--- title: "Industrial and Machinery" url: https://www.uncap.com/industry/industrial-machinery author: "Denis Dyli" published: 2026-06-09 updated: 2026-10-14 summary: "Industrial and machinery covers the supplies that keep a facility operating and the parts that keep individual machines running. One side is a procurement problem, where the challenge is buying at scale through systems the customer already owns, and the other is a discovery problem, where the challenge is getting from a machine to the correct component. Industrial supply and MRO runs on punchout, faceted search across very large catalogs, vending, vendor managed inventory and blanket purchase orders. Machinery and equipment runs on exploded diagrams, assembly trees, model or serial lookup, supersessions and dealer portals with dealer pricing. Both sides run from one Shopify store, one product catalog and one ERP connection." --- # Industrial and Machinery > Industrial and machinery covers the supplies that keep a facility operating and the parts that keep individual machines running. One side is a procurement problem, where the challenge is buying at scale through systems the customer already owns, and the other is a discovery problem, where the challenge is getting from a machine to the correct component. Industrial supply and MRO runs on punchout, faceted search across very large catalogs, vending, vendor managed inventory and blanket purchase orders. Machinery and equipment runs on exploded diagrams, assembly trees, model or serial lookup, supersessions and dealer portals with dealer pricing. Both sides run from one Shopify store, one product catalog and one ERP connection. ## An overview of the category Industrial and machinery covers the supplies that keep a facility operating and the parts that keep individual machines running. Buyers are maintenance teams, purchasing departments, dealers and equipment owners, and in both cases the purchase is usually unplanned, triggered by something wearing out or breaking rather than by a buying season. What separates the two sides is where the difficulty sits. One is a procurement problem, where the challenge is buying at scale through systems the customer already owns. The other is a discovery problem, where the challenge is getting from a machine to the correct component. Almost every build decision follows from which of those the business is. Within that, the category has two distinct sides. **Industrial supply and MRO.** Distributors supply maintenance, repair and operations consumables to plants and facilities. Catalogs commonly run past a hundred thousand items, so faceted search is what makes them usable at all. Larger customers raise requisitions inside their own procurement software rather than on a supplier website. A significant share of recurring revenue sits in vending programs, vendor managed inventory and releases against blanket purchase orders. **Machinery and equipment.** Manufacturers, dealers and parts operations supply service parts for equipment already in the field. Buyers start from the machine rather than the part, which makes exploded diagrams, assembly trees and model or serial lookup the primary navigation. Part numbers supersede over time, so a discontinued number still has to resolve to its replacement. Dealers generally need their own portal and their own pricing alongside the end user experience. ## Choose the part of the category that fits your business [Industrial supply and MRO](/industry/industrial-supply-mro) For MRO distributors and industrial suppliers. Punchout and cXML, faceted search across very large catalogs, vending and vendor managed inventory, blanket purchase orders. [Machinery and equipment](/industry/machinery-equipment) For equipment manufacturers, dealers and parts operations. Exploded diagrams and assembly trees, model and serial lookup, supersessions, dealer portals with dealer pricing. ## Operators who span both Plenty of businesses in this category do both, supplying consumables alongside service parts. That does not require two platforms. Both sides run from one Shopify store, one product catalog and one ERP connection, with the buying experience separated by account and catalog rather than by system. If your business spans both, start with the page whose problem is harder in your operation, since that is what the architecture gets built around. [Uncap Blueprint](https://www.uncap.com/blueprint) maps the data model and the phased plan before a dollar goes into development. ## Frequently asked questions ### What does industrial and machinery ecommerce cover? Industrial and machinery covers the supplies that keep a facility operating and the parts that keep individual machines running. Buyers are maintenance teams, purchasing departments, dealers and equipment owners, and in both cases the purchase is usually unplanned, triggered by something wearing out or breaking rather than by a buying season. ### What are MRO suppliers? MRO distributors supply maintenance, repair and operations consumables to plants and facilities. Catalogs commonly run past a hundred thousand items, and larger customers raise requisitions inside their own procurement software rather than on a supplier website. ### Should I start with industrial supply and MRO or machinery and equipment? [Industrial supply and MRO](/industry/industrial-supply-mro) is for MRO distributors and industrial suppliers: punchout and cXML, faceted search across very large catalogs, vending and vendor managed inventory, blanket purchase orders. [Machinery and equipment](/industry/machinery-equipment) is for equipment manufacturers, dealers and parts operations: exploded diagrams and assembly trees, model and serial lookup, supersessions, dealer portals with dealer pricing. One is a procurement problem and the other is a discovery problem, and almost every build decision follows from which of those the business is. ### Is Shopify a B2B platform? Yes. Shopify B2B is available on the Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus plans. Unlimited catalogs, direct catalog assignment to companies and locations, deposits, partial payments and payment requests per fulfillment remain Plus only, as do custom apps built with Shopify Function APIs. ### Can buyers order from an industrial supplier inside Ariba or Coupa? Yes, through cXML punchout, so a requisition raised in Ariba or Coupa reaches your catalog at that account's contracted pricing and approved assortment, and returns the cart into their approval workflow as a purchase order. Uncap builds and owns this layer as part of the engagement rather than introducing a separate procurement vendor for your team to manage. ### Can buyers find a machine part without knowing the part number? Yes. With Uncap Diagrams, buyers click the exact part off an interactive exploded diagram, with clickable hotspots mapped to live SKUs, and add it to the cart with no part number required. Serial-level build resolution and supersession chains are built as an extension of the Diagrams engine during implementation rather than shipped in it.