How Chemofast is now conquering direct sales after 40 years in the private label business

With private-label products to international success: CHEMOFAST, a fastening technology company from Willich, Germany, has achieved just that over the past four decades. Today, it is one of the largest private label manufacturers in the world and supplies international companies with its products. Chemofast is best known in the industry for its injection mortar, which is needed for heavy-duty anchorages. From fixing one's own kitchen cabinets to stadium or bridge construction, applications include everything.

The company's success brought exciting connections on the scene in 2013, and so CHEMOFAST became part of the renowned Würth Group.

But that's not all. In recent years, the company began building its own brand alongside its private-label business, selling products directly to end users under the Chemofast name. It was at this point that Latori and Chemofast met. We accompanied the company during its migration to Shopify Plus and have been at its side with advice and customizations ever since.

In an interview, Felix, Head of Brand & Digital Transformation at CHEMOFAST, reported on the challenges the company faced in its online business and how they were overcome.

Felix can already sum up the success precisely:

"The best effect: We no longer have any problems with our store system. It simply works!"

This is what makes CHEMOFAST's sales strategy work

CHEMOFAST pursues a multi-faceted sales strategy to successfully position its products on the market and address different target groups. CHEMOFAST's sales strategy is based on the multi-channel approach, which focuses on the use of its own website and online marketplaces. Nevertheless, the company does not neglect traditional performance marketing and places ads on major platforms such as Google Ads. Its goal is to be present on every relevant channel.

In addition to its digital presence, CHEMOFAST also invests in traditional sales. Their dedicated sales team relies on proven methods.

Differentiation between brand business and private label approach

CHEMOFAST makes a clear distinction between its brand business and its private label business. In the Brand Business, they focus on selling their products directly under the CHEMOFAST brand to end users, including craftsmen and DIY enthusiasts. In contrast, the focus of CHEMOFAST's private label business is on producing products for large companies that sell them under their own brand.

Why CHEMOFAST switched to Shopify Plus: The challenges with the previous store system

CHEMOFAST has been running a D2C online store for about two years now to strengthen its own brand presence and direct sales. This web presence was previously running on Pimcore and was non-functional due to numerous technical issues and bugs. The CHEMOFAST team had difficulty properly managing customer approvals and properly mapping e-commerce features. As a result, the store could not be used effectively and orders were processed incorrectly.

"This system proved unsatisfactory in terms of handling, maintenance and out-of-the-box features," said Felix of CHEMOFAST.

After several optimization attempts, CHEMOFAST finally decided to switch to Shopify Plus in order to use a more stable and efficient platform for their online sales.

Why was Shopify Plus chosen?

For CHEMOFAST, selling their products in the online store is the top priority. The website should make it as easy as possible for customers to find and purchase products. This means that all technical aspects, such as payment processing, display on different devices, and availability of information, must work smoothly.

In addition, CHEMOFAST makes a point of sharing information about the company and its history. Since they manufacture products under their own brand as well as for other companies, they want to present themselves as a transparent partner.

The switch to Shopify Plus came about because of the many problems with the previous store system, which did not provide the desired functionality and stability. Latori came in as an agency to ensure that CHEMOFAST could implement all technical requirements and individual pricing for their customers on Shopify Plus.

What was also extremely important and spoke in favor of choosing Shopify Plus was the possibility for entrepreneurs to order quickly and easily via their retailer login. Felix Hermans: "This relieves our sales team and allows us to automate a large part of the tasks. A win-win situation for everyone.

Latori also needed to serve as a reliable point of contact, especially for a team that had little previous experience in the digital space. The collaboration with our team should ensure that the website can be operated successfully and that support can be provided quickly when problems arise.

"Latori was a kind of backup for us. We wanted to make sure that we could do 95% of the work on the website ourselves, but also have an agency we could rely on to help quickly and competently," says Felix of CHEMOFAST, explaining Latori's role.

Why was Latori initially chosen and how did the collaboration go?

CHEMOFAST was in talks with several agencies at the time. However, Latori's personal approach was convincing in the end, as Felix recounts in an interview:

"Jan was very committed, approachable and proactive. He gave us the feeling that we could start directly - in contrast to other agencies that needed a lot of time for coordination and understanding. We already had everything we needed for our project and with Latori we were able to get started without unnecessary delays."

Proximity and the ability to work together directly on site were also important factors in the decision-making process.

The collaboration began with a kick-off meeting where the CHEMOFAST and Latori teams highlighted all the goals and desires. As the project progressed, the customer regularly coordinated with our Latori team, implemented our recommendations, and allowed us to challenge them. Felix Herrmanns echoes the collaboration in his words:

"Latori gave us valuable feedback and best practices to improve the basic structure of our project. The collaboration consisted of discussing ideas with Latori, getting recommendations, and then implementing based on those recommendations. Latori was like our wingman and also helped with technical code changes."

Results: What has changed since migration

Switching to Shopify allowed the team to focus on essential tasks such as optimizing the look and feel of the website and checkout. Time spent on bug fixes and complex development processes was eliminated. Felix adds:

"Compared to the old system, Shopify out-of-the-box offers a user-friendly platform that is easy to use even after major updates. Automation of tasks like invoicing keeps things running smoothly."

When asked what has changed since the store change, Felix responds with two personal highlights:

"For us, the best effect is that we can connect marketplaces relatively easily and thus offer our product portfolio more broadly on the market. What I also really appreciate: We no longer have any problems with our store system. It simply works!"

Since working with Latori and the associated migration from Shopify Plus, customizations can be implemented much more efficiently. Shopify scored particularly well in its intuitive handling. Felix comments:

"When we want to add changes to our store or change our theme, we no longer need a team of 10 people and three developers to do it. We can simply operate the tool ourselves. Our digital sales platform and web presence works without much effort."

What the future looks like for CHEMOFAST: Internationalization, private label business and marketing.

CHEMOFAST has ambitious plans for the future. "Internationalization, especially in the DACH region, is at the top of our list," says Felix of CHEMOFAST. They also want to "open up more marketplaces and digitize the B2B portal more to handle orders and sales more efficiently." Among others, Kaufland is high on the list as an additional marketplace for the company.

We would like to thank Felix for this interview and the trust he has placed in us! For the future, we wish CHEMOFAST continued success and look forward to our ongoing cooperation.