B2B E-Commerce Solution Drives Results for Zekelman Industries

For steel manufacturer Zekelman Industries, we conducted multiple phases of research and workshop sessions to help create a game plan for the company to grow and digitally transform. One major finding after interviewing current customers and prospects was that the company needed to consider an e-commerce offering. Additional field-based research helped us fully understand the buyer process and current technologies for managing inventory, buying and pricing.

Research Driven Strategy

With the insights gained, we created positioning and targeting strategies for the company. But beyond marketing, the company needed to make logistical changes and improvements for e-commerce to work. We facilitated workshops with Zekelman’s technical and business owners to determine the changes required for legacy systems (SAP), pricing structures and logistics. We developed and coordinated launch planning, testing, training and market rollout piloting. We then defined critical user experiences (CrUXes), user stories for development, workflow and UX / UI for the new e-commerce solution, which we branded Z-Commerce.

Results

This project took a substantial amount of time, but the results have been well worth the efforts. During the initial months after launch, many customers have logged into the portal to check inventory or order status, or to order online. By leading the way with technology, usage has further accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic as Zekelman offers a valuable connection to its customers that the competition can’t match. According to one executive, “The value of online commerce increased significantly in early 2020 and has helped our divisions retain revenue.”