Why are audio website stores getting so bad?

[Folsom]

I'm not sure of any other way to put it. They're fucking TRASH to navigate. And it's like one by one they keep all going that way.

Parts Express - I have to use google to find something on it. ABSOLUTE SHIT.

Parts Connexion - Banners and shit take up the whole page and you can't easily navigate anything - funny it use to be fantastic.

TheCableco - WTF is wrong with them? You pick a brand and it shows you all their products, try to pick a type of product and you get all the brands. etc etc. The logic of following a path of categories etc seems dead on these websites.

There are more. But those three in particular blow my mind as I think about it off the top of my head. It's like they literally want to completely destroy their revenue. They seem to literally want to crash and burn the companies. I've written emails to all of them and they play it off like they're excited about the new look that makes you run away screaming for other websites that carry the same products. Hell even Michael Percy who's still a PDF catalog is easier to deal with than these insane websites.

 

[tima]

There is no single answer to the issues you observe.

Information organization and user interface design can be challenging for a small business owner as those 'products' are usually unrelated to the goods being sold. Different people want access to products in different ways.

Apart from the user facing stuff, the data model is key. Is the relational database at hand suited to the needs of the site? Competent data designers are not cheap. Data conversion can take time and money.

There can be a difference between 'looks good' and 'easy to use' that a site/business owner may not grasp. Most sites nowadays are built by 'professional' Web site builders although those doing it on the cheap may still use pre-programmed 'kits' to put it together themselves -- good luck with that. Unless the builder has experience across a variety of sites and knows what works he needs to bill time to understand/analyze the business before construction and if it has any unique aspects -- and the owner may not want to pay for that. Owner could take time to examine the organization and UI of other sites to find something he can use as a model. Is lookup of lawn mower parts any different than lookup of audio parts? There are successful product Web sites out there.

User feedback such as yours is golden information. Site owners should not ignore it.

 

[Kingrex]

Iittle profit to be made and the owner does not want to pay a designer $145k to maintain a site.
Come on. Labor is by far the largest liability to any business. Paying a web designer may take all the profits the owner gets. Who wants to work for free. Raise your hand. Are you working for free. No, you want to be paid. Especially when its your butt that has your home as collateral for the commercial lease, payroll, taxes, insurance etc etc.

Every time one of these stores goes down, its not like the others get bigger and better. Our selection just goes away. Look at Electra Print transformers. That was a good source of iron. Gone. Monolith is not necessarily stable either. Then what. Some esoteric guy in Malaysia hand winding your parts.

 

[MarkusBarkus]

...the Cable Company site is practically unusable (at least on an iPhone), and has been for a long while. Their redesign was a disaster. And service seems off too. I emailed a contact on three occasions re: pricing for flagship products. No reply. And I have done thousands upon thousands of dollars worth of business there. They're more or less dead to me.

 

[Folsom]

Iittle profit to be made and the owner does not want to pay a designer $145k to maintain a site.
Come on. Labor is by far the largest liability to any business. Paying a web designer may take all the profits the owner gets. Who wants to work for free. Raise your hand. Are you working for free. No, you want to be paid. Especially when its your butt that has your home as collateral for the commercial lease, payroll, taxes, insurance etc etc.

Every time one of these stores goes down, its not like the others get bigger and better. Our selection just goes away. Look at Electra Print transformers. That was a good source of iron. Gone. Monolith is not necessarily stable either. Then what. Some esoteric guy in Malaysia hand winding your parts.

Yes but it was previously functioning just fine...

 

[Kingrex]

Yes but it was previously functioning just fine...

Its a never ending battle to stay on top of web development. My brother has a small company with a single developer. Its a nightmare to keep the page running. There is always something.

 

[AudioHR]

I'm not sure of any other way to put it. They're fucking TRASH to navigate. And it's like one by one they keep all going that way.

Parts Express - I have to use google to find something on it. ABSOLUTE SHIT.

Parts Connexion - Banners and shit take up the whole page and you can't easily navigate anything - funny it use to be fantastic.

TheCableco - WTF is wrong with them? You pick a brand and it shows you all their products, try to pick a type of product and you get all the brands. etc etc. The logic of following a path of categories etc seems dead on these websites.

There are more. But those three in particular blow my mind as I think about it off the top of my head. It's like they literally want to completely destroy their revenue. They seem to literally want to crash and burn the companies. I've written emails to all of them and they play it off like they're excited about the new look that makes you run away screaming for other websites that carry the same products. Hell even Michael Percy who's still a PDF catalog is easier to deal with than these insane websites.

I have to agree, I have not used the other two sites recently but Parts Connexion recently switched to a new look. Their previous version made it much easier to see what they were offering.