Pricing by the inch
A configurator on every product page: type the length to 1/8 of an inch, see the price, add it to the cart. Behind it a pricing engine that reprices the catalogue every day from supplier cost.
7,795 prices in one runWorkCase study · eComm
Metals R Us · Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
A metal counter at the edge of Canada, now the country's top cut-to-size challenger brand.
Metals R Us has sold metal from a family shop in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia since 1997. Its online store opened in March 2025 and will pass $1M in sales in its second year, with 73% of that revenue from outside the province. The whole business is up 29% year on year and cash sales are up 221%. All of it direct to consumer.
Headline resultCash sales from outside the Maritimes, before the store and in 2026.
- Sector
- Cut-to-size metal
- Service
- Commerce
- Platform
- Market
- Canada, EN and FR
- $1M+
- Sales in year two, March 2026 to February 2027.
- 73%
- Of that revenue from outside Nova Scotia.
- +29%
- The whole business, year on year.
- +221%
- Cash sales, year on year.
The challenge
Metal doesn't fit a normal cart.
A customer wants a 37 inch length of 3-1/4 inch aluminum round bar, priced fairly, cut right, and shipped without a quote and a phone call. And the shop's ERP refuses its API to eCommerce, so nothing could depend on it talking to the store.
Then the market moved under the build. Quebec buyers turned up in numbers, and Bill 96 means a store selling to them has to serve them in French. By 2026 buyers were asking ChatGPT and Perplexity where to buy metal in Canada, so the store had to become the answer those engines give.
Six workstreams, one store.
Automation around the ERP
The daily cost and stock pull, an order processor and CRM the counter staff use every day, and a quote pipeline that reads the ERP's own quotation PDFs.
About 220,000 variantsThe quote lane
Cuts over 96 inches, plate, and bulk orders go to a request-a-quote form with a status page and follow-ups.
92 requests in 29 daysPaid social, paid search, and email
Meta campaigns built from customers' own projects. Google Shopping and Performance Max. Klaviyo flows for welcome, abandoned cart, browse abandonment, and reviews.
8x ROAS, best campaignAI search visibility
48 buying guides written by the sales team, with real prices and dates, plus answer-first page structure and an llms.txt.
14 of 18 prompts,Quebec French
The whole store translated into Quebec French rather than European French: soumission, courriel, and inches as po. Live on 18 June 2026.
10,339 fieldsDesktop and mobile
The numbers
Online salesOnline sales by month · Apr 2025 to Aug 2026
+212%
+174%in August 2026, year on yearOnline sales from April to August 2026 were up 212% on the same months of 2025.
Online salesThe year before
OrdersOrders a month · Mar to Aug
1,632 orders from March to August 2026, against 646 a year before.
20252026
Show the numbers
| 2025 | 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| Mar | 18 | 189 |
| Apr | 67 | 224 |
| May | 131 | 312 |
| Jun | 145 | 321 |
| Jul | 149 | 265 |
| Aug | 136 | 321 |
AI answersOf 18 buyer prompts
In 18 days ChatGPT went from 6 of 18 prompts to 14.
11 June29 June
Show the numbers
| 11 June | 29 June | |
|---|---|---|
| Perplexity | 4 | 10 |
| ChatGPT | 6 | 14 |
| 14 | 14 |
Where sales come fromShare of cash sales
Most cash sales now come from outside the Maritimes.
Outside the MaritimesThe Maritimes
Show the numbers
| Outside the Maritimes | The Maritimes | |
|---|---|---|
| Before the store | 4% | 96% |
| 2026 | 70% | 30% |
Cash sales outside the Maritimes
Before the store, and 2026.
Orders in August
2025 against 2026.
Of 18 prompts naming the store, 11 to 29 June 2026.
Of 18 prompts naming the store, 11 to 29 June 2026.
What changed
The store passes $1M in sales in its second year, and 73% of that revenue comes from outside Nova Scotia. Before it, 96% of the shop's cash sales came from the Maritimes.
The whole business is up 29% year on year and cash sales are up 221%. Orders ship to all ten provinces and the Northwest Territories, and Quebec is second by orders, served in French since 18 June 2026.
Perplexity names the store on 10 of 18 tracked buyer prompts and ChatGPT on 14, and the chatgpt.com click lane converts above the site average.
B2B online, 2026
Guides, quotes, and the shop
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