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?

Hans-Jörg Bertschi: I am convinced that digitized B2B trading platforms — functionally integrated into the ERP‘s of the parties — will play a significant role in a not too distant future. They will facilitate and rationalize the trading and distribution of many chemical products and also tie in with supply chain and logistics platforms.

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?

"Digital Unicorns
May Be the Winners"
Hans-Jörg Bertschi, Executive chairman (Board of Directors), Bertschi

Hans-Jörg Bertschi: This is a rather difficult question. First of all, the size of a party does not count too much. It is rather the level of digitized capabilities and the speed of the party which matters. Disrupting parties have very significant opportunities to win, but they run as well quite some risks. For example, in logistics, digital unicorns or established but digitized asset-based logistics service providers may be the winners.

What do you (either alone or with partners) plan regarding online distribution?

Hans-Jörg Bertschi: Bertschi is heavily investing in digitizing its global asset-based chemicals logistics service offering, as well as its non-asset based chemical freight management business, the latter running under the tradename Elite. We prepare ourselves to tie in with successful B2B digitized chemical distribution and trading platforms, enabling them to offer full supply and transport chain visibility.