Industry News News
Woodbrowser purchasing platform

Aug. 11, 2014 - Woodbrowser, Inc. has launched the building industry's only transparent purchasing platform for lumber and panel products. Woodbrowser currently provides truckload quantity purchasers with direct access to lumber at over 145 mills and growing in North America via phone, email and online, as well as products from traditional wholesalers and distribution channels.

"Woodbrowser's platform and sales process provides buyers and sellers of lumber products with a much more efficient method of price discovery on the open market, really as easy as sending an email," said Chuck Gaede, President of Woodbrowser. "Our 'True Price Finder' platform replicates the current sales cycle that can take hours when conducted traditionally via phone and email. We've transferred that process to an easy to use web platform that allows buyers to view bids from multiple mills and sellers simultaneously, negotiate, and then purchase all in the same place, which saves an enormous amount of time."

The "True Price Finder" is Woodbrowser's proprietary price discovery tool to save purchasers time and money. In May of 2013, the company's beta site was tested with select customers and mills, and the newly updated platform went live in June of this year and is already in use by many of Woodbrowser's customers.

Unlike other trading platforms from the .com bubble, Woodbrowser recreates the current sales process for buyers and sellers, allowing a buyer to simply choose the products they are looking to purchase, and instantly send that quote request to multiple mills and brokers. The user interface allows for both sides of the transaction to offer, receive, and negotiate pricing all on one screen, with the buyer seeing the actual cost from the mill or seller plus a flat fee based on the per 1000 board foot cost of the lumber. The platform also provides valuable feedback including current market data, the rank of the offer, and average offer price, which is information that has never been offered to either party in the current marketplace. Purchasers and sellers can also find all of their purchase orders and past quotes all in the same place.

"Our team also understands that the industry thrives on information about movements within the market, which is why we share real-time updates on the market via our website, through customer emails, and by multiple daily conversations with producers and purchasers." Gaede continued, "More importantly, we work with all of our customers the way they want to do business. While some purchasers are interested in sourcing their lumber online, others are not which is why we will continue to trade traditionally via phone and email for as long as our customers request."

About Woodbrowser: Established in 2012, Woodbrowser employs 11 sales and operations professionals with over 60 years of combined experience in the lumber and building products industry. The company is now in the midst of a search for five additional sales representatives to expand their geographical reach in North America and abroad. The company currently sells softwood lumber and panels to 130 buying accounts in four countries and 21 states in the retail lumber, truss, pallet and container, manufactured housing, and export markets and continues to expand daily.

August 11, 2014  By  Amie Silverwood