RS Components has operations in 24 countries, and along with third-party distributors, we sell electronic and industrial parts to over 1.5 million customers in over 160 countries.
Recently, our online business grew to more than 35 per cent of total sales, a growth that prompted us to take a look at our eCommerce strategy for our 70 plus transactional sites in 17 languages. One key area that needed change was the user interface of the sites. With over 600,000 products and a million product attributes, search result sets were very large and visitors were having difficulty finding the products they wanted, often abandoning searches mid-way.
After conducting research on how our customers bought online, we realized that they expected the same kind of shopping convenience when buying components as they do when making online purchases for consumer goods.
We also discovered that the diverse nature of our shopping audiences – from hobbyists to electronic design engineers – required a user-centric experience tailored to how each unique audience bought products based on their distinct technical applications and requirements.
To address these challenges, we teamed up with Endeca Technologies, a search application vendor, to provide our customers with a more intuitive and easier experience as they searched, evaluated, and order products. The outcome was impressive, with search abandonment dropping by close to 60 per cent and search-to-order rates increasing by nearly 70 per cent.
Achieving results
Make more data accessible
With the extensive breadth and depth of our product line, we needed a way to expose more data from our product catalogs and other disparate sources in a way that supported people’s purchasing needs.
Through faceted search we could make available thousands of product attributes that were previously buried within such sources as data sheets, PDFs, and supplier documentation. Customers now have the power to search for a component by a descriptive term, part number, or keyword and then zero-in on the exact part through technical attribute-based filtering.
We also update our online catalogue daily, keeping the content fresh and current.
Offer a better, faster, and more efficient search experience
On our previous site, customers were overwhelmed with the quantity of refinement options and their display on the page. This caused frustration, with people leaving the site before purchasing.
Through our research, we discovered that an important customer need was the ability to not only search on product attributes, but also to refine and navigate through search results in a more efficient manner. Here are a few capabilities that we implemented to address this requirement:
- We now offer people the ability to refine searches by category, manufacturer, application, size, and other very highly specific product attributes such as the number of teeth in a band saw. This type of attribute-based navigation makes selecting the right product easier, with each click only presenting matching products, and thus eliminating dead ends.
- We also found out that customers wanted aggregated results sets, with a clear path of how to locate the correct product, while seeing the range. We now present aggregated sets of results to the customer at relevant points in the product hierarchy, allowing customers to find the quickest route to the product they desire.
- Images are important as well, as they provide visual signposts to aid our customers in their search journey, once again confirming they are headed in the right direction through a visual verification process.
- To facilitate purchasing even more, we offer the ability to compare products – by brand, price inventory status, RoHS compliance, and more – all in one view.
Create more selling opportunities
Knowing that our customers will most likely need other components for their business or hobby, we create dynamic product promotions based on their search activity, presenting alternate products relevant to what they’ve already reviewed. This not only increases the probability of shoppers finding the best part for their requirements, but it also allows us to up-sell and cross-sell various products of higher margin.
Develop an integrated solution
This project ended up being a complete redesign of the customer experience, content, and supporting systems, including a new eCommerce platform. It was important to us to have each of the various components – such as our Stibo PIM catalog application, and a new web analytics package from Coremetrics – work together in a seamless integration.
Because of the flexibility of Endeca’s platform, we were able to achieve this – otherwise it might have been an enormous undertaking that might not have been possible.
Save programming and development time
We recognized early on that we needed to bring in the right partners for this project. given the size and constantly changing nature of our catalogue, we knew if we had attempted to develop similar search, navigation, and merchandising functionality ourselves, the timeline – and the costs – for completing the websites would easily have doubled.
A Rewarding Endeavor
Although an undertaking of this magnitude seems daunting, the results have been worth it. Our customers can now search and compare products easily, keeping them online rather than turning to an outdated paper catalogue, picking up the phone and calling, or seeking out a competitor.
We now have an excellent foundation in place that enables us to accelerate our customer-centric strategy and continue to grow our eCommerce business, making our customers shopping experiences more satisfying and further increasing our revenues.
