Julius Silvert Inc., a 111-year-old family owned food distributor serving foodservice and retail customers across the Mid-Atlantic, today launched a rebuilt business-to-business digital commerce platform on Magento Community Edition, giving customers real-time access to inventory, pricing, and order status without picking up the phone.
The old ordering process ran on phone calls and email. If a chef needed to know whether a case of product was in stock, someone had to pick up the phone and check. The new platform connects directly to Julius Silvert's ERP and warehouse systems, so that same answer is now available in a browser or on a phone, along with account-specific pricing, order history, and invoices.
The platform was built mobile-first, so a kitchen manager checking stock from a walk-in cooler or a driver confirming a delivery from the loading dock gets the same fast experience as someone at a desktop. Customers can reorder in a few taps from past order history, track in real time, pull a digital invoice on the spot, and check account-specific order guides without calling anyone. The goal was to remove every point of friction between wanting something and getting it confirmed.
"A restaurant operator does not have time to sit on hold to find out if we have their product in stock," said Steven Singer, CIO at Julius Silvert. "I have spent my career watching companies talk about digital transformation without changing anything a customer actually experiences. This is not that. This is a customer logging in and getting a real answer in seconds instead of a callback."
The commerce launch is one piece of a larger overhaul underway at Julius Silvert that also touches its ERP and warehouse management systems. Singer said the team built the platform to be extended rather than replaced again in a few years, with more self-service and account-level tools planned as adoption grows.
Singer credited the company's ownership for backing the investment. "This kind of technology overhaul does not happen without Business Owners willing to keep putting money behind it year after year," Singer said. "They have stayed committed to this the whole way, and there is a lot more still coming."
The launch adds to a strong run for Singer Professionally. He was named CIO of the Year ORBIE Winner in 2025, and this year he was invited to join the Forbes Technology Council and picked up a run of speaking engagements at national industry events. Taken together, it has put Singer's name among the top technology talent in the Philadelphia region, with more visibility likely on the way.
Founded in 1915, Julius Silvert Inc. is a family owned food distributor based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, offering an extensive range of specialty and imported products sourced from around the world alongside everyday foodservice staples. Known for white glove service, the company delivers from its Philadelphia home base north to Boston and New York, west to Pittsburgh, and south through Baltimore, Washington D.C., and Virginia, covering the full Mid-Atlantic and Northeast corridor in between.
