How many hours does your staff spend copying orders from Zalo into Excel, then from Excel into accounting software, every single day? For one F&B client of Ocean Labs, that number was 4 hours a day — until we built their first n8n workflow.
What is n8n, in plain terms?
n8n connects the tools you already use. A new order on the website → auto-logged to Google Sheets → a Zalo message sent to the customer → a shipping ticket created for GHN. Nobody retypes anything.
Unlike Zapier or Make, n8n runs on your own VPS — no run limits, no per-task subscription fees, and customer data never leaves your infrastructure.
"Automation doesn't replace people — it gives people back the work worth doing."
Three workflows to start with
- Order → inventory → customer. New orders are logged, inventory is deducted, and a confirmation is sent within 5 seconds.
- Post-sale care. Three days after delivery, the system sends a check-in message with a discount code for next time.
- Monday morning report. At 8am every Monday, the owner gets a Zalo message summarizing last week's revenue, orders, and stock.
The real cost
A 2GB RAM VPS (about 150k VND/month) comfortably runs 20–30 workflows. Compared to 4 hours of manual labor a day, this investment pays for itself in the first week.