AI-Powered Catalog Search for Metal Distribution & Fabrication
Your Metal Catalog Should Sell, Not Just List.
Conversational Commerce for Metal Catalogs
It lists every grade and size you stock, then goes silent on stock, certs, and cross-references. Buyers call. When the phone rings out, they buy from the site that answered first.
Grounded in your own catalog and documents. Never invents a grade, a yield number, a heat number, or a cert.
Marcus · Design Engineer
What crosses to 4140 pre-hard P20 for a mold base?
ChatSKU
P20 is a trade name for a 4130-family mold steel. We stock P20 in 2.5" through 12" plate. Yield is ~90 ksi. Want the spec sheet?
The Pain, In Your Buyer's Words
Four failing searches your catalog can't answer.
Dana · Fabrication Buyer
316L 2B sheet .075 48×120 in stock + MTR
Page exists, cannot confirm stock or produce the cert. Calls at 4:55, line busy. Order moves on.
Marcus · Design Engineer
6061-T6 vs 7075 for a load bracket
Lists both, compares nothing. Decision finishes on a supplier site that explains tensile, yield, and fatigue.
Sofia · Machinist
what crosses to 4140 pre-hard P20
Search matches neither trade name, returns nothing. She assumes you don’t stock it. You do.
Ray · Structural Estimator
A572-50 wide flange 40 ft domestic melt
Cannot confirm domestic or lead time, so the whole takeoff routes elsewhere.
Try it like your buyer would
Test it on your own catalog, five ways.
TYPO
"stainles 316"
VOICE
"half inch 6061"
TRADE NAME
"black iron pipe"
NL SPEC
"70 ksi 3/8 plate"
IMAGE
photo → C-channel
What your buyers ask, and how ChatSKU answers
Ordered by this vertical's group weights.
1 · Find it
Grade, form, size, and temper across trade names and typos.
“1/4 x 2 flat bar A36 — do you have it cut-ready?”
2 · Decide
Spec, cert availability, weldability, and corrosion fit.
“Yield and tensile of A572-50 — can you send the CVN report?”
3 · Capture the Switcher
Grade equivalents, domestic vs import, in-stock comparison.
“Domestic equivalent to this import HSS — what’s on hand?”
4 · Grow the Order
Cut-to-length, secondary ops, matching consumables, drops.
“Cut to 14 pcs at 23.5 in + 316 weld wire to match.”
Owner / GM
Capture the after-hours orders your counter never sees.
Sales Leader
Give reps back the hours lost to stock and cert lookups.
eComm / Marketing
Turn catalog traffic into finished orders, no replatform.
IT / Ops
Live with one line of embed code on your current site.
Who it Helps
Grounded catalog answers for every buyer and every rep who touches your Metals products.
New Customers
They land on your site searching a grade, a size, or a competitor's part number. "1/2 plate A36," "4140 pre-hard round bar," or a stock number from a distributor they've used before. They don't know your grade equivalents, your in-stock sizes, or whether you carry domestic melt for Buy America jobs. Before they call, they want to know if you have the size they need and whether it ships with an MTR. ChatSKU answers in your terms, on your inventory, so a fabrication buyer or estimator can self-qualify instead of calling the distributor who answers the phone first.
Existing Customers
A machinist reordering O1 drill rod doesn't want to re-explain the spec, he wants the same heat and the same size he got last time. When a supplier gets acquired or a line gets renumbered, "P20" and "4130 mold steel" need to resolve to the same part without a phone call. If 316L sheet is backordered, ChatSKU surfaces the in-stock equivalent instead of a dead end. It also catches the attach items a cutting job actually needs, like a CVN report or domestic certification, so the order goes out complete on the first pass. Fewer confirmation calls, fewer partial shipments.
Internal Sales Reps
Grades get added, sizes get discontinued, and mills renumber heats faster than any rep can track by memory. ChatSKU stays current with the catalog, so nobody quotes 6061-T6 in a size that's no longer stocked. A new rep can answer a grade-equivalent question correctly in week one instead of guessing until month nine. The judgment a 20-year rep has on "what's the domestic alternative to this import heat" gets captured and handed to every rep on the floor, not just the one who's been there longest. And when a structural estimator is running numbers at 9pm on a Sunday before a Monday bid, ChatSKU is there to answer, with no extra headcount on call.
External Sales Reps
A rep carrying five lines can't hold every mill's grade chart and every temper designation in his head. When a customer asks for a Hastelloy equivalent or a Ti spec sheet on the spot, the rep defaults to the line he knows cold, and your line loses the deal to memory, not merit. ChatSKU puts your grade equivalents, your in-stock sizes, and your spec sheets on his phone, in the customer's shop, in real time. The line he can answer for on the spot is the line he sells.
Why you can trust the answers
Grounded in your data
Answers come from your catalog, spec sheets, cross-reference tables, and certs — not a generic model that guesses grades it doesn’t stock.
Honest about gaps
If a size or grade isn’t stocked, it says so and routes to a quote — no invented lead times, no hallucinated availability, no guessed heat numbers.
Specs and certs protected
Never invents a yield, heat number, cert, or a grade you don’t stock. The only answers it gives are ones it can source directly from your documents.
ChatSKU vs. The Status Quo
Your site search vs a generic chatbot vs ChatSKU.
The Numbers
The catalog that answers first keeps the order.
75% / 91%
of B2B buyers would switch suppliers for a better, faster experience (91% US).
Sana Commerce 2025
41%
of manufacturing buyers can’t locate the products they need on supplier sites.
Sana Commerce 2025
67%
of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free, self-serve buying experience.
Gartner 2026
100x / 21x
drop in reaching and qualifying a buyer when response time goes from 5 min to 30 min.
MIT / InsideSales
78%
of B2B buyers go with the supplier who responds first.
Lead Connect
28–30%
of a rep’s week is actually spent selling. The rest is stock, cert, and spec lookups.
Salesforce State of Sales
See it on a catalog like yours
Pick a sub-category and see it live.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. ChatSKU embeds via a single script tag on any CMS — Magento, BigCommerce, custom-built, or static. No replatforming, no integration sprint. It sits on top of your existing site and reads your catalog.
Yes, when connected to your ERP or inventory feed. ChatSKU integrates with most major ERP systems via API or CSV export. Stock, lead time, and pricing data update on your schedule.
Yes. Upload your cert and MTR library during onboarding and ChatSKU can retrieve and surface them in conversation — buyers can request an MTR for a specific heat number and receive a download link.
No. ChatSKU is grounded exclusively in your uploaded catalog, spec sheets, and cross-reference tables. If a grade or size isn’t in your data, it says so and routes to a quote rather than guessing.
Yes. This is one of ChatSKU’s core capabilities for metals: mapping trade names (P20, black iron pipe, pre-hard) to ASTM/AISI catalog terms, and cross-referencing equivalents across domestic and import grades.
ChatSKU can capture cut-to-length requests in conversation, build a line-item quote, and either return pricing instantly (if your pricing rules are uploaded) or route the request to your inside sales team.
ChatSKU can flag domestic melt status per product if that attribute is present in your catalog or cert data. Structural estimators and government contractors can ask directly and receive a clear yes, no, or check-cert answer.
Pricing is based on catalog size and monthly conversation volume. Request a pilot demo and we’ll scope a plan that fits your operation — most service centers are live within 5 business days.
Your catalog already has the answers. Let buyers reach them.
ChatSKU reads your grades, specs, cross-references, and certs, and answers buyers in plain language, day or night, on the site you already run.