Digi-Key has changed and it is not very good

[james_s]

It's pretty clear that whoever is calling the shots is trying to be more like Amazon, and that person does not understand DK's core business or the customers they cater to.

Something looks different every time I look, but you STILL have to click the Show More button and you STILL have to un-check the show marketplace items button EVERY SINGLE TIME. DK has been my go-to supplier for decades but they are quickly sliding down on that list.

[SilverSolder]

One thing I noticed at work today: the part number search is now fuzzy. If I type in a part number that has a TI prefix (SN74), I explicitly do not want you to try and show me related/similar parts. I want parts that contain that string of characters only.

For example, if you type in SN74LVC1G07 for a SINGLE buffer, I get results including SN74LVC2G07 for a DUAL buffer and also SN74LVC3G07 TRIPLE buffers.

Or you type ATSAM4S into search, and the results include ATSAM3S MCUs in the results! 

I can't find a rhyme or reason. Spent a while putting in partial resistor part numbers, and can't reproduce such problems in that category. I was a bit surprised to read through this thread without seeing other complaints about this...

Google was eventually forced to include a "Verbatim" mode, they got so many complaints about unwanted fuzzy results...

In truth, fuzzy results can sometimes be useful even for non-n00b users.  But it needs to be turn-on-and-offable! 

[SilverSolder]

It's pretty clear that whoever is calling the shots is trying to be more like Amazon, and that person does not understand DK's core business or the customers they cater to.

Something looks different every time I look, but you STILL have to click the Show More button and you STILL have to un-check the show marketplace items button EVERY SINGLE TIME. DK has been my go-to supplier for decades but they are quickly sliding down on that list.

If Digikey kept stock for the marketplace participants - so we had something like "Fulfilment by Digikey" with fast shipping, fast handling of returns etc. - the marketplace idea might actually add value?

[KE5FX]

I always assumed that was how it worked in the first place.  If I ran DigiKey or Mouser or Newark, I'd look for ways to keep all that inventory off of my own books. Wouldn't it make more sense for them to act as a central warehouse and fulfillment center, where component makers store whatever fraction of their production runs that they want to make available at retail?

Perhaps they could delegate their inventory management the way grocery stores do nowadays, where the person stocking the shelves is more likely to be a rack jobber than an employee of the store itself.  At that point, a company like DigiKey would have only one job besides shipping the parts out, which is to run a proper search engine.  Apparently that's difficult enough to serve as a basis for competition all by itself.

[james_s]

If Digikey kept stock for the marketplace participants - so we had something like "Fulfilment by Digikey" with fast shipping, fast handling of returns etc. - the marketplace idea might actually add value?

It may have value, but don't make me turn it off every single time I search for a part. That's absolutely horrible user experience. Fact is I don't want to use it, it doesn't have value *to me*, it's something that gets in my way and degrades my customer experience.

[drussell]

If Digikey kept stock for the marketplace participants - so we had something like "Fulfilment by Digikey" with fast shipping, fast handling of returns etc. - the marketplace idea might actually add value?

That's not even what they're doing, though....

They're just taking a cut of the order that is placed direct from the marketplace seller or manufacturer and shipped from there:

Digi-Key Marketplace is an online platform for an extended list of manufacturers and distributors to sell products through Digi-Key. Marketplace items ship directly from the Supplier.
...
Marketplace items will ship using the options and costs set by the suppliers. The costs vary by supplier and may depend on the number of items being fulfilled by the Supplier. You'll see the shipping cost in the checkout. Digi-Key shipping options are not available, and customers with their own courier account cannot bill the shipping to their account.

If the Supplier is shipping internationally, the shopping cart and checkout will display the Incoterms, indicating when duties and taxes will be owed at delivery.

Marketplace suppliers may take one or more days to fulfill the order. The estimate of when the product will ship is shown on product pages, the cart, and the checkout.

[ataradov]

If Digikey kept stock for the marketplace participants

But that's what DK does for the main suppliers.  How is that different from their actual business?

