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Your buyer isn't shopping. They're reordering.

A maintenance engineer looking for a replacement bearing at seven in the morning does not want inspiration or a curated collection. They want a part number and a delivery date.

What's different here

B2B commerce fails when it imports consumer patterns. The buyer usually knows exactly what they need, is often buying the same items repeatedly, and is judged on uptime rather than on finding something better. Every consumer convention — discovery merchandising, cross-sell carousels, guest checkout — either wastes their time or breaks the workflow outright. The experience that wins looks closer to a well-organised parts catalogue than to a store.

+184%qualified RFQsindustrial & manufacturing averageFrom Digital Squad client accounts. Orientation, not a guarantee — your starting point changes the range.

Industrial & Manufacturing clients

NorthwindLumen LabsHarborlineVerdantAtlas FoodsPoka HealthBrightsideCobalt BankMeridianArdentFoundryKestrel
Vertical-specific tactics

What e-commerce looks like for industrial and manufacturing companies.

These are the plays that wouldn't appear on a generic e-commerce page — they only make sense in industrial & manufacturing.

01

Make search work on part numbers and cross-references

Buyers search by manufacturer part number, by a competitor equivalent, or by a number stamped on the component in their hand — frequently with the wrong punctuation. Fuzzy part-number matching with a cross-reference table is the highest-value feature in industrial commerce and is usually the worst implemented.

02

Show contract pricing, not list

An account with negotiated terms seeing list prices will phone the sales desk, which defeats the point of the channel. Authenticated per-account pricing is the difference between a site that reduces order-taking load and one that increases it.

03

Build for reorder, not for discovery

Order history, saved lists, and quick-order by pasting a spreadsheet of part numbers and quantities. The most valuable page here is not a product page — it is a one-click repeat of the last order.

04

State stock and lead time honestly

For a buyer with a line down, a real delivery date matters more than price. Publishing accurate availability, including long lead times, converts better than hiding it and produces far fewer cancellations and angry calls.

The constraints

What holds industrial and manufacturing companies back

01

Lead volume metrics are meaningless

Generating 400 MQLs is irrelevant when only 900 companies worldwide can buy your product. You need depth on the right accounts, not volume.

02

Long cycles, large committees

Six to eighteen month cycles with engineering, operations, procurement, and finance all involved. Each has different questions.

03

Your buyers don't read marketing content

Engineers want specifications, integration details, and real implementation data. Thought leadership fluff actively damages credibility.

04

Sales and marketing are disconnected

Marketing generates leads sales ignores; sales works accounts marketing knows nothing about. Neither has the full picture.

What's included

The full scope.

Everything in a e-commerce engagement, applied to industrial & manufacturing.

01

Unit economics model

True contribution margin per product and per channel, including COGS, shipping, returns, discounts, and payment fees.

02

Shopify build or optimization

Custom theme development or headless Shopify — fast product pages, frictionless checkout, and clean structured data.

03

Paid acquisition management

Meta, Google Shopping, TikTok, and Pinterest managed against margin targets, not platform-reported returns.

04

Product feed optimization

Clean, enriched feeds for Shopping and catalog campaigns — usually the fastest available win in Google Ads.

05

Conversion rate optimization

Product page, cart, and checkout testing against your real traffic, with proper statistical rigor.

06

AOV expansion

Bundles, volume discounts, post-purchase upsells, and subscription offers designed around your margin structure.

07

Retention & lifecycle

Klaviyo flows, SMS, replenishment reminders, and loyalty programs that raise repeat purchase rate.

08

Creative production

Product photography direction, UGC sourcing, and high-volume ad creative built for testing.

The process

How this runs.

  1. Model the economics

    Weeks 1–2

    Build the true contribution margin model. Everything else is optimized against this number.

  2. Fix the store

    Weeks 2–5

    Speed, product pages, cart, and checkout. The highest-leverage fixes happen before the ad spend increases.

  3. Build retention

    Weeks 3–8

    Flows, SMS, and post-purchase experience — so acquisition spend earns more than one order.

  4. Scale acquisition

    Month 2+

    Ramp paid channels against margin targets with creative volume behind them.

  5. Expand

    Month 4+

    New channels, new markets, marketplaces, and product line extension from a profitable base.

Investment

Scoped like the core service, no surcharge.

Every engagement is quoted from your actual brief. There's no vertical surcharge for this combination — request a quote and we'll scope it properly.

Store Build

New store or a full Shopify rebuild.

Scoped to your brief

  • Custom Shopify theme
  • Product page optimization
  • Checkout & cart optimization
  • App integrations
  • Analytics & tracking setup
  • 60-day support
Request a quote
Most popular

Growth

Full-funnel DTC growth management.

Scoped to your brief

  • Paid acquisition (all channels)
  • Email & SMS retention
  • Ongoing CRO program
  • 20 creative assets/month
  • Feed & catalog management
  • Contribution margin reporting
  • Weekly growth calls
Request a quote

Scale

8-figure brands and multi-market expansion.

Scoped to your brief

  • Multi-market & multi-currency
  • Marketplace expansion (Amazon, TikTok Shop)
  • Headless commerce architecture
  • Dedicated squad
  • Custom data warehouse
  • Retail & wholesale channel support
Request a quote

All engagements start with a free audit. Prices exclude media spend, which you pay directly to the platforms on accounts you own.

Questions

Industrial & Manufacturing questions, answered straight.

It changes what the relationship is spent on rather than removing it. The calls a rep handles today are largely order-taking on known part numbers — low value for both sides, and the reason reps have no time for the conversations that actually grow accounts. Moving reorders online usually increases order frequency, because a buyer at seven in the morning with a line down will order then rather than wait for the desk to open. The real risk is commission structure: if reps are paid on orders they personally process, they will fight this, and that is a compensation problem to solve before the build rather than after.

E-commerce × Industrial & Manufacturing

Let's talk about your growth constraint.

A maintenance engineer looking for a replacement bearing at seven in the morning does not want inspiration or a curated collection. They want a part number and a delivery date.

Our commitment: Free store audit including a full contribution margin model. Yours to keep, whether or not you hire us.