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The company is counting on artificial intelligence to be a big part of the push for more ecommerce, says CEO Rob Saltiel.

MRC Global Inc. — a global distributor of pipes, valves, fittings and infrastructure products and services to diversified energy, industrial, and gas utilities markets — is doubling down on digital commerce.

And the company is counting on artificial intelligence (AI) to be a big part of the push for more ecommerce, says CEO Rob Saltiel.



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MRC Global digital sales in Q1

For its fiscal first quarter ended March 31, sales for MRC Global decreased 9% to $805 million from $885 million in the first quarter in 2023. Net income was $19 million compared with $34 million in the prior year.

Today, just about two-thirds of all U.S. orders are digital, Saltie told analysts on a recent earnings call, based on a transcript from Seeking Alpha.

“Our digital strategy that began several years ago continues to evolve and deliver great dividends in the form of additional sales and an improved customer experience. U.S. orders placed digitally hit a record 66% of total orders in Q1 of 2024,” he said.

Over time, MRC Global has developed what the company calls “a user-friendly digital customer service platform that in addition to product ordering provides self-service features such as order expediting, order documentation and past order histories.”

MRC’s new AI tool

MRC’s latest upcoming feature is a new advanced digital quote tool that is being developed using AI.

“One exciting initiative that we have underway is the development of a digital quoting tool that leverages artificial intelligence to improve the accuracy and timeliness of our quotes for customer product orders,” Saltie told analysts. “This tool uses AI to match customer parts and descriptions to our own to expedite the quoting process.”

The new digital quote tool will be rolled out sometime in the second quarter.

“This [digital quote] tool provides multiple benefits,” he told analysts. “It saves time for our salespeople in assembling a quotation. It improves our responsiveness to urgent customer needs, and it facilitates a more accurate quote-to-cash process. We are in beta testing mode now, and we plan to roll out this quoting tool to our sales team this summer.”

MRC Global earnings

For the fiscal first quarter ended March 31, 2024, MRC reported:

  • $806 million in total sales. That was down 9% from $885 million in Q1 2023.
  • Net income was $13 million, down from $28 million in the year-ago period.
  • MRC Global digital commerce accounted for 66% of all sales. In the previous quarter, MRC Global ecommerce accounted for 65.5% of sales.

Percentage changes may not align exactly with dollar figures due to rounding. Check back for more earnings reports. Here’s last quarter’s update on MRC Global.

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