How Odoo Helped a Nigerian Wholesaler Stop Losing Money on Expired Stock

When Regnum Supplies Limited started growing, it looked like a success story from the outside. 

They were importing high-quality edible consumer goods into Nigeria and supplying retailers and end customers across the country. Demand was strong. Social media channels like WhatsApp and Instagram were buzzing with orders and inquiries. 

But behind the scenes, the business was leaking money in slow motion.  

Before Odoo: growth built on guesswork

As sales increased, Regnum ran into the classic wholesale problem: operations that don’t scale.
 
1. Expiry dates no one really controlled
Regnum handled products with limited shelf life. Without a proper digital system, items with near expiry dates sat in the warehouse until someone noticed them during a manual count. By then, it was usually too late, and the result was predictable: giveaways, discounts under pressure, or complete write-offs.

2. Orders buried in WhatsApp & Instagram
Most customers preferred chatting on WhatsApp or Instagram. That helped sales, but all the information lived inside chat threads, not in a system. Staff had to scroll back through messages to remember what was promised, at what price, and to whom.

3. Replenishment based on panic, not data
Stock decisions were reactive. The team noticed problems only when a customer asked for something that had silently gone out of stock. They didn’t want robots auto-ordering everything; they simply needed timely low-stock alerts they could trust.

4. Complex expiry & packaging logic
The same product could arrive in one batch with different expiry dates, sold sometimes in packs, sometimes in single units. Spreadsheets and manual notes couldn’t keep up with that level of detail.

5. No barcode-driven process & a weak POS
Barcodes weren’t used systematically. Staff couldn’t just scan an item and instantly see what it was, how it should be sold, or how much of it was left. The POS had no proper receipt template, no standard printer, and struggled with pending or mixed-category sales.
 
Regnum was growing. But the bigger it got, the more fragile it felt.

The turning point: choosing Odoo

 
At that stage, Regnum partnered with erpSOFTapp, a certified Odoo partner, to rebuild operations around a real ERP instead of chats and spreadsheets.
Together, they designed an Odoo setup on Odoo SaaS v18 with:
 

• Inventory
• Sales
• Purchase
• POS
• WhatsApp / Instagram integration
• Accounting

The idea was simple: one system where expiry dates, stock, sales, and money all connect.

After Odoo: what changed in real life

 
The impact wasn’t just “more features.” It showed up directly in daily work.

1. Expiry is tracked before it becomes a problem
Odoo Inventory now tracks expiry dates at unit level, even when items from the same batch have different dates. The system sends alerts for products nearing expiry so the team can pause sales, run promotions, or move stock while there’s still time.
Result: significantly reduced product loss from expiry.

2. Barcodes drive faster, cleaner operation

With barcode integration:

• Staff scan products to see details instantly in Odoo
• The system handles different barcodes for packs vs single units

This cuts down mistakes at the warehouse and at the counter, and speeds up every transaction.

3. WhatsApp & Instagram become part of the system

Instead of living in a separate world, social channels now connect to Odoo:

• Quotations and product info can be sent directly via WhatsApp and Instagram from within Odoo
• Messages turn into structured documents: quotes, orders, and customer records

That means faster replies for customers and far fewer “lost” conversations.

4. Replenishment with alerts, not anxiety

Regnum still makes purchasing decisions manually, but now Odoo:

• Monitors stock levels
• Triggers alerts when thresholds are hit

The team keeps control of ordering, but with real-time, accurate data instead of gut feeling.

5. POS and accounting finally match reality

With a customized Odoo POS:

• Receipts follow a consistent template
• The POS can hold unpaid sales so staff can serve the next customer and return later
• Sales across different product categories are tracked separately in accounting reports, even when they appear on the same receipt

Finance now sees revenue and performance by category, not just a single “total sales” number.

The outcome

Since going live on Odoo, Regnum Supplies has:

• Reduced losses from expired goods
• Responded faster to customers on social channels
• Stabilized stock levels with data-driven alerts
• Simplified day-to-day selling with barcode and POS improvements
• Gained clearer financial insight through category-based reporting

Same products. Same market. Same demand.
The difference is that now, the business runs on a system designed for real wholesale operations, not a patchwork of chats and spreadsheets.
That’s what “before Odoo” and “after Odoo” looks like in practice.