The client
A global steel manufacturer, with a steel production capacity of approximately 27.5 million tonnes per annum (MnTPA) as of March 31, 2017. The company is a diversified steel producer with major operations in India, Europe, and Southeast Asia. It has manufacturing units in 26 countries and a commercial presence in over 50 countries. They offer hot and cold rolled coils and sheets, galvanized sheets, tubes, wire rods, construction rebars, and bearings. A digital solution platform serves as the selling arm of the steel manufacturer, providing a marketplace for ECAs and distributors to buy and sell steel.
The problem
Steel buying and selling for customers has mainly occurred through offline channels and an extensive network of distributors and ECAs. Although this approach worked, the new-age customer demands ease of doing business. Customers seek easy access to available products and more control over the entire steel buying experience. They desire a streamlined process and reduced effort in purchasing steel. Customers also faced issues with order tracking, payment, and management. The aim was to tackle all these challenges and create a digital solution.
Offline Systems
- Buying process distributed across
email and over call - This led to a lot of back and forth Browsing latest products was a hassle.
Lack of tracking
- The enquiry negotiation process and change tracking was not very seamless
- Order tracking during processing and in-transit was a hassle too.
Missing Support systems
- Customers felt lack of a support
system when problems arose - Lack of central database further hindered the help and resolution process.
Reporting
Documentation such as purchase orders, invoices, order reporting, sales orders , reciepts among others were also distributed over multiple platforms.
The solution
A global steel manufacturer brought the steel marketplace to customers’ palms. Customers can easily browse all the products, their details, and choose custom specifications. The ordering, negotiation, payment, and tracking are all done on the single platform now. This gives users control over their order process. We revamped the whole user experience to emphasize accessibility and ease of use, further providing users with integrated help and feedback channels
Negotiation & Order Tracking
- Users can now manage the negotiation at SKU level and order level.
- Any updates, changes to users orders are communicated to them on the platform, in real-time.
Digital Documentation
- Moving user purchase online enables us to provide them with a plethora of services.
- Generating reports and managing purchases is taken care of by the platform.
Secure Payment & Invoicing
- Customers now have the option to pay using TATA Steel secure gateway within platform.
- They are also provided other services such as channel finance dashboard and management.
Accessible
- Keeping in mind the user persona and accesibility needs we designed the platform.
- Proper contrast ratio;s bigger fonts, ta-indexing etc. were tkept as per WCAG guidelines. AA rating.
Our work in action
40% reduction in time to value
On comparing the before and after results we found that 40% users reported reduced time to value.
Reduced bounce rates
Making navigation easy for finding products, offers, bundles leading to 14% increased Average Order Value.
20% increase in new users
We saw a 20% increase in signups after the revamp.
