FDBusiness.com

Fonterra has launched a new Global Dairy Trade e-commerce sales channel that will enable the New Zealand-based dairy co-operative to offer customers the opportunity to buy dairy ingredients online all the time.

Fonterra’s managing director Global Ingredients, Kelvin Wickham, says the new GDT Marketplace provides an additional sales channel for NZMP Ingredients and meets growing demand in the dairy market for online business-to-business transactions. The new service and other developments were complementary to GDT’s current offerings.

“E-commerce is increasingly seen as convenient and open for business whenever customers want to make purchases. Dairy is no exception,” he explains. “Online trading is ideal for customers purchasing smaller volumes who want convenience and availability at a time that suits them.  We see this as an opportunity to grow our sales both with existing customers and as an ideal way to reach new customers over time.”

Fonterra will initially look to offer a small range of ingredients on GDT Marketplace from the start of the 2016/17 season, and add further offerings as customer demand builds. These offers will exclude product specifications already sold on GDT Events.
Kelvin Wickham adds: “Direct transactions with customers account for the majority of Fonterra’s sales and this will continue. Many of our major customers look to us to combine both ingredients and services which create value for them and for us. This is best achieved through our global network and the relationships our people build with our customers.”