Overview
A metals supplier needed to move a catalogue that had lived offline for years into a usable online store, without turning a straightforward sourcing decision into a frustrating search experience.
The challenge
The business sells a small number of materials, copper, brass, aluminium, and stainless steel, but each one comes in many physical forms: flat bars, pipes, rolls, round bars, sheets, wires, and rods. A flat, undifferentiated product list forces a buyer who already knows exactly what they need, say copper flat bar in a specific gauge, to hunt through unrelated listings to find it. The store needed real structure, a simple repeat ordering flow, and a way for buyers who still prefer to call rather than checkout online to reach someone quickly.
The approach
Organise by material first, then by form
We built a two level category tree that mirrors how an industrial buyer actually thinks about sourcing, material first, then the specific form they need. A buyer looking for copper goes straight into a copper category, then selects flat bar, pipe, sheet, or wire, rather than scanning a single long list hoping to spot the right item.
Support the full repeat purchase cycle
Cart, checkout, wishlist, and account pages were all built on WooCommerce to support buyers who order the same materials repeatedly. A saved wishlist in particular matters for procurement teams that reorder standard stock on a schedule rather than browsing fresh each time.
Keep a human option visible at every step
Trade buyers frequently prefer to confirm pricing or availability by phone before committing to an order, especially for larger volumes. We kept a prominent click to call number visible throughout the browsing experience rather than hiding contact details behind a separate page.
Build a content layer that reaches beyond industrial buyers
Alongside the core catalogue, we added a blog with practical, craft focused guides, including a complete guide to working with copper. This content reaches a different audience than the industrial buyer, makers, hobbyists, and smaller craft businesses, who search informationally before they search for a specific product, widening the store's organic reach beyond direct product queries.
The outcome
The finished store gives the business a catalogue structure that can keep growing as new materials and forms are added, a repeat ordering flow that matches how its actual buyers purchase, and a content engine that pulls in search traffic beyond the core industrial audience the business served before going online.