Ahlsell Denmark is strategically aiming to outpace competitors in the Danish market by positively distinguishing itself in online commerce. It is all about being the best at the megatrend of personalization. With a new search engine, large amounts of data, and artificial intelligence, the company is now getting very close to its more than 34,000 customers, ensuring them a personal and efficient experience when purchasing tools, steel, plumbing, and electrical items online.

Employees in the industry, construction, and craft sectors increasingly expect companies to have a very good understanding of their needs when shopping online. This is the experience at Ahlsell Denmark – which is also supported by a new survey from Dansk Industri. Therefore, Ahlsell Denmark is investing a double-digit million amount in digitalization in 2024, and a similar amount was invested in the past two years. The group's ambition has especially been to develop a new personalized search engine that assists customers in navigating while shopping on Ahlsell's webshop, which accounts for about 50 percent of the company's revenue.

- The idea of a personalized search engine may not sound very exciting, but just think about how one of the world's largest companies, Google, has risen to the top by being able to deliver relevance with every single search, says Søren Borg, Director of Digital Business Development at Ahlsell Denmark, and continues:

- We see a very strong trend among consumers who expect e-retailers to know them very well. They no longer differentiate between B2B and B2C but want the same personal experience whether they are buying a pair of jeans in their free time or plumbing products for a work task. This places high demands on a company like ours, which has more than 34,000 customers, ranging from small independent craftsmen to large publicly listed industrial corporations. They have very different needs and preferences but log onto the webshop with the same expectation: Know me! Therefore, we have implemented the personalized search engine, which means we can recognize the customer and understand what they need.

Søren Borg explains that online shopping has so far been very much about keeping customers on the company's websites for as long as possible. Ahlsell Denmark is now taking a different approach:

- Customers need to quickly find exactly what they need so they can get back to their work, he says.

A step ahead of competitors
Using large amounts of data and artificial intelligence, customers in the webshop are now presented much faster with the products that are relevant to them. When they buy a toilet, they likely also need mounting screws, and if they order a heat pump, they will probably also need condensate water hoses. The webshop has become much better at remembering what customers have previously purchased, significantly increasing user-friendliness.

There has been a development where more and more customers want to shop online – also outside normal opening hours in the evenings or on weekends, but it must be done quickly and efficiently, and this is where knowing each individual customer becomes crucial for success.

- We want to be a step ahead by knowing our customers better than our competitors do. We have around 400,000 product items, but based on our analyses of individual customers' or accounts' purchase history, it has now become much more efficient to shop on the webshop. We have developed the new solution in collaboration with our customers, and they have given us incredibly good feedback on the solution we have now implemented, says Søren Borg.

Spelling mistakes and slang are no obstacle
Some customers have expressed that it now only takes half the time to shop on the webshop. Others emphasize that the search engine quickly finds products, even if the customer has made spelling mistakes or has difficulty spelling, and it understands "craftsman slang."

The search engine can decode the intention behind the customer's search and thereby find the right products, even if the customer has entered something that other search engines struggle to handle. The advantage of Ahlsell's new search engine is also that, with the help of artificial intelligence, it is continually improving its ability to understand what craftsmen and other customers need.

The development of the personalized search engine is part of Ahlsell Denmark's ambitious growth plan. Ahlsell expects to acquire two to three companies in Denmark each year and significantly increase its revenue. The company has already modernized the craftsmen's stores in Aarhus, and the rest of the stores will be periodically upgraded with new layouts and an expanded range throughout 2024.

Ahlsell Denmark is also in the process of testing the company's 24/7 concept, which allows customers to shop around the clock in the stores using Ahlsell's app. All these initiatives stem from a targeted focus on strengthening the company's position in Denmark.

For further information, please contact:

• Communications Manager Line Møller Blankholm, Ahlsell Denmark, email: lbl@ahlsell.dk or phone: 25 29 27 46.