Case study - Petrochemical industry

*The content below has been edited to preserve confidentiality.*

The problem:

Company X is one of the largest manufacturers and suppliers of petrochemicals in the world. They have 15+ Production plants, and their products are available around the world. The company is 60+ years old and is working hard to innovate and thrive. The company would like to venture into B2C by developing a platform for consumers, manufacturers and retailers. Is this feasible? What sources of revenue can the company expect? Is it feasible to allow other suppliers on the platform?

The solution:

To solve the client’s issue, it was necessary to conduct in-depth market research. The specific topics under investigation were:

• Market Trends and SizeCompetitor Analysis
• Customer Analysis
• SWOT Analysis
• PESTLE Analysis
• TAM, SAM & SOM

The prospects of venturing into B2C were dependent on the health of the sectors that the company would target. Hence, we found the market size and trends individually for the different sectors that were being targeted. Some of the data is shown below:

The competitor analysis played the dual role of providing both information on B2C competitors and their operations, business models and revenue streams.

The most common business models in the competitive landscape were based on:

- Subscription

- Advertising

- Commission 

Avvale recommended that Company X combine all three models and charge for various memberships to consumers and sellers.

On-site sellers will be charged for advertising on the platform and will be charged a commission for every sale that takes place on the platform.

The SWOT Analysis went into detail discussing the strengths and weaknesses of B2C and B2B sales on a platform and the opportunities of starting new revenue streams. Due to their new venture into technology, the main threat was the concern of customer/seller privacy and ensuring the technical team was well equipped to deal with any issue that might come up.

To finalize the report, we conducted a TAM, SAM & SOM analysis with the client’s confidential financial data to calculate their expected revenue in 2021/22 from both their existing and new venture.