Steel Market 01 / 2020

Trade & Service
Copyright: Pixabay
The way from steel production to digital trade solutions has become shorter.
because the sales costs decrease. After
all, eCommerce eliminates many manual
steps. Digital data collected via
B2B online trading can, in turn, make
production more efficient because
suppliers can produce more in line
with demand. On the other hand,
consumers can shop smarter.
XOM Materials is currently transforming
from a pure platform provider
to a solution provider. How
did this happen?
Sacha: We realised that our digital
trading platform, the XOM Marketplace,
does not cover all aspects of materials
trading. Therefore, we now focus on
two additional aspects besides the
Marketplace. One is a white-label
eCommerce platform, i.e. complex
eShop, as a separate digital sales channel
for materials suppliers in their design.
The second is an e-procurement
solution that simplifies the purchasing
process by bringing together all the
necessary data. In both small and large
companies, a lot of purchasing still
runs on endless Excel spreadsheets
with offers that are compared with
each other. An eProcurement tool can
prepare this data much better. For larger
organisations that require a wide
range of materials at different locations,
it can also help to improve the
overview significantly.
So, the eProcurement solution
could save a lot of time as well?
Sacha: Yes, and it enables you to buy
much better because offers can be
compared a lot quicker compared to
having Excel spreadsheets in front of
you, which you have to decode first
because the product names may differ.
What advantages do steel and
other materials distributors have
when they rely on XOM‘s eCommerce
solutions?
Sacha: We can get dealers online
quickly, and we can provide them with
competent and industry-specific advice.
For example, how do I best present
products, what does the sales
team need to know, how do I involve
customers, how do I design a digital
price strategy? These are all things we
have learned ourselves in the last two
years. We can now pass on this experience
to sellers who are entering the
world of e-commerce. We can make
the development of an eShop much
more efficient, and some dealers have
already taken advantage of this offer.
What convinced sellers who already
run an XOM online store?
Sacha: Well, having a steel-specific
eShop is not the same as having a standard
shop that sells any kind of products.
In our industry, there are a lot of
specific requirements like material certificates,
cut-to-length, consideration of
setup costs, personalised prices and the
ability for buyers to define their own
item numbers, etc. The sales process in
the B2B sector is simply different from
the B2C market. There is a whole range
of additional industry-specific features.
To develop all of this yourself would be
very expensive, and you also need a
large IT team to adapt a standard online
store to the materials industry. We‘ve
already done the work, and steel and
other materials traders can benefit from
it. So, all in all, we offer an online store
solution that can be implemented more
quickly and is cheaper.
What are your goals for 2020?
Sacha: That is easy to answer. We want
to attract more customers to our eProcurement
and eShop solutions and
generate more sales through our Marketplace.
We want to show even more
steel, metal and plastics retailers how
they can sell their products efficiently
and digitally. Our solutions are also
mutually beneficial because all the
experience we gain with our online
stores and eProcurement solution
flows back into our Marketplace.
Now XOM Materials enters its third
year, is there still some start-up feeling
left?
Sacha: Yes, you can still sense it in the
team. We develop everything in-house,
and since our tools are in use and bring
real added value to our customers, our
employees are more motivated than
ever, because it‘s all thanks to them.
They can see that they have achieved
something great and something meaningful,
which is moving an entire industry
forward. I am also proud of
what we have achieved together. I
want to continue like this. 2020 could
be the most important year in the history
of XOM Materials.
•
01 | 2020 35