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 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.
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.
“With Tradeplace, we are targeting new customers step by step, together. The platform helps us grow efficiently without increasing operational overhead.”
Haier Switzerland project team
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.
Future Ambitions & Next Steps
Looking ahead, Haier aims to further strengthen its digital collaboration with retailers. A key ambition is to increase the share of runrate business processed through B2B channels to 15% of total turnover, with 90% of all runrate orders handled via the portal. In parallel, Haier plans to grow the number of active users on Tradeplace Portals Hub to 500, reinforcing the platform as the primary channel for day-to-day commercial interaction.
Why Tradeplace
Haier chose Tradeplace because of its proven, Europe-wide retail reach and standardised integration approach. Portals Hub enabled Haier to scale quickly without custom development and offered a future-proof foundation for expanding digital collaboration. The modular nature of the Tradeplace stack Portals, Connect, Content, and Insights, ensures that Haier can extend its digital capabilities as needs evolve.
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