E-Commerce of steel: taking ArcelorMittal Distribution Systems to new Marketplaces

Building on a successful e-Commerce story 

Bolstered by the successful launch of their SAP Commerce online store and the very positive results – up to 30% of their sales is performed online - AMDS decided to explore new e-Commerce possibilities for their products and trusted suppliers of quality industry products and services. Their goal is to transform their current ecommerce platform (e-steel) into a leading Marketplace for the B2B steel industry market, specializing in steel (of course) and related high-value materials.  

This will provide sellers of quality industry products with a new online sales channel, gaining extra visibility without any personal upkeep (product & order management) for them. 
From a customer experience point of view, steel-processing companies can enjoy a one-stop-shop experience; saving them time and resources to ultimately get the supplies they need from ArcelorMittal and its trusted partners.  

How SQLI tackled the Marketplace timeline 

First of all, we joined our customer at the very start of the process, namely by supporting them in the finalization of the business case and subsequent analysis of how to build their marketplace on top of SAP Commerce. ArcelorMittal chose Izberg as a marketplace solution they want to integrate, and gave their go to move forward. We then devised the following timeline in 3 phases:  

1. Technical platform integration and set-up for a select group of testers in France, including 5 ArcelorMittal agencies and a small selection of pre-approved vendors and possible end-customers. 

2. Start of the Pilot phase for this select group of agencies, vendors, and clients 

3. Roll-out to the whole French market, followed by additional European countries, e.g. Spain 

What were the challenges during the Marketplace roll-out?  

The launch of a complex product like Marketplace is always a challenge because of the different stakeholders and their benefits. Part of this challenge was already solved with the introduction of a soft launch timeline (see previous paragraph) and by our way of working on this project. SQLI opted for a hands-on approach to build the platform on Izberg, which would allow for the scaling our customer wanted for their e-Commerce future.  

Additionally, we worked closely together with our customer to tackle the more complex matters, like the integration of PSPs – Payment Service Providers. This is an intricate matter because next to the payment options for the end-customer, this integration also deals with the payment of the vendors as well as the commission for ArcelorMittal.