Solvay is a Trailblazer
Solvay is doing big things growing small-volume sales.
25,000 Employees
PER MONTH IN SALES THROUGH THE ECOMMERCE CHANNEL
As a global expert in chemical materials, Solvay finds solutions for businesses of all sizes.
“Inside sales needed to move to digital tools to serve smaller companies efficiently. We did this by quickly building an ecommerce solution with Salesforce B2B Commerce.”
GRETCHEN KRUYSMAN, CO-CEO
JOHNNY'S SELECTED SEEDS
By serving small companies more efficiently, Solvay makes a big impact on revenue.
When smaller customers need specific high-performance materials, they usually order off the shelf. However, it’s a very complex shelf. Solvay’s sales team must spend time on the phone helping low-volume buyers figure out the right material and then taking single orders, often through a series of emails. It’s time-consuming for both buyers and sellers.
Though Solvay tried B2B ecommerce platforms, like Alibaba.com, sales were disappointing through trade sites. Customers need lots of information about Solvay products and how to apply them before they decide to buy. Salesforce had just the solution Solvay needed.
Solvay started small and scaled.
Instead of starting an ecommerce platform from scratch, Solvay started small with Salesforce Community Cloud to test communication methods with customers. That led to a pilot deployment of Salesforce B2B Commerce in Europe, where it served about 600 small-volume customers. Solvay was already on Sales Cloud, so the familiarity made testing innovations relatively painless.
Solvay also deployed Marketing Cloud to promote the pilot portal and deliver proven campaigns originally developed for large-volume customers.
A self-sufficient customer is a satisfied customer.
More than half of Solvay customers have already switched to the ecommerce system. Solvay believes that responding promptly to user feedback has contributed to 56% adoption so far.
The customer feedback in Solvay’s ecommerce portal says it all.
“The portal is easy to access and navigate.”
“The extended product list and using the new order sample/request quote features is a good additional feature.”
“The information is clearly presented, easily understandable, navigation makes sense."
“Your new site is beautiful and innovative. Thank you so much!”
The numbers tell an even bigger story of success.
A speedy launch of initial pilot: 2 months for Community Cloud, 4 months for B2B Commerce
Fewer demands on inside sales from small-volume buyers
€2–3 million per month in sales through the ecommerce channel
100 touchless ecommerce orders per month that used to require personal attention
339 satisfied ecommerce customers after six months’ experience
A clear path to a scalable solution for growing small-volume sales worldwide
Solvay keeps scaling its success.
Explore the products that are helping Solvay grow.
COMMERCE
COMMUNITIES
SALES
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