General Industrial Supply Website

[Ken Salisbury]

General Industrial Supply (GIS) in Nashville has a new webmaster and their website has been given a complete re-do. Some of you will remember frustrations about the site expressed here in several threads. I relayed that information to GIS some time ago and was assured the problems would be addressed. As usual Rick Warren (owner) is good on his word.

I received the following message from Brent (new webmaster) requesting any feedback/suggestions our members have on the site.

I am the webmaster for General Industrial Supply. I need your help! In the past I know that the website has been in desperate need of attention and many would be customers were aggravated at the site, but in the last few months I have really tried to get things running smoothly again. I am looking for some opinions on how I can make the website better. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

This request shows that suppliers do visit SMC and are interested in our input to their business.

Take a look at the site and comment as you feel is appropriate.


General Industrial Supply Website (www.generalindustrialsupp.com)

PLEASE keep your comments confined to evaluating the website itself. General comments on GIS should be addressed in seperate threads. I will automatically delete any posts from this thread which are off topic

I am in no way affiliated with GIS other than being a long time satisfied customer.

[Ken Garlock]

Now it is working like a website should work :)

It is very responsive and the graphics are good. But, I suspect that they are right out of the Jet and PM sales manuals. ;)

One feature I liked on the old, old, site was the ability to look at the current inventory online, thus saving a phone call.

I gave up on GIS after the mess the website was in, and decided to look elsewhere. My take at that time was if they can't provide a decent website, they don't need my business. I think that I will reconsider....

[John Miliunas]

Ken, you basically took the words right out of my mouth! I'll be giving them a closer look now, as I too had otherwise given up on the old site. My compliments to the site creator. :cool:

[Ron Schweitzer]

I visited their site and I was looking at plainers, I clicked on the JJ-13 and the site served me a joiner JJ-60S.
Its a minor problem, the link sent me to product ID=33, it should have sent me to ID=36.
Ron

[Keith Starosta]

I clicked through about 1/3 the links on the site, and so far it looks pretty good. My one suggestion at this point would be to make sure that all of the linked pictures actually link the the product/sales information it is related to. For example, in the Planers section, I clicked on the Jet JJ-13, and it took me to the information for the Jet 6" jointer. They will want to fix little things like that...

Keith

EDIT: Geez, Ron....ya beat me to it!!! Good point, though....

[Hal Flynt]

I tried it yesterday to see if it was back up and very pleasantly surprised to find it up and with a great new look.



Summation:
Update look is great! All the links work that I tried.

Would like to see:
More inventory information as to specific configurations available like before.
Accessories available.
Link to The Wilton Tool Company for literature and manuals etc.

[Ted Shrader]

Ken -

Overall - VASTLY improved!!! Good effort!!!
Specific comments: I like the link to SMC! :) A search function would make navigating a little easier. A simplified map on the Contact Us page would be handy for general location in Nashville. Any consideration of an "Order" button - vice calling?

Ted

[JayStPeter]

One feature I liked on the old, old, site was the ability to look at the current inventory online, thus saving a phone call.
....

I liked that too. I always wondered why they destroyed their site after that.

The new one is decent. I can use it as a resource when comparison shopping again. Who knows, they may get some business from me out of it. There's a couple Jet items on my list.

Jay

[John Szarek]

Just the way I like web pages.

Plenty of info, clean and well organized without too many graphics.

Nice job.

[Tom LaRussa]

I am the webmaster for General Industrial Supply. I need your help! In the past I know that the website has been in desperate need of attention and many would be customers were aggravated at the site, but in the last few months I have really tried to get things running smoothly again. I am looking for some opinions on how I can make the website better. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.The site is very fast, which is great! I am one of those impatient people who is physically unable to wait long periods for a page to load. There are, literally, several very reputable distributors with whom I will not do business just because their web sites are so slow. Immature I know, but there it is.

I have several suggestions, but please don't take this to mean that I dislike your site -- it's coming along quite nicely. It's just that it's so nice to be asked that I can't help but include everything I can think of, even if some of the latter items on my list are a bit nit-picky. :)


Suggestions:

[1] It's always nice to have items divided by sub-type and capabilities. For example, you can table saws into bench, vs contractor, vs cabinet; bandsaws can be divided several ways: by wheel size, 14, 16, etc., by resaw capability, by hp, etc.

In short, the more different ways of accessing the information the better.

[2] On a related subject, it would also be nice if each item search listed the manufacturer as well as just the model number. Even I can tell a Jet from a PM just by looking at the little icon, but I'm not as familiar with Performax or Wilton.

[3] What about warranties on used, surplus, and scratch/dent items? If there is one standard manufacturer policy then state it up front. If not, then cover it item by item, or product line by product line.

[4]
We handle NEW, USED, SURPLUS, and FREIGHT DAMAGED MACHINES for:

I'd like to see this text a bit larger, and in a different color than the links at the left side of the page. It's kinda hard to see right now.

