3 Ways Yesler Marketplace Transforms LBM Buying

Use a Digital Marketplace to Transform Your LBM Buying Forever

I usually blog about LBM markets and the economics of the supply chain. This blog is different. It’s about how Yesler is fundamentally transforming the buying process, a transformation that will improve how LBM markets function and the overall economics of the supply chain.

We just released a major update to Yesler Marketplace. Marketplace is our platform to organize the chaos of buying. It’s a fundamentally new way to approach the buying process for lumber, panels, or any other building materials for that matter. It’s amazingly fast and intuitive for first-time users. So, we want to share this success with more buyers and sellers across LBM!

New technology in LBM is regarded with skepticism: How much effort will it take and what will I get out of it? Often new tech is a marginal improvement on an existing process, so that analysis is simple. In the case of Marketplace, the benefits are on a different plane altogether. And the effort? It’s a simplification to the current buying process, not a complication.

Here are the three dimensions to Marketplace’s transformation of buying:

1 – Time on your side!

Your time is valuable, so speed is an advantage. But when you are pinned on the phone one conversation at a time, time is not your ally. Here is how Marketplace changes this.

How much time can you save? It’s minutes to hours depending on your process. More importantly, with Marketplace you gain more control of the time you spend buying by managing all suppliers simultaneously on one screen. ‍

2 – Decision tools, where relationships matter!‍

Here are 4 ways we organize the chaos with decision tools that keep your valuable relationships at the forefront. The numbers correspond to the section of the dashboard in the diagram below:

1. Six clicks to create a request and place it on the dashboard. Click on a requested load to highlight the corresponding seller proposals and/or confirmations.

2. Four clicks to add a seller, or ask Yesler to recommend sellers. Over 90% of sellers invited by buyers use Yesler to respond. Over 80% of those sellers join Yesler for future requests. Click on a seller to view their proposals and message them directly about loads.

3. All your sellers’ proposals show up in one place, including any changes a seller makes to a proposal. You can easily compare proposals by seller, ship date, and price.

4. All of your confirmed orders sit here. You attach a PO and the seller attaches a confirmation. Now all confirmations from all sellers are available in one place. No ERP integration is required.

3 – All your history with all your suppliers in one place – Yesler!

Use Yesler to confirm a load, find that load and its ship date on your confirmation calendar. Then with one click you can see the PO, the seller confirmation document, and all messaging with the seller associated with that load. Use Yesler to manage all of your commodity purchasing, and all of your purchasing history is available on one calendar, regardless of supplier or ERP.

Your buying changes forever when your history is Yesler:

1.  Save time researching inbound loads. Share your calendar view with operations, accounting, or site managers.

2.  Eliminate discrepancies between what you thought you were ordering, and what your seller sends. You and your seller can access the same quote and messaging history.

3. Yesler Market Intel customers can access all their purchasing history, plus market intelligence created from purchases aggregated across regions and product lines. You’ll buy smarter with better data.

How to get started?

Yesler is an intuitive website. You don’t need IT or software downloads, and there is no cost to you to use Yesler for buying. You don’t change the way you pay your suppliers. You can start with a self-serve exploration here to see how our six-click order builder works. Then, you create your own login, build loads, and send to suppliers on your time.

Reach out to me at [email protected] if you’d like to meet with us and have a demo rather than self-exploration.