Digital trade isn’t stuck because the technology isn’t ready. 

It’s stuck because most organisations never get past intention. 

Digital trade is one of those topics everyone agrees on in principle. It shows up in conference agendas, strategy decks, and industry forecasts year after year. Yet when you look at day-to-day operations, paper still dominates many critical trade flows. 

The problem isn’t a lack of solutions. It’s the gap between knowing digital trade is necessary and actually changing how transactions are executed. 

That gap was the focus of Enigio’s recent webinar, "What it really takes to go digital in trade". Instead of theory or vendor promises, the discussion centered on real corporates who have already made the shift — not in pilots alone, but in live transactions involving banks, carriers, and counterparties across borders. 

The panellists brought three very different perspectives: Siemens, a global industrial and technology leader; Matalan, a high-volume UK fashion retailer; and Global Tea & Commodities, an international soft-commodities trader. Different sectors, different trade corridors, different internal realities — but strikingly similar lessons once they began. 

When paper becomes impossible to ignore 

For each company, the decision to change came not from strategy workshops, but from friction becoming impossible to manage. 

At Global Tea & Commodities, the pandemic exposed just how dependent the business was on physical documents. Working from home turned paper from an inconvenience into a liability. 

“I realised how much paper we were actually using when my living room became a paper factory. Couriers everywhere. I couldn’t even keep track anymore,” said Rhodrick Kalumpha, Group Financial Controller. 

At retailer Matalan, the scale was even more stark. With more than 15,000 bills of lading and over 1,000 documentary collections processed each year, paper wasn’t just slow — it introduced risk at every handover. Documents could be couriered up to nine times before a bill of lading was finally surrendered, delaying container release and tying up working capital. 

“The dining room was full of boxes. I just thought: I can’t be doing this,” remarked Susan Ashworth, Senior Trade Finance Specialist at Matalan.

At Siemens, the frustration showed up in a different way. Trade finance teams were highly experienced, processes well-defined — yet still constrained by the mechanics of paper. 

“You prepare everything carefully, press print, and then realise one detail is missing. When that’s a 40-page packing list printed ten times, it’s incredibly frustrating,” said Katrin Regner, Senior Manager (Trade Finance / Strategic Development) at Siemens.  

In all three cases, paper wasn’t just inefficient. It actively worked against control, visibility, and speed. 

Who actually drives digital change inside organisations 

One of the clearest insights from the discussion was who led these initiatives internally. 

It wasn’t innovation teams or digital transformation programmes. It was trade and finance professionals dealing with the problem every day. 

At Global Tea & Commodities, the finance function pushed for change in close collaboration with logistics. Faster document flows meant faster access to funding — a direct commercial benefit. At Matalan, the trade finance team consisted of just two people, yet still managed to drive meaningful transformation across complex international flows. At Siemens, digitalisation was already embedded in the company’s broader direction, making trade finance a natural next step rather than an isolated experiment. 

“If digital documents reduce the process from weeks to minutes, that matters immediately for finance," said Rhodrick Kalumpha.

The takeaway was simple but important: digital trade doesn’t start when a company declares it a priority. It starts when someone takes ownership of the pain. 

Choosing the right place to start 

None of the companies tried to digitise everything at once. 

Instead, they were deliberate about where to begin — selecting use cases where the impact would be tangible and measurable. 

Siemens chose to start with one of the most complex scenarios in trade: a bill of lading under a letter of credit. The reasoning was pragmatic. If digital documents could work in a multi-party, highly controlled environment, they would work anywhere. 

“We wanted to jump into the coldest water. If it works under a letter of credit, everything else becomes easier.”
— Katrin Regner 

Matalan focused on high-volume promissory notes, completing a fully digital transaction on the very day the UK’s Electronic Trade Documents Act came into force. That single change saved three days per transaction immediately. 

Global Tea & Commodities prioritised flows that unlocked working capital fastest, cutting turnaround times from weeks to hours. 

Different strategies, same principle: start small, but start where the business case is undeniable. 

Moving from pilots to real transactions 

Proofs of concept played an important role for all three organisations — but none saw them as the end goal. 

At Siemens, a full multi-party proof of concept brought together banks, carriers, freight forwarders, and counterparties. Within roughly 50 minutes, participants could trace the ownership of a digital bill of lading across every step of the process. 

“At any moment, you could see who owned the original document. That visibility removes most of the doubt," said Katrin Regner.

Matalan progressed from discussions to live digital transactions in around three months. What typically took around 30 days on paper was completed digitally in just two hours the first time — and now averages closer to 24 hours. 

“Suppliers who’ve done it have said they’re not going back to paper.”
— Susan Ashworth 

For Global Tea & Commodities, adoption scaled quickly. Within months, around 25% of trade flows were handled digitally, with a clear ambition to reach much higher levels. 

“Our first transaction used to take four weeks," said Rhodrick. "Digitally, we did it in two hours.”

Once transactions went live, digital trade stopped being a theoretical improvement and became an operational advantage. 

The real challenge: coordination, not capability 

When asked about the hardest part of going digital, none of the panellists pointed to technology. 

The real challenge was coordination. 

Letters of credit can involve more than 20 parties. Each operates under different systems, legal frameworks, and risk appetites. Add cross-border trade into the mix, and progress can easily stall if everyone waits for someone else to move first. 

The panellists emphasised the importance of constant communication — with banks, carriers, suppliers, and regulators — and taking legal concerns seriously rather than dismissing them. 

“Not everything is fixed yet. But if we wait until everything is perfect, we’ll never start," added Katrin Regner.

Frameworks such as MLETR and national legislation like the UK’s Electronic Trade Documents Act are accelerating adoption, but change still depends on organisations willing to take the first real step. 

What actually changes once documents go digital 

The benefits described weren’t abstract. 

They were operational, measurable, and immediate. 

Digital trade reduced transaction times from weeks to hours, improved visibility across document lifecycles, lowered courier and detention costs, and removed thousands of sheets of paper from annual operations. Just as importantly, it reduced friction between teams and counterparties by making ownership and status clear at every stage. 

Perhaps the most telling shift was behavioural. 

Once suppliers, banks, and partners experienced digital transactions that worked, resistance faded quickly. 

“Once they see the speed and the cost savings, there’s no appetite to go back," Rhodrick Kalumpha remarked.

Digital trade stopped being “the new way” and simply became the way. 

The message for corporates still considering digital trade 

Each panellist was asked what they wished they had known before starting. 

The answers were practical, not ideological. 

Be patient. Expect resistance. Start with a use case that matters. Work with partners who are willing to move. And don’t underestimate how quickly the benefits add up. 

“I just wish someone had told me how much we’d save — and how quickly," said Rhodrick.

Digital trade doesn’t become real when the industry agrees on it.
It becomes real when companies decide to act. 

As Siemens, Matalan and Global Tea & Commodities have shown, once that decision is made, the question isn’t whether to continue — it’s how fast you can scale. 

How Enigio helps make that step possible 

Going digital in trade doesn’t require replacing everything overnight. And it doesn’t require every counterparty to be “ready” on day one. 

What it does require is a way to start — with real transactions, real documents, and real control. 

At Enigio, we work with corporates, banks and trade networks to help them move from paper to digital originals in a way that fits how trade actually works today: open, interoperable, and legally robust. Many of our customers start with a single use case — one flow, one document — and build from there. 

If you’re exploring how to get started, or how to scale what you’ve already begun, we’re always happy to share what we’ve learned along the way. 

Sometimes, the hardest part isn’t the technology.
It’s taking the first step.