Schneider Electric East Africa reveals eCommerce platform

Schneider Electric East Africa, a specialist in energy management and automation, has launched an eCommerce platform

Designed to cater to a diverse market, it includes tier 2 channels and represents a step towards modernising its procurement process and reinforces the company’s market presence. This is the assessment of Geraldine Sande, channel sales leader for Schneider Electric East Africa, who commented, “With the eCommerce platform, customers can access the required products locally, conveniently, faster and at their desired location without intermediary intervention.”

The portal lists a range of products and primarily targets end users in the residential space who would often have to travel far to a distributor, and commercial customers.

Sande explained that the platform also targets ‘specifiers’ – the individuals involved in projects and those who create bills of quantities (BOQs) or requests for quotations (RFQs) and need to know the available product options, as well as companies that require reliable supply chains for maintenance and operations.

“We noticed a gap in the market in terms of brand visibility in Kenya,” Sande continued. “Many people would ask if Schneider Electric was present in Kenya because we did not have a website (the website will go live in 2025) or any formal digital footprint. Instead, customers would find our partners on other Schneider Electric subsidiary platforms. The customer would also need to have a list of partners online and thus have insight about which solution is found from which channel partner.

“Given this, we felt there was a need to utilise another vehicle to be in front of the customer whenever someone is searching for a product and ensure the product is easily accessible, aside from going through our existing distribution channels.”

Sande stressed that the new platform is not designed to erode the market share of resellers and distributors but can instead bring potential benefits to their businesses.

“From the distributor's perspective, the platform will benefit them by increasing their sell-out. Distributors often hold a lot of stock, and the e-commerce platform provides them with another avenue to reach customers they were not previously tapping into. This represents an incremental business opportunity for our distributors,” concludes Sande.