The whole point of marketplace is for DK to not handler storage and shiping.

[SilverSolder]

If Digikey kept stock for the marketplace participants

But that's what DK does for the main suppliers.  How is that different from their actual business?

The whole point of marketplace is for DK to not handler storage and shiping.

I presume the traditional model would be that DK buys inventory from the main suppliers, as opposed to having the suppliers place the inventory with them on consignment?

If they could get suppliers to work on that basis, they would free up capital otherwise locked up in inventory.

[...]
The whole point of marketplace is for DK to not handler storage and shiping.

The storage and shipping (and the web site, and their inventory management system!) is exactly what most commenters here seem to value about DigiKey.   So, by getting the marketplace customers to provide inventory "for free", DK can grow without the capital cost of buying all that inventory themselves...   just like Amazon, who they appear to be inspired by.  No?

[floobydust]

For 25% commission, Digi-Key whores out their brand name, best in the business.
Are the Marketplace vendors or products vetted, stocked, warrantied by Digi-Key? Or just drop-shipping.

Looks like they have an exec who doesn't know the business at all, let alone e-commerce, doing a copycat project. Yup, let's go to the next level copying retailers Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, Newegg etc. they have a marketplace uh so we should have one.
A stellar moment of originality, brilliance followed by clown-level rollout.

We all know partners/affiliates are full of counterfeits, fakes, ripoff pricing and are high risk purchases followed by endless hassle doing a return or warranty claim. With electronics builds, a dud part can do far more damage than a consumer item.

Like a teaser, marketplace products show up as new releases, videos even back a year ago, but I can't buy the marketplace item:
"Parts not available in this currency"
"Products from this Supplier are not available outside the United States"

What a joke, the pumpkin head behind all this needs a spanking.

Same with the one behind prices displayed in five or more significant digits wasting screen real-estate and overall looking silly.
How do you not know e-commerce, this badly- yet are in charge of website design 

[SilverSolder]

For 25% commission, Digi-Key whores out their brand name, best in the business.
Are the Marketplace vendors or products vetted, stocked, warrantied by Digi-Key? Or just drop-shipping.
[...]

That is the deciding factor, right?  -  if it is just drop shipping, they are "whoring out their brand" as you so succinctly put it.  On the other hand, if they do more than drop shipping, they would be adding value.

Note that Amazon adds value with their Fulfillment by Amazon model, which is valuable enough that I often choose Amazon over eBay for that reason alone (fast and reliable shipping).

[Bud]

Digikey used to have one of the best if not the best search engine. Amazon is the one that has absolutely horrible search.

[radar_macgyver]

Another quirk of the 'marketplace' is that DK will not quote you prices for a marketplace item. If you upload a .csv file with a bunch of part numbers, any 'marketplace' item gets silently dropped. The project I'm working on now requires that I get quotes for all items, this cost me a bunch of time trying to sort out; eventually had to get a separate order just for the 'marketplace' stuff.

Also, all the JS based filtering is apparently too much for Firefox to handle, so clicking the back button is equivalent to removing all filters.

[drussell]

If Digikey kept stock for the marketplace participants

But that's what DK does for the main suppliers.  How is that different from their actual business?

The whole point of marketplace is for DK to not handler storage and shiping.

I presume the traditional model would be that DK buys inventory from the main suppliers, as opposed to having the suppliers place the inventory with them on consignment?

If they could get suppliers to work on that basis, they would free up capital otherwise locked up in inventory.

What makes you think Digikey is currently the one financing all their inventory?

I highly doubt they're ever directly the ones paying for most of their "in stock" merchandise before it is sold.

[...]
The whole point of marketplace is for DK to not handler storage and shiping.

The storage and shipping (and the web site, and their inventory management system!) is exactly what most commenters here seem to value about DigiKey.   So, by getting the marketplace customers to provide inventory "for free", DK can grow without the capital cost of buying all that inventory themselves...   just like Amazon, who they appear to be inspired by.  No?

