APSOparts® – Online Shopping Made in Switzerland

Zurich, 29 July 2008 The Angst+Pfister Group has opened its own online shop called APSOparts®, which features practically the entire Angst+Pfister assortment of high-grade industrial components and accom-panying information in multiple languages. Over 100,000 standard items can be ordered 24/7. And as a special incentive, APSOparts® doesn’t charge its customers the customary surcharge for small order volumes.

At first glance, nothing much seems to have changed on Angst+Pfister’s website. Only a new APSOparts® symbol on the homepage that directs visitors to the new online shop hints at the fundamental innovation. But now the online shop is just a click away from the homepage. In its visual appearance, APSOparts® is based on Angst+Pfister’s online catalog, which was established two years ago. “We took extra care to guarantee a smooth transition from the catalog to the shop and to maintain the familiar environment for our customers,” says Bruno Schwager, the E-Commerce Manager of the newly founded APSOparts AG firm. For him, the intuitive ease of use of an electronic platform is the crucial factor for accep-tance by the customer. Too many changes can be counterproductive.

Speed is of the essence

Particular attention was paid to the speed of the online shop so that searched items can be quickly displayed and information can be located swiftly. “When talking to our customers, we distinctly sensed that product searches were not functioning fast enough. There was certainly room for improvement,” Mr. Schwager says. The results of the past months’ work are quite impressive. Whether clicking through the main navigation menu or using one of the various AP-SOparts® search functions, customers almost always find what they’re looking for within a split second.

Search and find

Information is only of real value if you can access it quickly. That’s why one of the key tasks in developing APSOparts® was to create simple navigation and intelli-gent search mechanisms. In addition to the optimized Quick Search at the top of the shop’s page, there is also an Advanced Search function. Here customers can narrow down their search to a specific product segment and then choose from a selection of product properties to find exactly what they are looking for. The im-proved Quick Navigation enables customers to methodically navigate between the different product segments as well.

Ordering online – easy and efficient

At the heart of APSOparts® is its shop functions. Customers can directly access Angst+Pfister’s established range of more than 100,000 standard products and order them online – around the clock, across Europe and with delivery times of 24 to 48 hours. A status display clearly signals if certain products are not imme-diately available from stock. Customers can now also pay with their credit card when shopping with APSOparts® – a true novelty in the B2B market – and this also allows new customers to buy from the online shop without any hassle. Existing Angst+Pfister customers can also choose to pay with their credit card or con-tinue to order on their account. For these customers, the Direct Order option might also be especially interesting. Instead of ordering by phone or fax, these customers can now simply enter their usual item numbers and order via the shopping cart. There is even another special incentive for online shopping: there is no small-quantity surcharge when ordering from APSOparts®.

The key to the online world

International engagement in a stable worldwide relationship network is an essen-tial mission at Angst+Pfister. Hence, with APSOparts®, a deliberate decision was made to offer a multilingual shop in order to underscore the group’s European focus. Bruno Schwager emphasizes the importance of the multilingual shop setup for the strategic positioning of the online business: “Our international customers expect easy and fast access to the products they want. And this works best if we speak the national language of our customers.”

New procurement pathways

With the launch of APSOparts®, Angst+Pfister has created a new, trendsetting, additional sales channel. Whatever the size of the customer’s business, large and small customers alike now have much more efficient access to Angst+Pfister’s comprehensive range of high-grade industrial components. The numerous search functions and easy credit card payment turn the ordering process into child’s play.

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