True Stone Group: An online store that sells stone veneer to homeowners without a middleman
Genuine Adirondack thin stone veneer, quarried in Warrensburg, sold direct to homeowners and contractors. Stone is heavy, priced by the square foot, and shipped by freight, which is why most quarries sell only through dealers. True Stone Group is our own venture, so it was the place to prove the store could handle all of that.
The problem
A homeowner who wants real stone on a fireplace or a foundation usually can't buy it from the quarry. They go through a dealer, wait for a quote, and never quite know what the freight will cost until the end. Marketplaces like Amazon and Etsy don't handle the two things that matter for stone: a minimum order in square feet, and shipping that depends on weight and distance.
Full disclosure: True Stone Group is owned by Murray & Co.'s Mike Murray, who also runs production at the quarry the stone comes from. That's exactly why it made a good test case. We knew the product, the pricing, and the freight problem from the inside.
What we built
A storefront that teaches first and sells second. Each stone has its cuts and photos; a learn section explains flats versus corners and how coverage works. The project calculator takes a wall's dimensions and the corner length and returns the exact list of flats and corners with a price, so nobody has to do veneer math. A $25 sample kit gets a real stone in someone's hands before they commit to a pallet.
Checkout is as a guest, through Stripe, with freight estimated up front from the order weight and the destination instead of quoted afterward. Behind it, admin pages for orders, product and price changes, freight tuning and customer messages, so the store runs without a developer in the loop.
What it changes
The same eight stones are also listed on Amazon and Etsy, and the store is where those channels send people who want the calculator, the samples, or a quote for a bigger job. What this proves for other businesses: a store can handle by-the-foot pricing, minimums and real freight without a middleman, and a small operation can sell a product that most of its industry considers too hard to sell online.
Sell something heavy, custom, or priced by the foot?
Lumber, stone, feed, fabrication, anything the big marketplaces can't quite handle: a store built around how you actually sell is well within reach. Ask for a free mockup.