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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

#231

Post by sh34r »

ruined wrote: post #28

because the people ordering bar stock or whatever know what they need, and it's very specific, and they cannot be upsold if you want to make a sale all you can do is give them what they want most stores have to convince the user that they want something, and that could be anything, and it doesn't much matter what it is.

In a better world, we’d have more companies like McMaster selling people what they need and providing a highly valued service, instead of using ads and weaponized psychology to convince them to buy some more junk they don’t need that’s going to end up in a landfill by December.

Re: Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used

#232

Post by nerdponx »

mastax wrote: post #111

I disagree with one thing: I usually go to Mcmaster to browse. I often have a problem, and I know that it must be a relatively common problem with an elegant solution, but I'm not experienced enough in that area to know what the solution is. Browse through the catalogue for a while and sure enough, there's a widget that's specifically designed to solve your problem. The design of the website makes it really easy to d…

There's also something weird with the way they programmed the site itself, which prevents you from opening certain links in a separate browser tab. it's really annoying when I'm not sure exactly what I need and I want to read all 10 product descriptions or whatever. I end up having to copy and paste the product URL and work backwards, rather than going all through the parts-filtering flow 10 times over from the beginning.

Otherwise the site is flawless in my opinion.

Re: Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used

#234

Post by mhb »

inamberclad wrote: post #74

McMaster doesn't show you shipping and tax before you place your order! How is that legal? Everything else is fantastic though. I adore their catalogs and having the print version is a point of pride.

They didn't used to and it was annoying. Now they do!

Re: Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used

#236

Post by exodust »

mastax wrote: post #111

I disagree with one thing: I usually go to Mcmaster to browse. I often have a problem, and I know that it must be a relatively common problem with an elegant solution, but I'm not experienced enough in that area to know what the solution is. Browse through the catalogue for a while and sure enough, there's a widget that's specifically designed to solve your problem. The design of the website makes it really easy to d…

> hierarchical

On the point of hierarchy they are messing up their categories:

mcmaster.com/raw-materials/

Hovering over the links in that category, you get links such as:

mcmaster.com/raw-materials/foam

But clicking "foam" takes you to: mcmaster.com/foam/ and there's no link back to raw-materials. This is a mistake. They've booted you out of the hierarchy and neglect to offer breadcrumbs or equivalent category navigation.

Clicking "browse catalogue" menu fails to identify what category you're currently in.

If I'm in mcmaster.com/fabricating/ and click "drills", why am I taken to a page called "hand drills"? The naming is a mess. Why am I seeing screwdrivers on that page?

Pardon the pun, but if I drill down to the hammer drill product page, the URL is:

mcmaster.com/29835A69/

What? That's ridiculous. The URL should be:

mcmaster.com/fabricating/drills/dewalt-cordless-hammer-drills/[product-name/ID]

Sorry to interrupt the "best website ever" theme!

Re: Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used

#237

Post by lostapathy »

repiret wrote: post #191
hardolaf wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I made a small order from Digi-Key last month and they offered UPS ground, FedEx ground and USPS. I don’t think I’ve ever not been offered budget shipping from them. But B2B is weird. If I need my employer to ship me something that I’ll use next month, I am hard pressed to get them to ship slower than 2nd day air.

Depending on the nature of the business, it’s not uncommon to have negotiated rates for 2nd day shipping that are really good, and essentially retail counter rates for ground. Sometimes that makes 2nd day service cheaper than ground for a lot of destinations. It’s weird.

Re: Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used

#238

Post by lostapathy »

pGuitar wrote: post #14
fake-name wrote: post #5

McMaster is great. This article is also completely glossing over another reason to use them: Their shipping is somehow insanely fast. Almost everything is next-day delivery, even for standard shipping. They've somehow got their logistics COMPLETELY nailed. I believe they have their own agreements with USPS/FedEx/etc... McMaster is generally not the cheapest, but they're almost always the fastest and the easiest. Mach…

> Almost everything is next-day delivery, Could it be that you live next to one of their warehouses? On the other hand, Amazon delays orders on purposes if you aren't a Prime member.

It’s nuts. I’ve had mcmaster packages come from far enough away overnight that there were hardly enough minutes for UPS to drive it this far. But definitely not flown judging by the terminals it went through.

Re: Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used

#239

Post by pySSK »

auscad wrote: post #213
monstertank wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do they ship to Australia? Any idea if that is also comparable to Amazon delivery speeds?

Probably not. They don’t ship to Canada. Don’t be fooled if you’re able to place an order with a non-US address. I was able to, before getting an email the next day when they realized their mistake.

Weird – I have been able to order parts for a client in the UK. I've used it mainly for connector harnesses.

I love their connector harnesses and I have standardized all my prototypes around them. It sounds expensive at first, but it's cheaper and less annoying than making them myself or hiring someone to do it for me.

Re: Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used

#240

Post by Blackthorn »

bsder wrote: post #173
Blackthorn wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MSC is sooooooo expensive for tooling though. Or pretty much anything. Unless you're a business who cut a deal with them so you don't pay list price. I also can't find anything on their website, what a terrible search and catalog functionality they have. Like the opposite of Mcmaster.

Really? Admittedly I haven't used them in earnest since before the plague ... However, a quick look shows them to be dead on price for Mitutoyo dial calipers. Boring heads look a bit more expensive than I remember. Milling bits seem normal price-wise as well. Who is your go to? Machine tooling is always expensive and I'm always looking for places that are cheaper.

They're alright for the Mitutoyo calipers, it looks like.

Kurt DX6: $650 on AllIndustrial, $737 on MSC.

Bison 7-866-0800 (a 3-jaw 8" forged steel chuck that I happen to own): $1090 through USA Bison retailers like Ajax, $1376 through MSC. I bought multiple Bison chucks through a similar site to Ajax: www.lathe-chucks.com (extremely old school web design, person owns several sites that sell different tooling, way better prices than MSC though you sometimes have to email for a quote).

Don't even get me started on their "value line" which is their Taiwanese or Chinese imports, only you get some intense MSC markup to go along with it vs when you buy the same item from a site like AllIndustrial.

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