Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I have ever used

Most people I know don't haven't even heard of it, but mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used.

McMaster-Carr is a supply company industrial. They sell nuts, bolts, bushings, bearings - just about anything an engineer needs to build things. I have purchased from them dozens of times over the past few years, both for personal and school projects.

But what makes their website so awesome? And why should an industrial supply company have the best e-commerce site on the internet?

mcmaster.com is great because it does what it needs, and nothing else.

First, let's look at the visual design of the construction site. Minimal, mostly grayscale, with accents of green and yellow. There are no popups, animations, banners, carousels or videos - just a calm, static page with categories and a search bar. Even the images are in grayscale, to avoid inadvertently drawing your attention.

This is not the site more visually stunning, but that doesn't matter here - McMaster chose function over form.

The objective of a user when he visits McMaster-Carr must find his part as quickly as possible. The website is entirely designed around this fact. Users rarely come just to browse, so there are no AI recommendation algorithms, featured products, what's new - it just doesn't make sense in this context. People visit McMaster-Carr with a strong intention to buy a specific part, that's all.

So how can we get 700,000 products in their catalog down to one piece? Here's what I do.

Let's say I'm looking for a bolt:< /p>

I type "bolt" in the search bar

McMaster shows me several subcategories: hex head, socket head, set screw, etc. I'm looking for a hollow head, so I select this one.

Now I turn my attention to the left navigation bar, which shows me several filter options. Bolts are usually...