RS Components Empowers Its E-Commerce Strategy

Business Wire, Feb 13, 2008

Online investments benefit electronics designers and maintenance engineers

LONDON & CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- As part of its e-commerce strategy delivery, RS Components announced the launch of its new website with an upgraded search and navigation engine powered by Endeca Technologies, Inc., an information access software company. Through a powerful engine and abundant product information, the new website enables electronics designers and maintenance engineers to save time and reduce their purchase costs when researching, selecting and ordering products from RS online.

Furthermore, capitalising on RS Components' investment in the implementation of SAP to support its e-centric strategy has enabled RS Components to link its stock levels to the new website so that customers searching or browsing the site via the Endeca engine instantly receive accurate information on product availability and pricing.

RS Components' new website - www.rs-components.com - has been successfully implemented in and across Electrocomponents' operational companies in Europe (Austria, Benelux, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the UK with a further 29 countries through RS International Distributor Network (IDN). The new website will be fully deployed across Asia Pacific later this year.

"The development of the new websites have been driven from an in-depth review of customer's needs. The overall project, from research to concept, through to build and launch has taken over 12 months" says Scott Fawcett, head of e-commerce at Electrocomponents Plc. "We now have excellent foundations in place to enable us to accelerate our e-centric strategy and continue to grow our e-commerce business."

With more than 500,000 products to showcase online, over 1 million product attributes and related technical documents, RS Components offers better, faster and more efficient web tools, so customers can easily and accurately select the best product they need. As a result of an extensive intuitive analysis of customers' expectations regarding web functionality, RS Components in collaboration with Endeca, has developed a simple yet powerful solution that brings to customers the best online experience, based upon guided navigation, exposed product pictures, range and attribute filters.

RS Online added value goes beyond its catalogue

Customers who order via RS Online will reap the benefits of this substantial investment in RS Components' e-commerce strategy, specifically:

-- An improved and intuitive search & browse solution built upon enhanced data. Through more intuitive web tools, customers are able to browse the full breadth of the product catalogue using integrated category and search filters. Search results are summarised by product attributes so customers can easily evaluate the best available options, and determine the best solution for a specific need. Visitors benefit by always viewing the most relevant products based upon their filtering criteria and specific product requirements.

-- Daily publishing: RS Components as a leading distributor understands the importance of delivering what customers need when they need it in a more cost effective way. To this extent, RS Online dynamically offers new products and technologies introduction information on a daily basis.

-- One-stop-shop: Customers can access multiple suppliers' products from a single place. They can then compare and order any product in one click which enables electronics designers and maintenance engineers to save both time and money.

-- Product attributes: Six key attributes including manufacturers brands, are displayed on the "search results" page from which customers can apply new filters to their search criteria. Customers can then use up to 5 additional attributes from the results table to compare products.

"The new RS components website helps customers more easily explore the enormous breadth of their product catalogue, evaluate tradeoffs based on the available options, and identify the best product based on each customer's unique needs. In essence, this experience is very similar to the conversation between a customer and their best customer service representative on the telephone", says Rob Swint, Industry Market Lead for Distribution at Endeca. "What is particularly unique is the rich product attributes RS Components makes available which is usually buried in individual product detail pages and PDFs, and thus hidden from customers".

Out of 500,000 products RS Online makes it easy to find and purchase what customers need when they need it. RS Components is committed to delivering the best online customer experience and to reflecting the dynamic nature of the market. RS Online will continuously be improved to encompass new functionalities sought by customers.

About RS Components, a subsidiary company of Electrocomponents Plc

RS Components is a global catalogue-based distributor of electronic, electrical and industrial components products to research, development and maintenance engineers worldwide. We offer our customers unrivalled product choice, technical support and reliable delivery.