Conrad’s Platform Business Model: Providing Expert Insights at the Handelsblatt Webinar
Despite it’s been a couple of weeks, I remember the 30th of January well. It was the day of a very special event: a webinar called “How Conrad Electronic Use the Platform Business Model to Provide a First-rate Purchasing Experience”, organised by the Handelbatt newspaper. The event was looking at how to build a successful platform, how to manage the changes necessary to enable the transformation and many other aspects of platform business models. I was really proud of being there alongside Hélène Kehren, the director of Field Marketing EMEA at Mirakl GmbH, to share the insights gained here at Conrad as one of the earliest platform adopters out there.
“It took us almost 100 years to supply 800,000 Conrad products. However, we managed to list 6 million items on our curated marketplace in just 4 years.” These were some of the hard-hitting facts and figures used to kick off the webinar. Nowadays, these numbers have increased to 10 million product offers available on the Conrad Sourcing Platform. This was a direct result of – no surprise there, considering what the webinar was all about – switching to B2B and using a platform model, the two interlinked factors that contribute to our success. We are conquering the B2B markets using the know-how we gained during our 100 years being in business: talking and listening to customers, meeting customer needs and developing our business accordingly.
The two main requirements of business customers across the board are supply chain resilience and sourcing efficiency. The first one relates to ensure smooth procurement processes. The second one looks at how to make sourcing faster, more efficient and less hard on the environment. And that preferably by providing a one-stop shopping experience covering any technical supplies customers need. It didn’t take us long to realise that the answer to all of the above was a curated global marketplace topped up by tailored e-procurement solutions. Means the decision to switch to this business model way back in 2017 was a no-brainer.
Now, seven years later, clearly the right decision according to a recent McKinsey report that was also discussed at the webinar: 50 percent of B2B companies operate, or plan to operate, a marketplace. Also shows that, these days, B2B e-commerce is being considered the most efficient sales channel across the sector.
The webinar also covered another vital aspect, namely change management. Switching to a new business model is a transformation that affects a company massively. A topic that requires in-depth discussions and comes with plenty of different views. However, one thing we all agreed on was the necessity to fully commit to a platform-centred business model, as opposed to just running it alongside your existing operations.
I look back at the event with fond memories. It’s been a highly informative session, giving new insights into various aspects of a platform model. Also, I’ve learned a lot that day. The fact that people now use our success as a platform business to illustrate where our industry sector needs to go in the days to come is something I’m really proud of. Moreover, it provides encouragement for the journey ahead of us. Because it goes without saying that we want to unleash the full potential of our sourcing platform.
Yours sincerely
Ralf Bühler