn't have the time or resources to undertake," Joy shared.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) integrations are often presented as the solution to these challenges. But these approaches come with substantial drawbacks for growing brands:

High implementation costs: EDI integrations can cost thousands per trading partner
Long timelines: 6-12 months is typical for traditional ERP implementations
Staffing requirements: Dedicated personnel to project-manage the transition
Rigid structures: Your processes must conform to the software, not vice versa

For a non-alcoholic beverage brand like Ghia working with numerous distributors, the economics simply didn't make sense.

The EDI pricing model becomes particularly problematic with only a few orders per month from each distributor, when brands have to pay so much money upfront for the integration, and there are 30 to 50 distributors that need to all be integrated.

The Approach: Working with existing processes

When Ghia connected with Crafty Crow, they found a fundamentally different philosophy: adaptation rather than replacement.

The Crafty Crow approach is to learn each of our clients’ systems, find a way to work with them, and make the processes better, as well as more automated. This approach differs from other software providers, who often force clients to adhere to the software providers’ opinion of how to do work.

"It was a breath of fresh air to hear, 'I want to understand your process and work with you to figure out a better way', instead of, 'You need to completely change the way that you're doing things’”, Joy recalled.

This approach stems from our founder’s background in data automation for customs brokerage and credit risk management—both being environments where accuracy is non-negotiable, and where operational processes are often complex and established.

The Crafty Crow process begins with:

Visualization: On a virtual whiteboard, we visualized the flow of all of these processes that generally live in someone’s head. We covered edge cases and what to do in every situation.
Understanding: Taking the time to learn not just what was being done, but why it was done that way – which uncovered the workarounds, instead of automating the workarounds.
Targeted Automation: Identifying where technology could remove manual steps without disrupting the overall workflow.

The Solution: Automating without overhauling

Rather than replacing Ghia's systems, Crafty Crow implemented a series of targeted automations that preserved their existing processes while eliminating manual work:

Automated Order Ingestion: Automatically process distributor-emailed orders from a specified inbox directly into their business systems, based on Ghia's existing SOPs
Platform Integration: Seamless connection between their Faire marketplace orders and their business systems
Sales to Inventory Management: Automated workflows in their Inventory Management System to pick, pack, ship, and invoice wholesale orders as they are shipped via parcel and freight, to ensure accurate inventory counts
Automated Invoicing: Implementation of a process to auto-send invoices according to SOPs defined by Ghia's operations team

Unlike traditional EDI implementations that require months of work, these automations were implemented in about a month, with minimal disruption to ongoing operations.

The Results: Transformation without disruption

The impact was immediate and significant. Tasks that once consumed hours each day became automated, allowing the team to focus on more strategic work.

Beyond just the time savings, the process itself provided clarity.

Along the way, we documented every standard operating procedure that was previously done manually, along with information on how the automation worked, and what to watch out for when operators edited data that synced between systems.

Most importantly, this was achieved without the massive disruption, expense, and timeline of a traditional system overhaul. Ghia maintained their existing workflows while eliminating the manual work within them.

At Crafty Crow, our job is not only to sell software, but to enable our clients to succeed, which means providing a high level of service quality beyond what other software service providers offer.

As Joy put it, "You've continued to provide us with a level of service that I didn't expect. I thought that you would deliver on certain automations, and that would be it, and we'd never hear from you again. Instead, you've invested in our team and our processes and in many ways feel like you're a member of our team, which is not always the case for a software provider."

Key Takeaways for CPG Brands

Ghia's experience offers several valuable insights for other growing CPG brands facing similar challenges:

Document your processes: Having a visual map or flowchart of your processes provides clarity that can reveal opportunities to improve these processes, or automate them completely.
Look for the middle ground: As more AI and automation tooling comes online, look for solutions that help you automate your team’s work without moving to an expensive ERP or a complete EDI implementation. Consider benefits like flexibility, a lower time-to-value, and cost-effectiveness.
Prioritize adaptation over replacement: Working with your existing systems is often faster, less disruptive, and more cost-effective than replacing them entirely.
Choose tech partners who understand your industry: The unique challenges of CPG distribution require specific expertise that generic automation tools and software providers often lack.
Start earlier than you think: Joy recommends Crafty Crow to “startups that are younger and are figuring out their processes, or trying to improve their processes.”

Moving forward to focus on the business

For growing CPG brands—especially those in the beverage category—the path between manual processes and enterprise systems often seems nonexistent. You're either too small for costly ERP / EDI integrations or drowning in manual work that limits your growth.

Ghia's experience demonstrates that there is indeed a middle path: targeted automation that works with your existing processes rather than replacing them entirely.

If your CPG brand is hitting that awkward middle stage—where manual processes are becoming unsustainable but enterprise solutions seem excessive—know that alternatives exist.

"What would I say to someone on the fence about working with Crafty Crow? I would say give it a try because you won't be disappointed,” Joy shared.

---

Is your company struggling with manual work? Learn how Crafty Crow can help you automate without overhauling your entire system. Book a consultation today.