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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

#351

Post by jasongill »

NavinF wrote: post #218
loeg wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience around their shipping was the opposite— surprise outrageous fee to get fedex to deliver a few feet of PVC. This was back before they showed you shipping prices up front.

Yeah their checkout experience used to be horrible. Shipping costs were never displayed until the order shipped and it was often 10x the item price.

As soon as I saw the title of this post, I thought "best e-commerce site? they don't even show you the shipping price until the item has been sent, and the shipping prices are insane!"

I wrote them off long ago due to that - guess it's time to give them another try. Thanks for the heads up!

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

#352

Post by PinguTS »

jwr wrote: post #272
iancmceachern wrote: post #34

Mechanical Engineer and product designer here. I've been using mcmaster daily for 20 years to do my job. It is definitely the standard by which all others are judged. I'll gladly pay 2, 3, 5, even 10x the price to get it from McMaster. The service, the CAD models, I have what I need the next day. As an example of the level of their service, you can send them a box of loose parts, no part numbers, no markings, and the…

Alas, for some reason they only cater to the US market and have no presence in the EU, for example. So while it is possible to order from them, it's rather inconvenient as you need to deal with customs/taxes. Digi-Key got this right: you can order DDP, which makes things quick & simple. Incidentally, I am amazed that they don't have a meaningful competitor in the EU. It seems most companies here are stuck in the 80s…

We hade a competitor in Europe. It was called Zoro. Maybe not THAT clean but overall they also had a good website and great prices. But they folded some years ago.

In B2B we have Fabory: https://www.fabory.com

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

#353

Post by jsjohnst »

dagw wrote: post #339
dejerpha wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe because the site is hard-coded for the US imperial system? Quoting the article: «Bolts are commonly specified by their thread size (e.g. 1/4"-20), and their length. I'm looking for a 1/4"-20 x 1" bolt, meaning that the bolt's diameter is 1/4" and its length is 1", so I select these filters.»

Maybe because the site is hard-coded for the US imperial system? Why not go to the site and take a look. They, obviously, sell both metric and imperial bolts (and everything else). It's not like Americans don't occasionally need metric bolts.

> It's not like Americans don't occasionally need metric bolts.

It’s becoming a lot more common than not in fact. Automobile industry for example is pretty heavy on using metric bolts / screws. It’s not a recent thing either, a 2004 F-250 I used to have had many (most?) bolts as metric.

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

#354

Post by benhurmarcel »

avianlyric wrote: post #92
eropple wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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/

Looks like they would be very useful on large industrial site with multiple buildings. Provide staff with bikes to get around, and cargo tricycles if they need to move small to medium loads.

Or even inside a large industrial building like industrial assembly lines, etc.

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

#356

Post by muspimerol »

Dave3of5 wrote: post #291

Eek I'm going to go against the grain here a little. That site is useful when you already know what you are looking for. For someone who's just browsing for something interesting to buy it's terrible. Obviously it's been made for exactly that purpose and does it well but for general e-commerce it's bad. The retailers are looking to send you to an area of their website with "stuff" you are interested in. For example y…

Yeah the title is clickbait. McMaster is regularly praised in engineering forums, which is great. Clearly they nailed the UX for their users. There are some good lessons to learn from it, but it's not some sort of golden standard for e-commerce as a whole.

The main praise is usually search/filter, but that really comes down to this quote from the article:

> McMaster is able to provide such intuitive searching and filtering because everything that they sell is highly legible – it's all defined by quantitative specs.

Most products don't lend themselves so well to filtering.

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

#357

Post by crabmusket »

Dave3of5 wrote: post #291

Eek I'm going to go against the grain here a little. That site is useful when you already know what you are looking for. For someone who's just browsing for something interesting to buy it's terrible. Obviously it's been made for exactly that purpose and does it well but for general e-commerce it's bad. The retailers are looking to send you to an area of their website with "stuff" you are interested in. For example y…

This is why I love building B2B software. You get to help people do their jobs, rather than trying to sell them things. The site in the OP is a fantastic example of building a tool to help someone be successful at their job.

To be fair, "searching for a present for my kid" is a legitimate job in the jobs-to-be-done sense... it's just a lot fuzzier than a "business job" which has external constraints.

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

#358

Post by 2sk21 »

avianlyric wrote: post #92
eropple wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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/

Looks like they would be very useful on large industrial site with multiple buildings. Provide staff with bikes to get around, and cargo tricycles if they need to move small to medium loads.

I saw these in use in the Boeing factory north of Seattle during the factory tour.

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

#360

Post by jamincan »

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.

We use them all the time here in Mississauga. Generally we're getting next-day delivery (I think they have a warehouse in Cleveland). It's not the cheapest option, but they are great for projects still in development as they almost always have exactly what you're looking for. The customer service is also fantastic.
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