The Automate Store is live in every Automate account, including free trials. It's included at no extra cost, and there's nothing to switch on.
Every operator we speak to can tell us their monthly revenue. Far fewer can tell us what they spend on consumables.
It's the quietest cost in the business. Snow foam, wheel cleaner, drying towels, pads, coatings, a replacement lance because the last one got run over. None of it feels like a big spend on the day. Add twelve months of it up and it's one of the largest lines on the P&L after fuel and labour. Unlike fuel, it's a line you can actually do something about.
So we've done something about it.
What's new
The Automate Store is now live in your admin dashboard. It's a place to buy the products and equipment you already use, at prices negotiated specifically for Automate users: up to 25% off retail.
Five categories at launch:
- Supplies: microfibre, pads, applicators, brushes, the consumables that disappear fastest
- Chemicals: shampoos, snow foams, wheel cleaners, tar removers, interior products
- Ceramic coatings: coatings, sealants and prep products, including professional-grade lines
- Equipment: machines, lances, extractors, the hardware that costs real money
- Merch: branded workwear and kit
Log in, open Store from the dashboard, and it's there.
Why the pricing is different
This isn't a page of public discount codes scraped off the internet. Anyone can find those, and they're worth roughly what you pay for them.
These are rates agreed with suppliers on behalf of Automate users as a group. That distinction matters commercially. One operator with one van walking into a supplier has very little leverage. Several hundred UK valeting and detailing businesses buying through one channel have quite a lot. The discounts exist because of the collective, which is why they're only available inside the platform.
The first supplier on board is Mile Deep, whose chemicals and coatings a lot of you are already buying at full retail. More are being onboarded on a rolling basis, so the range will keep growing. If there's a brand you buy from every month that isn't in there yet, tell us: supplier requests from operators are how we're deciding who to approach next.
What this is actually worth
Run your own numbers rather than ours. Take what you spent on products and equipment over the last three months, divide by three, and apply the discount rates you'll see in the store.
The maths
£400 a month on products, 25% off, is £100 back
That's twice the £49/month subscription, out of a budget you were already spending. For a single-van operator spending £200 a month, the saving still covers the subscription with room to spare. That was the design goal: a feature that pays for itself.
There's a second benefit that's less obvious. Buying through the dashboard means your product spend sits in the same system as your bookings and your revenue, rather than scattered across six supplier accounts and a shoebox of receipts. Knowing what you spend per job is the first step to pricing properly.
The store is included with every Automate account.
Bookings, deposits, reminders, the technician app — and trade pricing on the products you already buy. Fourteen-day free trial, store access from day one.
How to get to it
- Log in to your Automate admin dashboard
- Open Store from the main navigation
- Browse by category, or search for a product directly
- Checkout, and it ships to you
No separate account to create, no code to remember at a third-party checkout, and no minimum order to unlock the rate.
Part of a bigger release
The store lands on the back of the biggest Automate update yet: the rebuilt admin dashboard, the new package editor, and the redesigned calendar. The dashboard rebuild is what made the store possible. Once you've got a proper command centre rather than a booking tool with bits bolted on, you can start adding things that have nothing to do with bookings and everything to do with running the business profitably.
That's the direction. Automate started as the answer to managing your diary from WhatsApp at 10pm. It's turning into the system the whole business runs through: the jobs, the money, the customers, and now the kit.
What's next
- More suppliers. The roster at launch is the starting point, not the finished article.
- Reorder from history. One tap to repeat your usual monthly order.
- Spend visibility. Product spend reported alongside revenue, so you can see cost per job properly.
Get access
If you're already on Automate, the store is in your dashboard now. Nothing to switch on.
If you're not, every plan includes a 14-day free trial with no setup fee and no contract. You'll get the booking page, the technician app, the CRM, the automated reminders, and the store, from day one of the trial.
