North American composite materials distributor Composites One (Schaumburg, Ill., U.S.) has announced the broader rollout of a redesigned digital platform giving customers faster, self-service access to ordering, account management and technical resources. The launch caps a multiyear effort shaped directly by the customers who use the platform daily.
Composites One supplies materials and technical know-how to manufacturers in aerospace, marine, wind energy, transportation, infrastructure and construction, among other markets. With more than 600 suppliers and tens of thousands of products in its catalog, the company set out to give customers a faster way to find what they need on their own, while keeping its technical sales teams available for the harder problems: material selection, process troubleshooting and new applications.
Rather than design the system internally and roll it out top-down, Composites One built the platform around a standing Customer Advisory Board and rounds of direct feedback. Christina Chatfield, the company’s head of digital growth, says the project grew into something larger than originally planned. “This was more than an update. It was a digital transformation,” she describes.
That feedback surfaced a specific design challenge: customers across very different markets were searching for materials in very different ways. The team’s response was to invest heavily in search and filtering that adapts to whatever attributes matter most to a given customer, rather than sorting by market category.
In this way, the redesigned platform brings product availability, pricing, invoicing, account tools and technical documentation into a single account view. Customers who already know what they need can reorder or check an invoice without picking up the phone. But Composites One positions the shift as additive, not a replacement for its sales and technical teams. “It’s a tool to make customers’ lives easier, not a substitute for the relationships and expertise that got us here,” Chatfield says.
Dave Smith, Composites One’s chief commercial officer, adds that the platform reflects a broader strategy of directing company investment toward the areas where composite materials offer customers the most value, and where expertise, not just convenience, drives results.
Composites One is treating this broader launch as a starting point rather than a finished product. The company says its Customer Advisory Board will keep shaping future updates based on how the platform is used in the field.
