Mcmaster.com is also insanely fast. The reaction to every click is so incredibly responsive. There is something so pleasing about it.
It's amazing how fast things can be with no crap ads and just pure content.
Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used
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Re: Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used
#102This doesn't go into the actual mechanics of finalizing your order, which is incredibly well done. I've only actually ordered from McMaster 3 times and don't have a need for anything right now so I might be getting details wrong, but basically, the "items in your cart" page has a shipping address and payment method pre-filled, and you just hit "order" and that's it. What's in stock, what ships when, etc. is all clearly labeled in each line item. There are number entry boxes to adjust quantities. You can put in your own part numbers, of course, and the items in the shipment will be labeled with that (or at least a reference to the line item on your invoice). First time I bought from them, I was blown away how clean and easy it was. You hear "industrial supply" and think the ordering process is going to end with "ok, now call us for a quote", but it's smoother than Amazon. Well done.
I also like their parametric search. If you type '1/4"-20 screw', the page goes to the overview of that screw type AND populates the "machine-readable" parameters on the left side with what you typed. It's wonderful. I also appreciate that their search term tokenizer understands that you're looking for a thread size ('1/4"-20') and doesn't strip the non-alphanumeric characters like most would. (Amazon has gotten better at this over the years. I wanted to say "look at those idiots, giving you any screw that has the number 1, 4, or 20 in the description", but they bring up the parameterization as well.)
Finally, McMaster has a reputation for being pricey, but sometimes you just pay the same price that everyone pays for something. For example, say you want a set of Mitutoyo 4" digital calipers. On Amazon, which is rife with counterfeit knockoffs, you'll pay $136.94. On McMaster, you'll pay $129.19 (plus shipping, yeah I know). And it won't be counterfeit! As always, shop around, but they are not trying to screw you on price, or by subbing in counterfeit trash to make a few bucks. Truly a marvel of online shopping. I wish they sold everything.
Re: Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
Compared to Amazon, MMC has a very small number of SKUs, inventory that never goes stale, and prices that are only affordable in the context of B2B transactions. It’s not a comparable service.
DigiKey eliminated everything except next day air for small packages some years ago because it was too expensive to have two different SKUs for shipping small orders in their system. B2B is weird.
Next day delivery is so common for B2B that many times it's the only way to order. I won a free DMM from Keysight and while it took a month for it to be actually shipped, they shipped it next day from Malaysia to the US when it finally did. Like you guys made me wait weeks for it, I could have waited another week for snail mail.
Re: Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used
#104digikey, jameco, mcmaster, ingram... most of these online catalog parts houses have excellently functional websites. but like, even back in the day distribution warehouses had excellent terminal based inventory search and ordering interfaces over packet switched networks. anyone remember datanet?
I wish digikey was as good as McMaster. With digikey I often have to parse through a huge table with many pages to figure out what the difference is between a bunch of search results. On McMaster you can clearly see search results categorized in sub tables and densely arranged to make clear what the options are. Are there any electronics websites that actually organized like McMaster?
digikey, mouser, and arrow are the big ones that I'm aware of. All of their UX is really bad compared to McMaster though.
I love when a field value table has redundant values for 20mm, 2cm, 2.0cm, 20mm with a trailing space, etc. A lot of the value-add here from McMaster comes from pure data cleanup and categorization and cleaning up the categories and fields. That gets way harder to do on something the size of mouser or digikey though, they have a LOT of product types in the catalog, and tens of millions of products in their warehouses. Just cataloging it all is a massive amount of work.
I'd actually be curious what the data structure of the McMaster catalog is to support that. It's a cool website, it makes it seem so effortless to search for parts.
Re: Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used
#105McMaster.com webdevs should do Digi-Key next.
...or Arrow, Mouser, or Farnell.
Yes, I realize 10 other people said the same thing. But I feel so strongly about this that I don't think an upvote is sufficient!
Re: Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
Please tell me there's a story behind an "industrial tricycle?"
It's really a thing they sell. https://www.mcmaster.com/tricycles/ The why, though, no idea. Warehouse schlepping, probably? On the other hand, I take one look at this mostly-prefabricated building and I'm like "... I could use one of those." https://www.mcmaster.com/6704T998/
Every other worker in a shipyard has a tricycle like this.
Re: Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah. It's kind of like how in chess, many learners study openings and gambits and obscure checkmates, when the low hanging fruit is just learning to spot and avoid blunders. MMC is mostly about not making the mistakes everybody else makes, which puts it near the top even before you consider what they do well.
I think everyone knows what the "mistakes" are, it's just that its en vogue to "hate your customers" the way amazon and similar companies do, racing to the bottom to squeeze money out of them with dark patterns instead of just charging more for good service
Amazon doesn't hate their customers nor do they love their customers.
They clearly are indifferent to customers except to the point required by law, or as needed to keep the cash flowing in.
It costs money to do the things that MMC does and Amazon prefers volume and revenue over the margins that MMC can command by providing quality service.
Re: Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used
#108digikey, jameco, mcmaster, ingram... most of these online catalog parts houses have excellently functional websites. but like, even back in the day distribution warehouses had excellent terminal based inventory search and ordering interfaces over packet switched networks. anyone remember datanet?
I wish digikey was as good as McMaster. With digikey I often have to parse through a huge table with many pages to figure out what the difference is between a bunch of search results. On McMaster you can clearly see search results categorized in sub tables and densely arranged to make clear what the options are. Are there any electronics websites that actually organized like McMaster?
Electronics are a different market than the one that McMaster serves. Frequently at Digikey, you need an exact part number from a specific manufacturer. Or, if you're buying parts at scale, you might be quite price-sensitive.
At McMaster, there would be one 555 timer, one utility op-amp that implements the LM741 spec, one low-noise op-amp, one 5V regulator, etc. They would all perform at or somewhat above average, but you wouldn't know precisely what you were getting.
There probably is room for a McMaster-like Digikey (or a simplified Digikey storefront for those who aren't picky about details), but it is unclear how large its market opportunity might be. It might look kinda like SparkFun.
A lot of the time, details in electronics really do matter. I think I've ordered almost every variation of the LM35 temperature sensor over my career. Sometimes you care more about price, sometimes you care more about accuracy. McMaster would probably only stock one of the grades, not sure which.
Re: Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used
#109McMaster is a great choice when you can value your time. There is no comparison shipping. You need an industrial tricycle that gets the job done? Great. Add an industrial tricycle to your cart. Unless there is a meaningful difference between models, there will be only one choice. It will be curated and it will do what you generally expect it to do. You'll pay more than you can get it for elsewhere, but it will do the…
Please tell me there's a story behind an "industrial tricycle?"
Almost every large manufacturing facility has vehicles for their maintenance staff. Sometimes they use golf carts. Sometimes they use tricycles.
An automotive assembly plant can easily be 10 million square feet.
Re: Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used
#110McMaster is a great choice when you can value your time. There is no comparison shipping. You need an industrial tricycle that gets the job done? Great. Add an industrial tricycle to your cart. Unless there is a meaningful difference between models, there will be only one choice. It will be curated and it will do what you generally expect it to do. You'll pay more than you can get it for elsewhere, but it will do the…
Based on my research, that is a very fair price for a industrial tricycle; honestly would have expected it to be more.