Arcelormittal Downstream Solutions launches its first e-commerce web shop

ArcelorMittal Downstream Solutions, European leader in the distribution of high-performance steel products to B2B and B2C customers, has decided to launch its e-commerce activities. With the setup of an online shop for steel products, AMDS wants to digitize its sales activities and offer a better service to its customers. SQLI, European leader in connected experience, through its Belgian office, was chosen to implement Hybris commerce.

E-steel.arcelormittal.com, a B2B and B2C web shop for an optimal customer experience

ArcelorMittal Distribution Solutions is present in 30 countries in Europe, representing 300 facilities and offers a range of steel products on the B2B and B2C market. Its management decided at the end of 2016 to start with e-commerce activities. The aim is:

• To offer its customers a more personalized service and a seamless experience that responds to the mobility challenges. The Group, active in a very competitive context, wants to position itself as an innovator and wants to strengthen its number one position on the steel products market.
• To automation of the sales process, allowing on one side to simplify the administrative tasks by reducing significantly the number of paper documents, and on the other side, facilitate the customer’s access to his administrative documents in a dedicated private space.
• To reinforce its customer knowledge to be able to respond better to his needs by offering personalized pages. This solution will also enable an enlargement of its product range in time.

The advantages of the new platform for the ArcelorMittal customers are numerous:

• A 24/7 access to the store and product information
• A complete online product catalogue with detailed technical information for every product, a view on stock availability for every agency and the possibility to order immediately
• A follow-up of the order and delivery status and payment details
• An online access to all order history and to all administrative documents
• The possibility to introduce returning orders and to limit purchases per buyer and per organisation as well as multiple functionalities, adapted to B2B online sales
• A modern front office with an intuitive navigation

The first web shop was launched for the AMDS agency in Colomiers (France) at the end of June 2017. Convinced of the success of this pilot project, AMDS has enlarged its coverage in France and launched 7 more web shops in the west of France since December. In 2018, the coverage in France will be completed, followed by Belgium, Germany and Spain.“We had an ambitious project and SQLI allowed us to win this challenge.

With e-steel.arcelormittal.com, we enter now a new digital era,” says Jean-Baptiste Courtier, General Manager of ArcelorMittal Downstream Solutions France.

“SQLI has offered us all of its expertise and responsiveness to succeed this project and accompanies our e-business and IT teams during the deployment,” adds Stéphane Blaison, CIO ArcelorMittal SSC West Europe

Agile project management

Given the fact that this project had to be realized in less than 4 months, it is obvious that an agile methodology was mandatory to improve flexibility and to ensure delivery of the project in time. In close collaboration with AMDS Business, IT and Marketing, SQLI put together a scrum team to develop and achieve the goals. After each three-week sprint, the delivered functionalities were tested before starting the next one.

Problems and errors were classified by importance and corrected. Thanks to this agile project methodology, SQLI was capable of realizing the UX creation, implementing the Hybris commerce platform and creating a product catalog and an optimized digital experience by offering personalized and detailed information for each product in an intuitive way.

SQLI, expert in e-commerce

With the success of this pilot project for AMDS, SQLI shows once more its large experience in digital transformation projects and the implementation of e-commerce platforms and its ability to handle complex projects within a tight schedule.

Next to this project, SQLI already successfully delivered multiple e-commerce projects for customers, such as Nespresso, SEB and Sonasid, ArcelorMittal’s subsidiary in Morocco, by using the latest state-of-the-art platforms. SQLI can also benefit from its e-commerce Service Centers in Morocco.

The AMDS project shows once more the perfect synergy between customer teams and SQLI’s agencies across Europe.The AMDS - SQLI teams are now ready for the next challenges of European roll-outs and continuous improvements, to respond to the needs of the users, that are always evolving.