How Haier Accelerates Market Share Growth with Tradeplace Portals Hub in Switzerland

Industry

Retail

Challenge

Haier Switzerland entered a highly competitive specialist retail channel while relying on manual ordering and product information workflows. This created inefficiencies, slowed response times, and limited market expansion.

Results

With Tradeplace Portals Hub, Haier streamlined order handling, reduced operational cost, reached over 250 stores, and established 24/7 access to product information and ordering.

Key Solution

Tradeplace Portals Hub

www.haier-europe.com/de_CH/

The Challenge

As a new market entrant, Haier needed to increase visibility among specialist retailers, expand its reach, and reduce the operational burden of handling orders and product information requests manually. Relying on phone and email for daily operations created inefficiencies, increased workload, and slowed Haier’s ability to scale in the Swiss market. Haier required a digital operating model to provide specialist retailers with immediate, reliable access to product data, pricing, availability, and campaign materials, without increasing operational overhead.

About Haier Switzerland

Haier Switzerland is the Swiss subsidiary of a global home appliance manufacturer. Operating in one of Europe’s most competitive retail markets, Haier serves a broad network of specialist retailers, handling daily product information requests and order flows across the country.

Executive Summary

Haier Switzerland entered the highly competitive Swiss home appliance market with the ambition to grow quickly and work more efficiently with specialist retailers. By implementing Tradeplace Portals Hub, Haier gained instant visibility among specialist retailers and enabled 24/7 access to product data, pricing, and order workflows. The combination of Portals Hub ecosystem access and Haier’s branded B2B portal significantly improved order processes, strengthened retailer engagement, and supported Haier’s “Zero Distance to the Customer” strategy.

The Solution

Haier implemented the Tradeplace Portals Hub, a standardised B2B access point connecting manufacturers with over 35,000 retailers across Europe. In Switzerland, Haier launched its own branded B2B portal, integrated with its ERP and connected to Portals Hub for authentication, reach, and 24/7 availability.

Retailers gained a single login for order placement, availability checks, and access to product and marketing materials.
The collaboration between Tradeplace, Akeron, and Haier’s central and local teams ensured a clean setup for the Swiss market through alignment meetings, process integration, and coordinated activation campaigns.

The Results

The Portals Hub accelerated Haier’s digital presence, streamlined daily operations, and expanded retail coverage. Retailers benefited from faster access to information, lower manual workload, and more efficient ordering. Haier improved visibility, saved operational cost, and strengthened its market position. This digital traction is reflected in Haier’s growing market position in Switzerland. Within the specialist retail channel, Haier has reached strong dubble digit market shares in main categories. Across the total Swiss market, including professional business, Haier now holds an overall market share of nearly 2%.

Cost savings: Manual order handling dropped from ~€5 to ~€1 per order. With 250+ customers, Haier achieved >€5,000 monthly savings and ~€75,000 annually.

Efficiency: Retailers can place and track orders, check availability, and download materials in one place, reducing email and phone back-and-forth.

Market reach: Haier grew to 260+ registered B2B specialist retailers and expanded access across Switzerland, including specialist retailers previously hard to reach.

Customer experience: Consistent, real-time information improved service levels and reduced response times.

Order volume: over 400 orders processed in the first months through the Tradeplace portal, confirming strong adoption of the digital ordering model.

>260

Stores reached

4 m

Implementation time

>3.6x

ROI

>€75k

Annual Savings

Why tradeplace

Liebherr chose a combination of Tradeplace solutions because the platform supports both broad portal-based collaboration and deeper transactional connectivity. Portals Hub offers a secure single sign-on environment and fast market access, while Message Hub extends that setup with back-end automation. Together, they create a practical digital foundation that can keep expanding with retailer demand.

“With Portals Hub and Message Hub, manufacturers can serve different retail needs through one connected digital foundation.”

Iwan de Dooij, Sales Manager Tradeplace

Joining Tradeplace is a fundamental step in the go-to-market approach of Haier. The Tradeplace B2B portal is a central component of our market strategy and aligns with our ‘Zero Distance to the Customer’ philosophy.

Thomas Meier
CEO, Haier Switzerland

Have a question or want to learn more?

Get in touch with our team. We’re here to help you explore solutions, answer your questions, or connect you to the right person.

Interested in a Tradeplace setup? Contact Tradeplace for a live demonstration.

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