Lumber e-Commerce platform MaterialsXchange relaunches with new features and order management tools
Byline: Alex Rabens, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Mickey
Traditionally buying and selling lumber used in construction projects has been left to traders and middlemen who would “call around” to suppliers looking for the products their buyers needed and then arrange shipping and delivery.
Enter in MaterialsXchange (MX), the leading digital marketplace for the lumber industry to efficiently buy and sell lumber, panels, and other building materials. Recently, the company announced the launch of its new B2B e-commerce and digital marketplace that matches lumber buyers and sellers across the United States and Canada through its online platform. When MaterialsXchange first launched in 2019, it was a new way to modernize the inefficient, “call around” structure of buying and selling lumber by listing products on its digital marketplace. In 2022, MX merged with Mickey, a commodity technology and B2B SaaS startup company.
According to Mickey’s Chief Technology Officer, “Rebuilding the MX platform to provide a better and more robust UX was paramount, and we believe that both suppliers and buyers will find the updated marketplace even easier to use.” Stewart-Tennes continues, “Lumber buyers can learn more about the products they’re ordering – including all of the traditional variants – along with the delivered price. With MX there are never hidden fees or surprise surcharges and buyers can receive updates on the delivery of their order – 24/7. We believe the Mickey technology powering the new MX platform will continue to disrupt this antiquated industry.”
The updated MaterialsXchange marketplace, available at materialsxchange.com, offers a streamlined ordering process where suppliers can list products as an “ask” and buyers can either place “bids” or they can place a lumber order directly. The technology, powered by ‘Mickey OS,’ is designed to make the entire process for buying or selling wholesale and large-order construction lumber easier and more efficient – with live, real-time order tracking and pricing transparency. With MX’s new platform, lumber suppliers can list their products easily, and the technology will auto-fill product descriptions and variants making the entire inventory setup fast and frictionless. Suppliers can also view all pending and shipped orders in one place, send invoices and receive automatic payouts, and directly connect with buyers looking for their specific items.
“MaterialsXchange has been, and continues to be, leading the charge for the digital revolution taking place in commodity lumber and panels,” said Steve Coppola, Vice President, LENCO Supplies. “There is nothing that compares to the speed, efficiency, and simplicity of MX when buying or selling these products. Where else can you name your price, and quite literally have all of the shopping, paperwork, and shipping done for you…all with the click of a button? LENCO Supplies is excited to see where MX leads the industry now and into the future, both in lumber and panels as well as other products.”
The MaterialsXchange platform currently lists softwoods, panels, OSB and other lumber products. With the site’s ask/bid pricing structure, when a buyer negotiates a price and it’s matched – the transaction occurs instantly. The prices are real-time market prices and buyers will see a complete and transparent final order that includes shipping and handling and taxes.
MX’s new platform will further disrupt the way the lumber industry has done business – and we’re hearing from users that this type of technology is exactly what they have needed and had been asking for all along. So many other aspects of the lumber industry have been updated with new technologies and software services (i.e. payroll, GPS/mapping, equipment, and more). Now builders can easily source the lumber materials they need for their job – all in one place – and track their orders live, 24/7.
Mickey is helping to advance industries like lumber and construction – and will continue to evolve its product offerings to make it even easier for manufacturers as well as their raw material suppliers to connect through online marketplaces and e-commerce channels built especially for their business.
