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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

#481

Post by jjk166 »

exodust wrote: post #236
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 navig…

The issue is that their products don't fit into a neat hierarchy. Yes foams can be raw materials, but they can also be packing material, or insulation, or liners, or safety equipment. Similarly, polyurethane foam and stainless steel are both raw materials but no one thinks of them as the same thing, nor is there often a need to navigate easily between the two.

As for the urls, just having it be the part number is super convenient. There tend to be many different names for things and it's so easy to miscommunicate. Part numbers avoid ambiguity - it doesn't matter who made it or what you call it, if it has the right number it works. You can have an intern who doesn't know the difference between nut and a bolt but as long as they have that number they know exactly the url they need to go to.

It might not be a great set up for all ecommerce sites, but it's ideal for any site selling hardware.

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

#482

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

sitkack wrote: post #255
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #138

At some point several years ago, Amazon actually tried to compete with Mcmaster and others selling in this niche. They had a sub-site or something like that, I think it was called "Amazon Pro" and it focused on nothing but the sorts of parts and fittings that Mcmaster sells. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't as good as Mcmaster, and it sank (AFAICT) without a trace.

Amazon bought a company "Small Parts" in 2005, they were a knock off of McMaster. This was probably to make sourcing fasteners easier for Blue Origin.

I referenced Small Parts in another post. They weren't really a McMaster knockoff. They specialized in physically small items while McMaster carried everything industrial.

I still have an 8"x10"x0.062" 6061 aluminum sheet I bought from Small Parts probably 15+ years ago, still in the plastic wrap. Don't even remember what I wanted it for :-)

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

#483

Post by roflyear »

NavinF wrote: post #480
roflyear wrote: post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where else can I buy bolts and KNOW they are the right bolt and material?

Home Depot, assuming you buy a pack.

Home Depot bolts are total garbage quality compared to anything McMaster gives you. They are good for some stuff, but I would not use them for projects where you want the hardware to last. Also you don't have the choice of the type of steel etc.. which really matters for some projects. IDK if they even tell you what type of stainless their stainless are? 304?

Also they do not have a massive selection...

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

#484

Post by iancmceachern »

mcnugget wrote: post #431
snovv_crash wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just tell the project manager that you're adding a day to the critical path for every screw needed, and he'll send you back to McMaster Carr.

Tried that, management still insisted I get all of it from Fastenal, great pricing and they have an online catalogue, but ffs it takes a week to get stuff in.

This is an example of bad management, I'd be happy to tell them

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

#485

Post by cyoung22 »

btown wrote: post #134

McMaster-Carr is an incredible example of how an existing physical-product distributor with a vaunted historical operations department, when faced with moving into the e-commerce world, could choose one of two paths: - Build an online presence cheaply because you can rely on your historical offline operations to paper over any shortcomings in the online system. - Build an online presence with the same ethos, standard…

Having worked in the industrial supply marketspace and website and technology development. Familiar with the McMaster catalog and mirrored website. I would not agree with the assessment of it as incredible. While McMaster is a leader in the distribution of industrial supplies, the website is an almost exact duplicate of it's print catalog and not all that user friendly for b2b buyers.

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

#486

Post by dwiel »

thrdbndndn wrote: post #152
dwiel wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Use filters. I was also intimidated by the huge table and hundreds of columns the first time I use Digi-Key, but only later realized how handy it is to have all the parameters listed together. It makes comparison subtle difference of each parts so much easier. The filter above will also tell you existing enum values within the current showing list, so you will instantly get an idea you are comparing. Again, both have…

I use filters all of the time, but they frequently don't work (as mentioned but a sibling comment) sometimes the filter value don't allow a range so if you want anything between 10 and 100 you have to select all of the values between 10 and 100. Other times, the options aren't sorted so you have to select 10,000 uf and 10 mf and 0.01 F. Still other times numeric values are sorted alphabetically so you get 1 ohm, 1.1 kohm, 1.2 megaohm, 2 ohm, etc. So to select a range you need to clock through around the entire range of values looking for the order of magnitude you want.

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

#487

Post by myself248 »

TheRealDunkirk wrote: post #449
myself248 wrote: post #439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny you should mention Sweetwater because they're also near the head of the table in my mental pantheon of e-commerce greats. Their website is honestly just above average. Page-load times are fair to middling, the pages are very busy, vendor-supplied copy takes up much of the item page, and categories are difficult, perhaps just an artifact of the industry they're in. But if you dig deep, there is a lot of detail b…

I sort of head up all "tech stuff" at my mid-sized church, including sound. (I also have played piano and bass, at times.) I had to talk my pastor into starting to use Sweetwater about 20 years ago. He was stuck on using some hole-in-the-wall shop in LA on Sunset. (Which I eventually visited, and, sure enough, every who's who has a signed headshot on their wall). But Sweetwater is in our back yard, and we've made the…

Oh yeah! Years before the above story took place, I happened to be in Fort Wayne and I needed an audio cable, so I swung by Sweetwater, not really knowing what to expect. Of course they had the cable, but they also had time to show me around the whole place, the showroom, the studios, the repair lab. I was a scruffy teenager spending less than twenty bucks, but they treated me like a visiting prince.

It's why, when I thought about getting a piano years later, I didn't really consider anyone else.

I've had two sales engineers now; Dontae who walked me through the keyboard choice apparently moved on, and I haven't had a need to call up Colton yet, but his name is in my notes, and I'm sure I'm in his.

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

#488

Post by bluGill »

elil17 wrote: post #430
bluGill wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While the bolts at home depot are made of some form of iron they often are not graded at all. There is a reason: they wouldn't pass any quality tests. The graded ones are probably okay, I'm not sure as I wouldn't attempt to use anything they have in something important as I have no way of knowing something didn't get put in the wrong bin by mistake.

Home Depot's private label brand (Everbilt) are absolutely graded. An SAE grade 1 or 2 is unmarked but if you look at their metric bolts you'll see the 8.8 grade mark.

I don't know where I got them, but I have used graded bolts in the past that broke under much less torque than they should. I am now more careful about getting bolts from a source I know I can trust.

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

#489

Post by hownottowrite »

situationista wrote: post #374
hownottowrite wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DDP is probably the only good solution here for most EU customers, but frankly the hassle and expense of doing business in the EU is what keeps most US e-commerce companies from entering the market.

I tried googling DDP but couldn't find it - do you know the URL?

I see a couple other folks jumped in. It’s basically a way to estimate duties and taxes up front so the EU customer knows the full price before they order.

The reality it that most EU customers already know the price before they order (or have a good idea it’s going to be 20% more). But they like to pretend they don’t.

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

#490

Post by rfrey »

jkhdigital wrote: post #10

I normally browse HN incognito on my phone but had to go to my desktop and login to say this: I fucking love MMC and their website. I got into woodworking during the pandemic and eventually built a loft bed for my son. I needed some very specific sizes of furniture bolts in small quantities and Amazon just didn't have what I needed. McMaster-Carr to the rescue! I agree that they aren't the cheapest, but the quality i…

Your gender stereotypes are made up, and ridiculous to boot.
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