Success Factor Customer Perspective

Interview with Philipp Schalapski, Marketing Manager, and Karolin Siebert, Head of Customer Services EMEA.

LANXESS has developed LOOP (LANXESS Order Overview Portal), a new e-commerce portal that simplifies the ordering process for customers and makes it more transparent. The platform has been online since July 2024, and the IPG business unit has already made significant strides in its online business. Philipp Schalapski and Karolin Siebert explain how processes, collaboration—and customer service itself—have changed.

LOOP is running smoothly at IPG. How did you achieve this?
Philipp Schalapski: The key factor was that we were able to help shape LOOP as a pilot business unit from the very beginning—with a systematic focus on our customers. Together with Customer Service and Sales, we asked ourselves: What offers them real added value? The result was a platform that makes orders, documents, and information easily accessible in one place. At the same time, we got customers involved early on, trained them on how to use the platform, and incorporated their feedback through agile cycles. The focus was particularly on distributors and agencies.

What advantages does LOOP offer in day-to-day business—for LANXESS and its customers?
Karolin Siebert: It takes a lot of work off our plate. Using LOOP, customers enter their orders directly themselves, and these are then automatically transferred to the SAP system—we simply give them final approval. This gives us more time to provide personalized support and handle more complex issues, which strengthens our role as a sales partner that also advises. 

At the same time, our customers benefit from a comprehensive self-service offering—they can view orders, invoices, and delivery slips; track shipments via track & trace; and quickly reorder products using the dedicated reorder function. The fact that all the information they need is available around the clock and that the solution was deliberately designed to be intuitive has been very well received. This not only increases efficiency but also improves customer loyalty.

How is LOOP helping LANXESS achieve its e-commerce goals?
Philipp Schalapski: A look at our numbers shows just how important LOOP has become. Since the platform was launched about two years ago, our e-commerce business share has increased by just under ten percent. More than half of our online business is now handled through LOOP. As a result, the platform is making an important contribution to the Group-wide goal of achieving a 40 percent e-commerce share. And we still see a lot of potential for LOOP. That is why we are working to make the platform available in additional regions—particularly in China and Brazil, where legal issues still need to be resolved. In addition, we plan to offer additional language versions to make it even easier for our customers worldwide to use the platform.

What’s next for LOOP?
Karolin Siebert: We definitely still have a lot of ideas that we want to tackle together with the other business units, IT, and the Commercial Excellence team. The planned “LOOP Service Agent,” an AI-powered chatbot, is particularly exciting. At launch, it will, for example, be able to provide customers with information about the status of their orders, answer frequently asked questions, or help them navigate the platform. 
In the future, it will also be able to suggest relevant products from the LANXESS portfolio—thereby further enhancing the user experience. In addition, we are working on adding more languages and making the platform available in additional regions. So we still see a great deal of potential!