Experts Statements: Bharat Bhardwaj, Noahs Ark Chemicals

Digitalization is a very important topic not only in the chemical industry as a whole, but also in chemical distribution. 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?
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?
What do you (either alone or with partners) plan regarding online distribution?
Bharat Bhardwaj: It is unquestionable that there is a movement towards online purchasing in the B2B world. The benefits of B2C online consumerism have left their mark on buyers and many now expect some of the benefits, such as real time price comparison, delivery tracking and order monitoring, to be available from their normal B2B suppliers.
Increasingly Ready for the Digital Change"