Why Composites One rebuilt its site
Composites One is a B2B distributor of composite materials with about 600 suppliers, about 50,000 SKUs, and about 45 distribution centers. Christina Chatfield, Head of Growth, Marketing, E-commerce and Sales Operations, joined a few years ago as a marketer at the start of the company’s digital transformation and ended up leading it. The company launched its 2.0 site in September, a project Manufacturing Today featured. Christina treats the launch as a milestone in an ongoing program, and the team was already planning later phases while building this one.
Customer feedback told the team that version 1.0 would no longer be enough. Customers said they wanted to keep their sales reps. They also wanted to handle routine tasks online themselves: finding an invoice, pulling a purchase summary, and placing the repeat orders they always place. Christina called the site another tool in the customer’s toolbox, aimed at easing the pressure on their day.
Start with the voice of the customer, then co-design
The team began with an in-depth voice of customer effort: interviews with about 25 customers across different markets, plus surveys, to learn their pain points and what they expected from version 2.0. Composites One then formed a customer advisory board that co-designed the platform alongside the team.
The board changed requirements early. The team’s first plan for order history was to show order numbers and dates. The advisory board said that was not what customers wanted to see. They asked for filters and far more detail. Christina said that because the board shaped the build, the launch produced no big surprises from customers.
What went wrong: the voice of the business
The team did the customer side well. The gap was internal.
What we definitely should have done better is listening to our own business.
Christina Chatfield, Composites One
Her example was inventory. Customers wanted to see inventory at their distribution center, which sounded straightforward, so the team built it. In the internal demo, the business asked which inventory the site was showing: everything on the floor, or everything on the floor minus what had already been promised to someone else. The team had not known to ask. In a project this complex, no one person understands everything happening in the back end, so Christina’s advice is to bring internal stakeholders in at the start, before building, to avoid redoing the work.
Showing work in progress
Andy and Jared, who was sitting in for Brian, discussed why teams resist this. Andy said people of their generation were trained to show results when they were done, not work in progress. Showing partial work is for course correction, and he said teams should set that expectation openly with stakeholders. Jared added that feedback slows a project, and that he has learned the delay can be a good one. Christina agreed: slowing down at the beginning beats slowing down after launch, when the feedback comes from customers.
A silent launch, and what comes next
Before the September launch, Composites One ran a silent launch by invitation, which gave the team a smaller group and more feedback. Christina said that by the time the team hit the launch button, there was no major surprise.
On the roadmap, she said agreeing on an MVP is difficult because everyone wants everything. Items that did not make 2.0 include support for subsidiaries in Canada and Mexico, with translated and country-specific content, a recommendation engine along the lines of “other customers also bought,” and chat functionality. The team was already thinking about version 3.0 while building 2.0.
Bringing the sales team along
Jared asked how the sales team reacted. Christina said the reps have deep technical expertise and understand that their value lies in advising customers on their application and the right products, not in sending an invoice. Customers separated those two things themselves. The reps now use the site as a digital assistant.
When you have those cheerleaders, the adoption is just way better than if just marketing goes in.
Christina Chatfield, Composites One
Takeaway: it is a change management project
Jared closed the discussion by saying that everything feels like a technology project and is really a change management project. Andy agreed and added that all problems are people problems. The Composites One rebuild shows it: customers shaped the requirements, internal teams caught what the requirements missed, and sales became advocates for the result.