We have taken inspiration from the world of online shopping to launch a new digital sales channel for stainless steel. Sites like Amazon gives 24/7 transparency, straightforward comparison of products and an intuitive and easy experience that is not widely available in the B2B world.
That is why we launched a new digital sales channel in August 2019 for customers of our Coil Service Center in Hockenheim, Germany. Our webshop combines the service offering of our Coil Service Center with the benefits of digitalization. Building on its success, our Italian Coil Service Center in Castelleone will launch the next Webshop in May 2020 for customers in Italy and neighboring countries.
What’s in it for our customers?
- Immediate access to information on our product portfolio, availability, prices and corresponding lead times
- 24/7 online accessibility and intuitive ordering by a few clicks
- Fast response and lead times, with shipping of stock material within 48 hours when ordering before 12 o’clock CET
Our customers can select from more than 1,000 standard products from stock, and also choose cut sheets according to their needs. Navigation and filtering (by grade, surface, thickness, etc.) is intuitive and with a few clicks you can finalize your shopping cart. Paul Schlimgen, Senior Vice President for Customer Experience and Digital Sales Channels at Outokumpu Europe says: “The journey to digitalize the sale of our products has just started. However, we believe that this trend is – like in other industries – non-reversible. Therefore, we are continuing to follow this path.”
“We are developing the approach in close alignment with our customers and we are using their valuable feedback to continuously improve”, Paul Schlimgen adds. “Digitalization as such is only a method and not the magic solution to everything. We need to make sure that our customers’ buyer’s journey is simple, intuitive, straightforward and provides value to them. Digital tools can help to make this process more efficient and appealing.”