Adding Value with Henkel's Shoppable Knowledge Hub

Henkel Adhesive Technologies is one of the three business units of Henkel AG & Co. KGaA and is a global leader in tailor-made solutions for adhesives, sealants and functional coatings.

In addition to the Pritt, Loctite, Ceresit and Pattex brands for end consumers, the portfolio of industrial products consists of the five Technology Cluster Brands - Loctite, Bonderite, Technomelt, Teroson and Aquence.

Together we set out to develop a B2B e-commerce platform that would help to increase online revenue as well as reduce overall administration costs. Henkel’s vision was to create a platform that constantly ran in the background of B2B buyers’ desktops, offering a transformed customer experience by providing a consistent source of data, updates and adhesive purchase opportunities.

From a technical perspective the platform and e-Shop were built with the Enterprise Shop Solution SAP CX and an Angular Frontend. But in addition to the backend and frontend development, we worked with Henkel to introduce design thinking methods to identify and validate customer requirements and direct customer feedback.

We introduced UX and visual design to the platform, as well as the overall operation, maintenance and support, and through training the stakeholders in the countries in the agile way of working, we were able to help Henkel create a platform that both increased their e-commerce revenue while also delivering a top notch and easy to use experience for their customers.

By imparting our years of knowledge in creating platforms across both the B2B and the B2C sectors we were able to provide the tools and expertise Henkel needed to make smart changes to the platform in the future and to adapt to changing customer expectations and requirements as the market develops.

In addition to the USA, Henkel Adhesive Technologies’ industrial customers from the APAC European regions (and soon to be South American region too) now have access to the platform.

Working with this international Scrum team, we were able to roll out the platform in the required six months and have also guided Henkel in the creation of a PIM system to support their different Adhesives offerings.

B2B customer expectations are changing. As buyers become increasingly used to the seamless B2C experiences they see in their personal lives, the expectation falls more heavily on B2B firms to offer something similar. With the proliferation of marketplaces and B2B competition, offering your customers an exceptional, value-added service, is the key to increasing consumer loyalty and to remaining competitive in this, and future, markets.

Together we have shown that by embracing agile processes and a design thinking approach, we were able to deliver a hugely valuable commerce offering to support and improve the overall experience of Henkel’s B2B consumers.

Being new to agile when we began this process, this delivery became one of the lighthouse projects within the scope of Henkel’s Digital Strategy 2020+ and has supported the ultimate transformation of the company's organization "from a super tanker to a speedboat".