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Best ecommerce UX practices from mcmaster.com

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Re: Best ecommerce UX practices from mcmaster.com

#141

Post by geodel »

cjbgkagh wrote: post #115
geodel wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> By comparison, the typical consumer shopping experience is much more one of discovery, not need-solution mnatching. Even if I put full fucking detail with brand and model I keep getting pages and pages of random products with different "sponsored" brands, model, features and so on. Its clearly need of Amazon are taking priority over mine. > Keep in mind the average HN user is not the typical shopper. You and I migh…

A critical component of being able to change high rates for sponsorship is to not show people precisely what they’re looking for. Also, once people find what they’re looking for they stop looking which reduces ad impressions. Amazon are just in the exploit stage of the build-exploit cycle and are making so much money doing it I doubt they’ll stop.

True. Founder CEO is out. Incoming one just has to keep growing ad business and leave Amazon with probably billion dollar retirement/severance package. After all it wouldn't be unheard of in 1-2 decades.

Re: Best ecommerce UX practices from mcmaster.com

#142

Post by MengerSponge »

LeifCarrotson wrote: post #42
blamazon wrote: post #4

A huge advantage of McMaster I didn't see enumerated is the 3D models - for nearly every fastener, and for certain other products, you can instantly grab a 3D model and bring it right into your CAD design. As far as I know no one else offers this, definitely not at the scale McMaster's dataset offers. An annoyance of McMaster I didn't see enumerated is how they don't show you the shipping cost until after transaction…

> As far as I know no one else offers this, definitely not at the scale McMaster's dataset offers. As an industrial engineer, most of my vendors offer this. I can get 3D CAD for robot arms, grippers, IO blocks, motors, cameras, enclosures, valves, cylinders, and just about everything else that goes in my machines. However, you're right that these don't have the same scale that McMaster does; they're selling the huge…

Although I've had an engineer fuss at me for using McMaster's bolt models in a rather complicated assembly. They actually model the threads and all the little details of the head, which make for a much larger model.

*People who don't work in CAD may not get it, but threaded interfaces are basically modeled with cylinders that overlap where the threads are engaged. It's funny what gets represented accurately and what doesn't, but just remember that the map is not the territory!

Re: Best ecommerce UX practices from mcmaster.com

#143

Post by ooklala »

azalemeth wrote: post #116
gumby wrote: post #54

Unmentioned is the origin of much of this value: > McMaster-Carr shoppers don’t encounter distractions; you can see proof of this on the homepage which jumps right into the action: The web site is based on the paper catalogue (book), from layout, visual interface, and organization. The paper version was excellent and useful. Instead of trying all sorts of "fun" (for the designer) web capabilities, they focused on ohw…

I wish Amazon was more like McMaster Carr or RS or any of the good websites. The ability to have filters that are meaningful (sort by random technical parameters, filter by dimensions or manufacturer, warranty, lead time, item location and that of manufacture, as well as price) and datasheets that were informative world be absolutely fantastic. I'm probably spoilt by datasheets for chips but God I miss them elsewhere…

I’m surprised you mention RS in the same breath as McMaster— their website is awful. Yes, you can put in very detailed parameters, but if you want a fairly generic part (like a DPDT 12v relay) you’re presented with hundreds of options, only one of which will be in stock— which they only tell you after you add it to your trolley… Given that RS is mostly ‘I need one of this part, tomorrow’ the inability to filter by stock completely ruins the usability of the site. It’s bad enough that I just use Farnell or Rapid—who both let you filter by stock—despite their sometimes worse selection. (and about a year or so ago the RS site stored state on the server side so if you hit the back button, or opened something in a new window the site would freak out and bring you back to the homepage)

Re: Best ecommerce UX practices from mcmaster.com

#144

Post by turtlebits »

geodel wrote: post #129
spchampion2 wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Even if I put full fucking detail with brand and model I keep getting pages and pages of random products with different "sponsored" brands, model, features and so on. Its clearly need of Amazon are taking priority over mine. When inside of a real brick and mortar store, have you walked by one of those displays on the ends of a row that's selling Pepsi products or Doritos? How do you think those things got there? Th…

I can ignore displays and go to right aisle to choose on products. On Amazon there is no equivalent. If they just ignore my search request I am stuck with trawling through irrelevant results.

Amazon search may have lots of results that I don't care about, but is generally accurate on the first try.

The brick and mortar experience is ostensibly 10x worse than being able to use a search box. Grocery stores and Home improvement stores are the worst - I probably spend 80% of my time there trying find where things are, with the overhead labels generally being useless.

