REXEL 2015

Activity and Sustainable
Development Report

03

Improving our clients’
performance

Rexel integrates the best of products and technologies in order to fit its customers’ needs by creating innovative solutions and services. Its customer proximity and its capacity to provide specific offers allow the Group to deliver solutions tailored for each market segment.

Solution to increase
installers’ performance

Beyond the wide range of solutions that it offers, Rexel assists installers in their sales initiatives and helps them to better organize and manage their work sites. In 2015, the Group continued to structure its offering in order to best meet the needs of its installer customers according to their profile: craftsmen, SMEs, large installers, project managers or specialists in electrical solutions.

Innovative digital solutions

The multi-channel revolution has profoundly changed the way in which distributors build and maintain commercial relationships with installers. For the past several years, the Rexel Group has followed this approach with determination in order to meet its customers’ needs in terms of products, information and advice anywhere, anytime. Branches, call centers, e-commerce sites, digital applications or Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) are all interconnected channels that complete one another to provide a smooth, efficient customer experience. Installers can choose the channel that best meets their needs, wherever they are and whenever they want.

REXEL’S MULTICHANNEL MODEL

CLIENT
BRANCH
FIELD SALES REP
TECH CENTER
REMOTE
SUPPORT CENTER
WEBSHOPS
EDI SOLUTIONS
MOBILE APP
A transactional client-centered model
A key channel for proximity sales and customer advice.
Developing customer base and value through individual contacts:
  • Focusing on targeted customers based on CRM information
  • Leveraging digital tools
Developing “horizontal” solutions requiring specific/ advanced expertise for:
  • Target / specifiers
  • Customers with specific needs
Single point of contact to remotely support customers with:
  • Administrative topics
  • Technical advices
  • Vertical solution expertise
  • Virtual product experience
  • Advanced configuration tool
  • Full online store
  • Account management
Developing increased integration with customer administrative systems to improve productivity
  • E-Procurement systems with e-ordering and e-payment components
Enabling efficient transactions for mobile customers:
  • Access to product catalog
  • Standard configuration tool
  • Ordering
  • Account view

Roll your mouse over to find out more about each channel

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NEW GLOBAL E-COMMERCE PLATFORM

In order to improve its digital offering, Rexel created a platform on which all of the Group’s local entities and banners can rely, according to their own needs and specificities, to provide an efficient, optimized and adaptable e-commerce site. With this goal in mind, the Group conducted a study in 2014 among 1,200 customers in its principal markets (France, Germany, the UK, the US, Canada and Australia) in order to identify the various different customer profiles as well as their needs, expectations and online behavior.
At the same time, while e-commerce teams had until then been operating at the national level or within a banner, the desire to build a common platform led to the creation of a team at the Group level. Its role is to provide support for local teams and to offer a global center of excellence in digital marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), mobile marketing and data analysis in order to optimize and standardize functions and procedures. In September 2014, the German subsidiary Hagemeyer created a trial version of this new platform.

13.3%

e-commerce sales
in the Group’s
total sales

Several of the Group’s e-commerce sites have already adopted this platform, in particular in the Netherlands, Austria and Sweden since June 2015. Implementation will be carried out at the end of the year in France, followed by the US and Canada. All the Group’s countries will have adopted this new platform by the end of 2018.

HAGEMEYER TRIAL WEBSITE

After almost a year of testing and optimization, the site was launched in September 2015 and early results are very positive: adherence is better than initially expected, with a conversion rate of 14% and a projected annual sales progression rate of around 20-25%. It also confirms that a multichannel customer is twice as active as a single channel customer: multiplying contact points increases sales.

MOBILITY, AMERICAN STYLE

MOBILITY, AMERICAN STYLE

A multichannel pioneer and leader, the Group’s American subsidiary Platt has developed a smartphone application that allows installers to easily place orders on the go. By sending a photo of a product taken at a job site, the system allows the sender to receive the product’s characteristics, price and availability in only a few seconds. This efficiency relies on a huge database, compiled through the digitization of a catalogue of over 100,000 items, together with a particularly well-developed CRM system. Access to Live Chat with experts from Platt is also included. Thanks to its expertise and continuous innovation, the banner’s multichannel customer loyalty index is twice as high as that of installers using branches alone, and sales are close to two times (1.8) higher on average.

