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?

Alexander Lakemeyer: Since the year 2000, technical infrastructure and requirements for building up a successful digital start-up has totally changed. There is no reason to believe that the chemical industry should be the only global industry that will not undergo digital transformation; the entry barriers are just different. The question is how quickly digitization will progress and at what level the established players will be able to adapt to this change. This will determine how easy it will be for external players to enter the chemical market.