As Wolfgang Falter states in his article: Customers increasingly search online and initiate digital contacts via websites, social networks, search engines and commercial platforms. Those distributors that they do not find online are no longer present in the relevant markets.

This development has led to many discussions within the chemical distribution industry on how best to address the issue of digitalization.

CHEManager asked executives and industry experts familiar with the development of e-commerce in chemical distribution to share their opinion on what needs to be done in order to survive in an increasingly competitive environment and how to deal with a possible disruption caused by new digital developments. We wanted to know:

Will e-commerce platforms in chemical distribution be more successful today than CheMatch, ChemSystems, ChemConnect et. al. were 20 years ago?

Thorsten Lampe: Online is shaking up the way we live and work and businesses simply must embrace that. It shouldn’t be about winners or losers, as online business is an opportunity, not a threat. An opportunity to improve, reinvent and add value. Going online in distribution will foster more openness and clarity. If the opportunity is utilized in the right way, it can lead to long term success. End customers in the long run will gain much better products that will help them solve small and big problems because chemistry will find a better way where it helps most. Development, production, distribution and logistics are capabilities that will persist and gain through better integration.

"Online Business Is an Opportunity,
not a Threat"
Thorsten Lampe, Managing director, Asellion

Who in the chemical supply chain from principal to distributor, logistics provider, online retailer, start-up to customer will be winners/losers in online distribution?

Thorsten Lampe: Asellion is an enterprise B2B e-commerce platform that allows suppliers of chemical products to set up their own online store with custom-built digital trading channels and sell their products to customers directly, privately and in a more efficient way. Covestro Direct Store is the first supplier and store to open on the Asellion platform. In the near term we will focus on enhancing the online communication and deal-making to improve the experience for small and large businesses. When that is done, we move forward focusing on the next big thing: we believe for instance that themed stores for specific industries, enhanced analytics and payment terms are topics of high demand.