QuickPix

For its part, the subsidiary Gexpro has created a tablet application: launched in 2014, QuickPix is aimed at large installers and is intended to facilitate and automate orders placed from job sites. With customized configuration to meet each customer’s needs, and capable of covering up to five job sites, QuickPix’s user-friendliness makes it an intuitive and efficient tool. In 2015, around 100 customers had already adopted it.

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The Grid

A place for interaction between installers and experts from Rexel, The Grid is an online professional community that has been operating since the second quarter of 2015. Installers and electricians can discuss and ask questions there about subjects as diverse as home automation, lighting, renewable energies or oil drilling. An expert from Rexel moderates each discussion thread and can contribute to the conversation. The Grid has taken its first steps in the US and Canada.

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Customized logistics solutions for our clients

To help installers to streamline the management of their daily business activity and become more efficient, Rexel offers a range of tools designed to assist them in preparing, organizing and securing their job sites.

THE REXEL SMART VAN

THE REXEL SMART VAN

Smart Van is an innovative service solution designed by Rexel, which includes supplies, a leased vehicle, a mobile application, and associated services. The goal is to provide installers with a customized vehicle (shelving, racks, a roof rack, etc.), fully stocked with an initial inventory of Rexel products. All electrical contractors need to do is use a smartphone to scan the bar code on a product as it is being used, and the information is sent directly to the Rexel branch of their choice, which then automatically replenishes the item. The app also offers additional features such as GPS tracking, maintenance point localization and fuel consumption monitoring.

The Smart Van initiative is supported by strong partnerships with leasing companies that provide the vans and associated services, storage developers who guarantee the highest level of safety, and suppliers that work with Rexel to provide the initial inventory.
In addition, the solution is offered at a price that is nearly identical to the cost of purchasing a new utility vehicle alone.

This solution has been available since September 2015 and includes several van models at Platt, under the name “Platt in Motion”. Since 2016, it has also been available to installers in Finland, Australia and New Zealand. Rollout will soon proceed to North America, Europe and the rest of the Asia-Pacific region.

JOB SITE TOOLS

In 2015, Gexpro streamlined and developed its on-site storage, kitting and procurement solutions. All of these tools save installers from wasting time looking for, assembling and replenishing their supplies.

OASIS Mobile offers various on-site storage solutions, from containers to trucks to trailers, equipped and restocked according to the needs of the job site. All solutions are turnkey, can be organized, locked, air conditioned, electrified and even equipped with a work area. OASIS Mobile can be used in conjunction with the OASIS Insight inventory management system.

GOcarts are material carts measuring slightly more than 1m3 and able to store over 100 kilos. Lockable and fitted with steel mesh for full content visibility, they are designed to provide the precise amount of installation material needed for a room, a floor or an entire workday. Outfitted according to customers’ specifications in order to best meet their needs, GOcarts reduce installation labor cost by as much as 23%.

SAN FRANCISCO STADIUM

SAN FRANCISCO STADIUM

SAN FRANCISCO STADIUM

Gexpro demonstrated the efficiency of its solutions during the construction of the new San Francisco stadium, inaugurated at the 2015 Super Bowl. The San Francisco 49ers’ Stadium, a 1.3 billion dollar project, imposed strict requirements on suppliers in terms of schedule, storage space, delivery hours and on-site supply management.


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THE INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION CENTRE SYDNEY

THE INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION CENTRE SYDNEY

THE INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION CENTRE SYDNEY

Rexel Australia has secured a significant project to supply a wide range of electrical products for the construction of the International Convention Centre Sydney, which is due to open in December 2016. This 17-month project is operated in partnership with two leading electrical contractors and will represent an estimated material value of 12.6 million euros. Rexel was awarded the contract based on its experience and product offering, as well as its logistics solution to the site and its ability to provide 100% Delivery In Full On Time (DIFOT).

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« Nonstop 24/7 », des agences non-stop en Finlande

NONSTOP 24/7
SELF-SERVICE
BRANCHES IN FINLAND

Two years after the first transformation of a traditional branch into a Nonstop 24/7 self-service branch, Finland decided to adopt the Nonstop 24/7 concept across its outlets. Out of 34 branches, 12 are entirely self-service and 22 operate with personnel during the day. This revolution was initiated to meet the customers’ need for greater convenience and flexibility regarding product accessibility. They now have a personal card to access the branch and pick up their orders whenever they need.