How Adelco increased eCommerce sales by 400% with a hybrid sales strategy powered by commercetools

As a distribution company focused on serving small businesses, Adelco has long thrived by taking a personal approach to sales. Sales representatives play a crucial role in the business, managing orders through direct visits to points of sale. However, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted this model, making in-person visits challenging, if not impossible. Establishing a strong digital presence became essential to the company’s continued success.

At first, Adelco launched its eCommerce site, a customer mobile app, as well as a mobile app for sales representatives and truck drivers, allowing them to continue serving customers despite lockdowns. These digital channels, developed in-house, were a short-term response to urgent needs and lacked a clear digitization strategy. For instance, the mobile app for sales reps to perform orders was rigid and unmodifiable, limiting their ability to tailor the sales experience to different customer needs. 

What’s more, the initial digital ordering capabilities were significantly limited, so much so that it wasn’t integrated into the eCommerce shop. This meant a lack of real-time stock visibility, which disrupted operational workflows and led to fulfillment issues. Without synchronized data, the order process required extra manual work: After taking a client’s order, sales representatives had to enter it into the ERP system and manually track preparation, picking and dispatch.

It was clear that streamlining the ordering process for sales reps was a critical factor, as traditional in-person sales still represent 45% of consumption in Chile. Meanwhile, the distributor recognized a generational shift toward younger, more digitally savvy buyers who are increasingly comfortable making purchases online. 

For Adelco, the key to sustained success is a hybrid sales approach that blends traditional, in-person selling, with digital self-service channels. The company’s digital strategy has two main components: First, maintaining a strong, in-person sales force equipped with advanced technology, enabling salespeople to transition from order-takers to business consultants. Second, digitizing sales processes with self-service options that cater to the growing digital expectations of younger buyers.

To achieve this comprehensive B2B omnichannel strategy, Adelco set out to leverage modern commerce technology designed to meet evolving customer demands. 

Furthermore, technological scalability and flexibility were paramount to help the business grow without requiring the company to develop out-of-the-box capabilities, like promotions, from the ground up. According to Carolina Pinto, Chief Commercial Officer at Adelco, “We embarked on transforming the traditional sales channel, a project that involved several stages, including digitalization and adapting to consumers’ changing behaviors during the pandemic. Having business and technology teams working together was crucial to accomplish that goal.”

From the start, Adelco recognized that composable commerce was ideally suited to meet its unique requirements. Under the guidance of digital transformation expert DMI, the distributor selected commercetools Composable Commerce for B2B as the backbone of its omnichannel strategy, enabling a robust hybrid sales model that empowers sales reps, customers and fulfillment vendors alike. Furthermore, the company tapped into commercetools Frontend to create a streamlined digital storefront for buyers, as well as sellers placing orders on behalf of their customers. 

To succeed, channels needed to work cohesively, rather than in isolation. Thanks to commercetools unified commerce platform, Adelco developed and seamlessly connected four core channels: A primary eCommerce site, an in-person sales app, a customer app (Mi Adelco, available on Google Play) and an app for carriers managing fulfillment.

This digital transformation marked Adelco’s shift from a fully in-person sales approach to a comprehensive omnichannel model. Clients now have a range of options, including self-service, phone assistance and in-person sales. This way, Adelco was able to future-proof its sales approach to meet evolving customer expectations, generational trends and new market conditions.

One of the main benefits Adelco has realized since implementation is a more comprehensive view of data. With commercetools’ API-first design, the company can more easily identify which features resonate with customers; for example, Adelco discovered that 99% of products added to carts were found through the search function rather than catalog browsing. 

With this insight, Adelco leveraged the flexibility of composable to enhance the customer and sales representative’s experiences. Now, customers can find three categories alongside the search bar, as well as product recommendations, historical client purchases and upcoming promotions. Moreover, Adelco can now provide full inventory visibility in real-time across all channels. 

In a nutshell, sales representatives have a renewed and personalized experience, where time at the point of sale and functionality are game-changers. The new functionality has customer recommendations, promotions and past sales information, which have enabled Adelco to increase its conversion rate by 20%, boost the number of SKUs per order for self-service customers by 25% and increase eCommerce sales by a staggering 400%. 

The app for sales representatives has also significantly improved route tracking and order management. Sales reps now check in with each client, log visits and record new orders directly within the app. This geo-tracking capability allows Adelco to monitor whether sales reps complete their routes automatically, eliminating the need for follow-ups via phone calls or WhatsApp messages. While not a direct sales metric, this automation feature boosts efficiency and accuracy across back-office functions, logistics and sales processes, especially when calculating mobility bonuses based on actual locations.

When it comes to data-driven commerce, Adelco understands that capturing detailed data at each point of sale will be essential for expanding market share. Unlike large retailers, which can track regional consumption at checkout, such insights are more challenging to obtain within Adelco’s traditional channel. With composable commerce, Adelco can collect and analyze data across 30,000 of the 40,000 small stores in Chile, helping the company expand its reach and unlock new opportunities.

Looking ahead, Adelco plans to enhance the buyers’ self-service experience by communicating with clients through their mobile devices and providing notifications at each stage of the sales process. Furthermore, the distributor continues to capitalize on the flexibility of its composable architecture to add new capabilities, such as a marketplace.