Anyone here use Napa website?

[Merek]

This is not a post to hate on Napa but is there anyone here that uses their website?

I've found when searching for oil and I'm trying to narrow it down I will be under motor oil and then as soon as I choose 5w30 or any of the other viscosity's Idemitsu & Liqui Moly are practically the only ones that show up, when I don't select the viscosity and viewing it as a whole then everything shows up... as soon as you select the brand you cannot choose the viscosity as the option isn't there. You can only sort by price if you have under X amount of results, choosing Mobil 1 gives me 72 results and I cannot sort by price, Quaker State is 12 results and you can sort by price. I was trying to help my friend out to see if they had anymore deals going right now but their oil change specials just ran out from last month but you can still get their Platinum filters for $4.99 each so I may stock up on some of those.

I've actually found it's easier to just use the search bar and type in Mobil 1 5w30 rather than trying to go through the website to get there. I typically don't like using that bar as I've found on most other websites that a bunch of random results will show unrelated to what you searched for but that feature worked well.

I'm sorry but their website has to be one of the worst sites that I have ever used.

 

[cpayne5]

I'm not sure any of the parts-store chains has a good website. I find myself using Google to search most of the time.

 

[HangFire]

Originally Posted by Merek
I'm sorry but their website has to be one of the worst sites that I have ever used.

It's a positive joy compared to Sear's.

 

[gman2304]

This topic came up a couple of weeks ago. The consensus from that thread was they all pretty much suck.

 

[TheLawnRanger]

I use it to find great deals that my local NAPA stores don't have in stock and can't be found in any of their warehouses.

 

[Merek]

Yes I used Sear's website couple of months ago and ordered a Craftsman tool set and I got either 2x 10mm or 2x 11mm sockets can't remember which but all the stores that were somewhat local to me all closed up but there is one that's an hour away and I needed to get the windshield replaced which was over that way too so I was able to get the tool set exchanged while I was over there.

In the store they tried telling me that the one of the sockets were printed wrong but I measured it and it was right.

Also don't even get me started on Advance's price match guarantee... pretty much worthless. I bought some Valvoline Full Synthetic motorcycle oil when it was on sale not long ago and per their guarantee the team member will match online pricing if you choose to purchase it in the store.... the person in the store said it's the online sale price and you have to buy it online. If anyone wants to read it you can search for Advance price match guarantee and read for yourselves, there is nothing that says anything they won't honor if it's a sale price.

 

[4WD]

Yeah, OK … and I bought a self propelled mower at Sears when the rider did not start … and ordered a $10 starter solenoid while there … and fixed the big mower today … Same as always …

 

[Merek]

I can't remember if I had purchased 4 or 6 qts of it but the store said it was buy 1 get one 1/2 off, the online price didn't state that and I think the oil was $6.99 qt. The store I bought it from said he couldn't give me the online price but came down to $9 something per quart, when I got home I looked online to see if they matched pricing and I found their price match guarantee so I went back to my local Advance with the oil and receipt and then he didn't want to honor the online price either so I said ok I'll just return this oil and then go buy it online and get that price, the salesman then matches the online price. I had the price match guarantee on my phone and read it out to them word for word and they still fussed about it and said they couldn't match it but in the end they did.

I honestly don't get it.

 

[dave1251]

I have not encountered a issue with NAPA's website and finding a motor oil other than M-1 being $12 a quart.

 

[JHZR2]

Ive not found napa's Website to be great, but I like that I can search for stuff without being constantly forced to define a vehicle year, make, model, etc.

 

[Merek]

Oh I hate that too, it kept doing that when I bought the oil change specials last month and would only give me the viscosity and the filter for that vehicle, I ended up cross referencing because I purchased for my GMC Sierra and Honda Civic, you have to choose not vehicle specific but it always defaults to your vehicle though.

 

[rubberchicken]

Ummm, ok, I plead slightly guilty because I work in this industry. I know some of the people that run the Napa website, but I do not talk to the people that make the decisions on the specific behavior you mention. It is not decided on by the techies, but rather the the marketing folks, assuming the software supports it.
What you describe is based on the following logic, which is way oversimplified and just off the top of my head

If search term OR search results
like "%SOMETHING%'
Then
Do not allow sorting based on Price
Else
Allow sorting results on Price
fi
If search term OR or search results
and result_catagory
like '%SOMETHING%'
Then
do not allow sorting based on Price
blah blah

What gets really complicated is that the wild card SOMETHING can be a huge rule set- a category, a brand name or supplier, almost any product characteristic, even inventory quantity. Usually these rules are specifically decided upon, but sometimes its by accident if a product is miscatagorized ; the result set unintentionally allows or suppresses sorting by price. Some of the low-end eCommerce software may not have this feature, but the high end stuff does. And the overall "sort by price" or any other category can be globally turned on or off, then selectively enforced by other rules. I will forward your concern to some folks that will actually listen, but I doubt they will change their minds on this behavior unless they feel it is hurting profits.

I can tell you that this sort of behavior is going to get more complex. Some examples being rolled out now- weather data influencing items that sell during specific weather conditions- think wipers, 4-wheel drive vehicles, bathing suits. Snowstorms predicted ? Then airline tickets to warmer climes will be influenced upwards. Weather data proactively influencing staffing for retail and restaurants- think Walmart or McDonalds Past purchase history. Contents of your browser cookies is old school.

 

[rubberchicken]

Sort of unrelated, but I was at a major retailer product launch, and we had just turned on a system that aggregated data from social media, stuffed it into a big data system, and constantly analyzed for trends. The biggest retailers maintain a war-room for special occasions- think big flash sales, Black Friday etc. This company had 50+ staff for this occasion, and some of the head marketing and sales decision makers. So somebody made a funny comment on Twitter about a certain product. The comment caught on and a landslide of funny but negative sentiment started to build about the product across Twitter, Facebook, Reddit etc. Product views started climbing, but actual sales were falling (this is loosely referred to as the purchase conversion factor). Alerts came up showing the negative trend, and a 30 second heated conversation occurred with the senior marketing and sales folks. A quick decision was made to lower the price of that product and a few related products, and social media sentiment turned around as the Internet reconsidered its position in regards to the perceived value. From first comment to significant price adjustment happened in 5 minutes.

 

[RAR]

I use it sometimes.. I had registered on their site, with all my cars and info once, but when I went back a couple weeks later, all of it was lost.

I still use it if I need something and they are the only local auto parts place that has it. I'll usually place my order online for pickup to get the sale price, since their online sale prices aren't honored in-store. At least here that's the case.

 

[Egg_Head]

Originally Posted by gman2304
This topic came up a couple of weeks ago. The consensus from that thread was they all pretty much suck.

+1

 

[bradepb]

We have a shop account with Napa and yes there website is bad.

 

[jeepman3071]

The website is not very good at all, but at least the staff at my local NAPA are excellent. With AutoZone and Advance the site sucks and the staff are terrible.

 

[kstanf150]

Napa website is not easy to navigate

 

[rubberchicken]

For you guys with negative feelings towards the Napa website- can you be specific ? I think it is easier than Autozone or Advance Auto, and at least it lets you search for products and parts, rather than enforcing "what is your vehicle".

 

[Kjmack]

Slow , expensive , out of stock , etc . I know you guys hate RockAuto but their website runs pretty well.