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?

Thomas A. Dassler: At Häffner, the use of e-commerce platforms is now part of our daily business in our purchasing and sales departments. Especially with regard to the global procurement of chemical raw materials, Häffner purchasers benefit from a faster and more comprehensive market overview thanks to the filter and search functions of the leading e-commerce platforms. E-commerce platforms can also be used to quickly and efficiently win new customers when opening up new sales territories in which the company does not yet have its own sales force or trading partners. 

First and foremost, most platforms today still tend to function as „match makers“, i.e. the actual sales or purchasing process continues to take place outside the platforms, once the contact between purchaser and supplier has been established on the online platform via the stored company profile with contact data and product range. The actual sales channel (via agents, traders or distributors) may not have changed significantly in the last 20 years, but the basic way in which a potential customer and supplier find each other has.  

"Most Platforms Still
Function as “Match Makers“

Thomas A. Dassler, Managing director, Häffner

Today, millennials primarily use digital marketplaces to find new suppliers. Companies that are not found with their product range on e-commerce platforms will have major competitive disadvantages in the future and must also expect to lose business shares. Likewise, many of the e-commerce platforms that already exist today will disappear from the market because their business model either will not deliver sufficient contribution margins, or the necessary size will not be achieved quickly enough. Against the background of an optimal and successful „digital presence“, Häffner does not only work with the leading e-commerce platforms, but also takes care to optimize our web offer for the search engines on a daily basis so that potential customers can find it more easily.