Re: Best ecommerce UX practices from mcmaster.com

#145

Post by johnwalkr »

MengerSponge wrote: post #142
LeifCarrotson wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As far as I know no one else offers this, definitely not at the scale McMaster's dataset offers. As an industrial engineer, most of my vendors offer this. I can get 3D CAD for robot arms, grippers, IO blocks, motors, cameras, enclosures, valves, cylinders, and just about everything else that goes in my machines. However, you're right that these don't have the same scale that McMaster does; they're selling the huge…

Although I've had an engineer fuss at me for using McMaster's bolt models in a rather complicated assembly. They actually model the threads and all the little details of the head, which make for a much larger model. *People who don't work in CAD may not get it, but threaded interfaces are basically modeled with cylinders that overlap where the threads are engaged. It's funny what gets represented accurately and what…

One thing they offer which is really uncommon is parametric models instead of geometric models only. It's like getting the source code instead of only a binary file. So, you can easily suppress unwanted detail.

Re: Best ecommerce UX practices from mcmaster.com

#146

Post by SkyPuncher »

Don't get me wrong, I love McMaster - but I feel like people attempt to over apply their patterns everywhere else.

I feel like all of the discussion misses a key point - when you shop on McMaster, you already have a very detailed idea of what you're looking for. McMaster becomes rather difficult to use if you don't know exactly what you're looking for. Many of the product categories get rolled up as representative products. Many products have meaningful variations nested deep. It's very hard to quickly scroll through a list of items to figure out what might be represent you needs.

Now, that's not necessarily a problem McMaster should fix. They cater to the professional market. They cater to people who know exactly what they want. They can do this because their products are mostly derived off market standards.

There's a _very_ good chance that your user base won't be the same. There's a very good chance that your user base won't know they need a "Surface-Mount Lift-Off Hinges with Holes made of stainless with XYZ dimensions".

Re: Best ecommerce UX practices from mcmaster.com

#147

Post by bze12 »

I wrote the original article they're basing this on. I kinda wish they would've linked my article directly in their post (although they linked the original HN thread). Especially since this post basically just reskinned mine for SEO and missed some important substance IMO.

https://www.bedelstein.com/post/mcmaster-carr

Re: Best ecommerce UX practices from mcmaster.com

#148

Post by dahdum »

MengerSponge wrote: post #139
hammock wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Compare this to, say, Amazon where Amazon's needs are prioritized over the customers' I'm not sure that's the whole story. A critical point is that this is a B2B site. The people shopping here would tend to have a need in mind that can be solved by finding the exact right part that meets their specifications. By comparison, the typical consumer shopping experience is much more one of discovery, not need-solution mna…

McMaster is also better for wandering the aisles than Amazon! Just hop onto a catalog page, and see related item after item. Amazon tries to sell you things that are cross-correlated, so if you buy tiny resealable bags for your board game collection, they try to sell you portable precision scales.

> McMaster is also better for wandering the aisles than Amazon! Just hop onto a catalog page, and see related item after item.

It’s all fun and games until you get blocked for viewing too many pages. Been a few years since I needed to use them but that was always super annoying.

Re: Best ecommerce UX practices from mcmaster.com

#149

Post by johnwalkr »

simonlc wrote: post #5
StayTrue wrote: post #2

The best e-commerce site would not insert a redirect when arriving via Google search results (which breaks the back button).

It also doesn't ship world wide, even to Canada I made an order, with no way to see what shipping was and got an email saying they only ship to commercial or schools. That's a terrible e-commerce experience. Sites like NCIX were way better than this.

10+ years ago they used to ship to individuals in Canada, but I vaguely remember some negative word-of-mouth discussions about them when individuals got burned by "customs fees" which was actually companies like UPS ripping off people by charging unreasonable fees to do customs clearance paperwork. Mcmaster probably didn't want to deal with that.

If they do think you're a business (maybe this means someone at your business has ordered before), they will not only ship to you but instantly let you use net-30 payment terms automatically. I had one experience of ordering some parts to a university in Japan when I was a student, and the parts were shipped the same day, along with an invoice. I didn't even have to create a login. [0]

[0] I wouldn't be surprised if this is no longer true due to know-your-customer legislation.

Re: Best ecommerce UX practices from mcmaster.com

#150

Post by divbzero »

gumby wrote: post #54

Unmentioned is the origin of much of this value: > McMaster-Carr shoppers don’t encounter distractions; you can see proof of this on the homepage which jumps right into the action: The web site is based on the paper catalogue (book), from layout, visual interface, and organization. The paper version was excellent and useful. Instead of trying all sorts of "fun" (for the designer) web capabilities, they focused on ohw…

I believe the parent is referring to Sigma-Aldrich?

Here is an example of their search results:

https://www.sigmaaldrich.com/US/en/search/edta

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