IMHO both dealers and manufacturers could increase sales if they prioritized 2 features of their websites: Search function and quality pictures. Unfortunately if the manufacturer does not provide quality pictures, it's impractical for the dealer to unbox items and take their own pictures. I would hope that the manufacturers would provide the dealers with pictures and descriptions in a database form that could be easily uploaded to the dealers site, rather than manually cutting/pasting. My expectations might be too high.
Search functions ideally should allow for multiple key words and filters (manufacturer, scale, product line, type of loco or car, road name, etc). Detailed browsing trees should be available as well. Searches that return no results or 300 results are both useless. I just tried a search for Milwaukee S3 on a manufacturer site. The results included out of production engines in old catalogs, but not the new, currently available engines. I needed to search for Milwaukee Northern to pick up the new production. This is probably a case of not providing the correct key words for the item.
I also like when a site displays "in stock" status. If you only show 1 in stock, you may even scare me into ordering!
Yes, this is work for the manufacturer or dealer. But if you make it easier for the customer, you will get more sales.
Bob