[5] Down at the bottom of each page, where you have this notation:


Order now call 1-800-371-2220
Mon-Fri 7:30am-4:30pm CST
Copyright © 2004 General Industrial Supply, Inc. All rights reserved.I would add "Nashville, TN" -- so it would look like this:


Order now call 1-800-371-2220
Mon-Fri 7:30am-4:30pm CST
Copyright © 2004 General Industrial Supply, Inc. Nashville, TN, All rights reserved.When I look at the web site of a supplier I have not seen before, I like to know where they are located as soon as I can. That info tells me two things:

First, it lets me know whether I will be able to get in the car and drive over to see them;
Second, it lets me know whether to expect shipping to be at the higher or lower end of the scale.
Note that shipping cost is not necessarily dispositive, it's just that it can be a real downer to find out at the last second that the cost of something is going to skyrocket because of shipping.

[6] Also regarding shipping, it would be nice if you had someplace easy to find where we could get a ballpark figure on the cost of shipping an item will be to our location.

I realize that this may be difficult, because not everybody does such massive volume, like, say, Grizzly, that they can negotiate flat rates for most large items. Also, I realize that shipping costs are a bit variable.

Still, it would still be very helpful if you could just give some examples of recent shipping costs for at least a few items to various parts of the country.

HTH,

Tom LaRussa

[James Carmichael]

Incredible inprovement. Unfortunately, it they carried over one bug from the old site. The prices on the PM equipment still has the decimals about one place too far to the right for me:-)

[Joe Mioux]

Ken,

I tried this website out both at my shop and at home. I have DSL at work 1.2 Meg/sec and at home, wireless at 350K/sec. Pages pop up quickly. I like the way the pages are laid out. It is efficient.

Ken and GIS webmaster.....THIS BUD (light) is for you!

Joe

[Jim Fancher]

The make and model # should be on the description page. If they are there, they aren't doing their job. I can't see them.

I'm also not a fan of the cheesy Apple template.

The site is quick though.

[Ron Schweitzer]

Jim,
All pages that work are better then pages that break because the creator thought all users had M$ browsers, Brent used a universal tool/platform to create these pages, it is to his craftsmanship that he used the tools that worked for every user.
I use Netscape and I will not use anything else for surfing, and I use a different platform to receive e-mails, it's nice not to have to worry about nasties coming through our common venue, don't detract from Brent’s work because of bars on the tabs, he has fixed things with the tool he used.
Ron

[Terry Quiram]

A huge improvement. The new web master is to be complemented. Well done. I would like to see the description text in a larger format then I won't get nose prints on my screen.

Terry

[Steve Clardy]

Very improved site. I haven't been on it for 6-8 months I guess.
Loads a lot faster on dial-up. I get annoyed on sites where there are a lot of graphics to load before you can actually use the site. This is much improved.
Sawmill link is ok, though I doubt I'll use it.
Ebay link is great. I am an avid Ebay buyer and seller.
Online Ordering would be a BIG plus. Why cruise the site, write #'s down, then have to shut down and call?
I like on-line ordering, and to be able to SAVE your shopping cart for future purchases if you're not quite ready to buy.
Similar to Amazon.com , and Lee Valley now has that option.
Also when you click on say dust collectors, and when they come up, have the prices listed on them under each collector, instead of having to click on each individual collector for the price. If you want more details, then click on that particular collector.
I used to get emails concerning their scratch and dent sales, and to be able to get on a list to test products. But those emails have stopped. Guess they have flushed that part of the system?

Overall, much better site to deal with, but needs on-line ordering.
Steve:):)

[Jack Diemer]

I agree, they need to at least add a shipping policy, but great job otherwise.

FREE SHIPPING on orders over X would be great too.

[Tom LaRussa]

I received the following message from Brent (new webmaster) requesting any feedback/suggestions our members have on the site.

Ken,

I see Brent has already started incorporating suggestions into the site.

Major kudos!

If I hadn't already spent my tool budget for the next few years, I'd be awfully tempted to drive up there (from Tampa, FL) and buy something just to reward them for being responsive to the concerns of actual woodworkers!

I'd also like to second the suggestions that Steve and Jack made today:

shipping policy
free shipping on order over x dollars
saveable shopping cart
prices under each unit
email list telling us about scratch n' dent sales
All excellent ideas IMHO.

Hope they keep up the good work.

Tom

[Gary Max]

After going our the site a couple times.
You might try this it seems to go well on all the woodworking sites.
You could do a tour of your store---stop point out this months special---Hi this is ----- our store manager.
The biggest trick to doing this is keeping it updated so when I punch up your site I have something a little different to see.
Just a thought

[Marshall Harrison]

First let me say that I never went to the old site so I can't do a comparision betwenn new and old.

However I like the fact that the site is fast loading.

I also like the fact that the smaller images contain links to larger images. Too often the "larger images" are not much bigger than the small ones on most websites. Your images are large enough to get a good look at the item

I don't think that sub-catagorizing the items as one user suggested is necessary. There is not enough items in any one catagory to make this usefull. I like seeing all of the choices at once.

I would consider changing the top 10 sellers to reflect the catagory the user is viewing. Leave it at 10 for the home page but switch to top 3 based on the catagory.

I like the SMC link. Thanks.

Add some online purchasing.

As a former web developer with some large sites in my resume I think the webmaster has done a great job. It's easy to navigate and fast loading (my favorite peaves about most sites are load speed and sloppy navigation).