Views > website review Sponsored by Sponsored by
Built for engineers,
not for robots
Plastic Parts
n optimist, a pessimist, and an sales and distribution centres, as well as a news
engineer are drinking together section; this, however, has not been updated
in a pub. Short of conversation, since 2006.
Centre’s site
A
the barman half-fi lls a pint glass Aesthetically the site looks like an online
and asks them each to describe trade counter. The only things missing are a
what they see. The optimist friendly man in a fl eece who knows the size,
does what it
says to the barman, “The glass is half full.” The colour, code, and stock level of every product
pessimist looks at the optimist and says, “No, in the catalogue and a slightly less than tasteful
the glass is half empty.” After some thought, the wall calendar.
set out to do,
engineer looks at them both and says, “Actually, So what could the site be doing better?
the glass is twice as large as it needs to be.” There are a number of things. Most of them,
but that’s not
Okay, it’s not a very good joke, but the however, would probably result in little or no
point is that engineers in all disciplines have a positive impact on the commercial performance
particular way of looking at the world around of the website. My recommendation would be
necessarily
them, and Plastic Parts Centre’s website (www. that Plastic Parts focus on the two areas that
plastic-parts.co.uk) is defi nitely an engineer’s probably would improve conversion rates and
website. sales by making the website easier to fi nd and
enough
Plastic Parts Centre is a division of use: product search and navigation, and search
Moss Plastic Parts, which describes itself as engine performance.
“manufacturers and distributors of protection
and fi nishing products for a wide range of Unfamiliarity breeds frustration
industries and applications”. Moss operates a The catalogue search and browse functionality
separate website under its own brand, catering on the website probably works fi ne if you are
to larger account customers only. The Plastic familiar with the Plastic Parts catalogue or know
Parts Centre website is aimed at smaller trade exactly what you are looking for. It allows you
customers and the general public, offering the to search by keyword and by part number. But
option to pay by credit card for nonaccount for people like myself, who might be looking
customers. for something specifi c but don’t know the
The website provides precisely the part number or exactly what it is called (did
functionality required to fi nd plastic parts you know that those plastic caps that fi t over
from the Moss catalogue, get technical the ends of metal table legs and mop handles
information about the products, and are called ferrules?), fi nding a product on the
purchase them on the website, with very website can be a pretty frustrating process. Say
few frills. It has clearly been designed by you’re looking for fi ttings to connect several
engineers for engineers. display panels. If you enter panel connectors into
All the features that you would expect from the search box, you come up with no matches—
an ecommerce website are there: product though the result page does invite you to try the
search and navigation by category, detailed search on the Moss website. You need to know
product information, shopping cart, a “my that they’re called panel formers to fi nd them
account” section with account details and order via search; otherwise you have to try your luck
status information. In addition, customers may with the product category listing on the left-
save favourite products to a personal favourites hand side of the page.
list, and if the information provided Within the category hierarchy, inherited
on the product pages is not from the catalogue, products appear only in a
suffi cient, they can request single place. If you are looking for CD fi xers
free product samples. (those fi ddly little bits of plastic in the middle
There is extensive of the case that the CD clips on to) you will
information fi nd them only if you look in the Point of Sale
about the category, where they appear within the CD
company, contact Fixers subcategory, but not in the Packaging,
By Nigel Atkinson
information, and Scoops, Beakers, or Fasteners and Fixings
a directory of its categories as you may have expected.
26
Catalogue e-business www.catalog-biz.com
ceb 170.indd 26 26/10/09 19:19:37
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36