OnlineMetals.com is growing as a metals and plastics marketplace

Twenty-six years ago, OnlineMetals.com began in a Seattle garage as a niche retailer of raw materials such as steel, brass and copper.

Over the years it has built its reputation as a supplier to both small craftsmen and large manufacturers. It has grown to a distributor of over 60,000 products from raw materials including steel, brass, copper, nickel, titanium and zinc in various shapes and sizes, including cut-to-size.

Last year, it expanded its capabilities and online presence by implementing a new B2B e-commerce platform integrated with its own metals and plastics catalog marketplace, where raw material producers can sell their products.

The new marketplace “allows us to quickly acquire new sellers who want to reach the millions of metals buyers that Online Metals reaches,” says Gregory Raece, president.

Online Metals operates its e-commerce platform on SAP Commerce Cloud with a SAP-licensed version of the Mirakl Marketplace technology platform.

Online Metals says the new digital infrastructure has enabled its e-commerce team to “sell products that have traditionally been opaque in terms of pricing and also difficult to order in small quantities.”

As a result, Online Metals adds that it “can now support the growing number of micro-manufacturers across the U.S.,” such as TCI Precision Metals, who rely on “a supplier of low-volume, on-time metal.”

Although Online Metals specializes in raw materials, it also supplies several other products used in the manufacturing, manufacturing and fabrication process. “Resellers can sell everything from pre-finished parts, machine shop supplies, safety equipment, polishing supplies and more,” says Online Metals.

Online Metals charges third-party sellers a referral fee for each sale on its marketplace, but does not charge upfront fees or require long-term commitments. It uses referral fee revenue to pay for digital marketing initiatives such as email campaigns, website promotions, search and shopping advertising, as well as credit card and banking fees.

In 2007, OnlineMetals was acquired by ThyssenKrupp AG, a German multinational industrial engineering and steel manufacturing conglomerate. ThyssenKrupp was created by the merger of Thyssen AG and Krupp in 1999; its operational headquarters are located in Germany in Duisburg and Essen.

Paul Demery is Digital Commerce 360’s editor covering B2B digital commerce technology and strategy. [email protected].

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