Podcast Episode 01 | Start Building a Digital Marketplace for Buying & Selling Lumber
Lumber prices have skyrocketed this year and it’s the talk of the industry. Low inventory combined with no price transparency, finding and purchasing lumber is more difficult than ever. Or is it? One company has set their goals on disrupting the industry of buying and selling lumber. A process that is slow, manual and time-consuming is now quick, automatic and done with a few clicks over the internet. Buckle up, because trading lumber will never be the same.
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About This Episode
The Start Building Podcast helps building product industry professionals stay in tune with technology and innovation that is changing the way we do business. We talk with founders, innovators and dreamers that are disrupting our industry. We aim to inspire you to start building.
In this episode, Tim chats with Michael Wisnefski (CEO) and Ashley Boeckholt (CRO) about why they founded MaterialsXchange and how they are disrupting the entire industry by automating the process and bringing price transparency to everyone. This is the future of buying and selling lumber.
What is MaterialsXchange?
MaterialsXchange is a business-to-business e-commerce platform for buying and selling lumber. Their mission is to progress the lumber industry into the digital age. Their innovative technology matches buyers and sellers in our digital marketplace with real-time pricing. MaterialsXchange ensures everyone has equal access to the markets, price transparency, efficient transactions, no calling around, and no paperwork.
MaterialsXchange is the future of buying and selling lumber.
Transparency in Pricing
Commodity (lumber) pricing is a moving target. It can go down just as easily as it goes up. The current model of buying and selling lumber is calling around and asking for pricing. “everyone is searching for the elusive what the price is today. In our normal e-commerce world, we go to storefronts like Amazon. We find a price and as a buyer you have zero control over the price. It’s so important to have that in a commodity,” says Mickael Wisnefski.
That is what MaterialsXchange has built. You can see prices go up and down. You can put a bid into the market. Buyers and sellers have equal power and access to setting the price. “historically, growing up in the industry, everybody waited for the pricing to come across to them. The mill or distributor was the aggressor on the price. On our platform, the buyer can be the aggressor and put their price out to the market. Through digital negotiation, they buy and sell virtually,” says Ashley Boeckholt.
Digital Transformation
E-commerce selling has become a staple in almost every industry, and it’s just now slowly entering the building products industry. Home Depot and Lowe’s have invested heavily in their digital capabilities. in 2020 alone, Home Depot e-commerce sales grew 86% and Lowe’s e-commerce sales grew 111%.
In our industry, the idea of B2B e-commerce is a new concept. “But we are seeing the younger generation get into leadership roles and they are demanding this technology.”
One of the keys to digital transformation in our industry is to show value quickly. Help the user understand that this technology isn’t here to replace my job, rather it’s here to make my job easier and more efficient.
“We enable a whole new way for the supply chain to work. We call it the supply web. We are seeing a whole new demographic come through and reach out to us. ”
Connect with MaterialsXchange
Want to learn more about MaterialsXchange, head straight to materialsxchange.com.
Connect with Michael and Ashley on LinkedIn.
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