The whole thing, without the jargon
Most people who run a distribution business do not want a lecture about protocols. They want to know what is changing, what it costs them, and what to do on Monday. That is this page.
One sentence. Software is starting to do part of the buying, and it can only buy from catalogues it can ask a question.
Two sentences more. It asks the same things a buyer asks: do you have it, how many, how fast, what does it cost me, what else fits, send the certificate. Your website answers people, so the software gets nothing and goes to the next supplier.
Two doors, and only one of them is open
Your site today serves people. A person arrives, the page loads, they read it. Software arrives by the same address and gets a refusal, because a refusal is the default in most web servers and nobody has been asked about it.
Why it happens. Refusing programs is a sensible default against scrapers and price-hunters. The problem is that the same wall now stops a buyer's assistant, and there is no way to tell the two apart with a blanket rule.
A service window with six questions
The gateway is not a new system. It is a service window on the catalogue you already run, and it answers six questions that any clerk would understand.
What it does not do. It does not move your data, it does not change your ERP, and for the first month it does not let anyone order anything. The assistant may look, and you read the log of what was asked before you allow more.
A signed statement, not a marketing claim
When a supplier says a battery was tested, an assistant passes that on as a fact. A signed record turns the claim into something a buyer can check later, without asking us and without an account.
Why a buyer cares. It moves the argument about documents from the buyer to you. Two suppliers, one with a checkable certificate and one with a PDF somebody scanned, do not look equal to a procurement team.
Four ways to become readable, and what each one gives you
The work is already being bought in three other forms. Comparing them honestly is more useful than another list of features.
| Route | What it costs | What it actually changes | Does your catalogue answer? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agency retainer, AI visibility | median $6,850 a month (First Page Sage, 1,146 quotes, Oct 2026) | They write content and try to get you mentioned in AI answers. Your catalogue still cannot be asked a question. | no |
| A visibility dashboard | a subscription, usually a few hundred a month | It shows where you appear. It changes nothing in your own systems. | no |
| Build it yourself | your developers, several months, then maintenance | Full control. You also own the mapping to conventions that keep moving. | partly |
| Connect.ARLI gateway | $1,500 to $4,500 a month, metered, from $8,000 to connect | Reads the catalogue where it lives and answers the six questions, under your rules, with every call logged. | yes |
The first two routes sell attention. The third sells control and costs you a year. The fourth is the only one that changes what a machine can get out of your catalogue, and it is priced below the first one.
What could go wrong, in plain words
The honest version, because a business owner can smell a sales pitch from across the room.
The assistant may never come
Agent traffic is small today: about 0.2% of sessions in the figures we could verify. You are not buying traffic from us, and we do not promise any.
You might pay for a door nobody knocks on
Which is why we start with a diagnostic that you get to read before you commit, and why we will tell you to stop if the transcript shows nothing worth fixing.
Your prices are your business
The gateway enforces the rule you already have. It never publishes your contract price to anyone who is not entitled to it, and we never see the contents of a buyer's agreement.
See it on your own domain
Send one domain and one product line. We will tell you in plain words whether any of this is worth your money, and if it is not, we will say so.
hq@arliwork.com · Shenzhen Capernaum Technology Co., Ltd · PIAKHOUSKI DZMITRY