No, no no...  You don't seem to understand.  The whole point of these people moving to a "marketplace" model is so that they don't have to warehouse things.  It's not mostly about which entity has the cost of those parts on their books, it is about the cost of storing those parts. 

If a manufacturer could just send on all their excess inventory for the likes of Digikey to "hold onto" for them until it's sold, what would stop them from just sloughing off all their stuff that doesn't move quickly, any unnecessary inventory that their major clients don't need today, off onto the likes of Digikey's free warehouse-my-shit program under your scenario....  That's NOT what they're doing with "marketplace."  If I want one of the items they're hocking in their "marketplace" I will just go directly to that supplier and save the 25% cut that Digikey is trying to take.   

Digikey won't ever be warehousing any of this "marketplace" stuff!!!  It will not be "fullfilled by Digikey" !!!

If it were, I would be able to order it directly from their stock!

Whoever is now in charge at Digikey apparently has some kind of long-term wet-dream goal of just taking a 25% cut of everything that gets ordered though their portal, without actually having to warehouse anything or do the logistics of shipping it out.  It is a fundamental shift in the mentality for a supplier like Digikey.

RIP, Digikey...  It's been a slice...   

You will be missed...

What's Mouser's shipping system to Canada usually like?  I suppose I'll try them for my next order.

[drussell]

For 25% commission, Digi-Key whores out their brand name, best in the business.
Are the Marketplace vendors or products vetted, stocked, warrantied by Digi-Key? Or just drop-shipping.

That is the deciding factor, right?  -  if it is just drop shipping, they are "whoring out their brand" as you so succinctly put it.  On the other hand, if they do more than drop shipping, they would be adding value.

Note that Amazon adds value with their Fulfillment by Amazon model, which is valuable enough that I often choose Amazon over eBay for that reason alone (fast and reliable shipping).

They're just whoring out their brand with "marketplace", they're doing nothing more than taking your order, processing your payment and sending it on to the other entity to send to you on that third party's terms, taking a 25% commission in the process.

This is NOT fulfillment by Digikey.  This is the worst of the Amazon "Marketplace" where you buy something from China "through" Amazon that you could have got directly on Ali for 1/3 the price.

RIP, Digikey...   

[olkipukki]

DK is almost ready to became full-time "FBA" 

Digi-Key breaks ground on 2.2 million square foot Product Distribution Center expansion. First package from new facility is projected to ship in mid-late 2021.

http://www.digikey.com/en/resources/about-digikey#tabs-2

[asmi]

What's Mouser's shipping system to Canada usually like?  I suppose I'll try them for my next order.

100 CAD minimum for free shipping (and $20 if below that, so pad your orders!), DDP via Fedex, UPS or DHL, or DAP (though I don't know why would you even do that in presence of DDP). In my experience (Waterloo region, Ontario) Fedex is the best option, in 99% of cases I have order in my hands on the next business day after placing it. Since they ship from US, you've got to be wary about ordering export-controlled items as it may incur additional delays/require additional documentation. They have a sales office in Kitchener, ON if you need any assistance, and they were very helpful in those few cases when I needed support.

[bombledmonk]

One thing I noticed at work today: the part number search is now fuzzy. If I type in a part number that has a TI prefix (SN74), I explicitly do not want you to try and show me related/similar parts. I want parts that contain that string of characters only.

For example, if you type in SN74LVC1G07 for a SINGLE buffer, I get results including SN74LVC2G07 for a DUAL buffer and also SN74LVC3G07 TRIPLE buffers.

Or you type ATSAM4S into search, and the results include ATSAM3S MCUs in the results! 

I can't find a rhyme or reason. Spent a while putting in partial resistor part numbers, and can't reproduce such problems in that category. I was a bit surprised to read through this thread without seeing other complaints about this...

Fixes for the underlying issue were put into production today.  It should behave better now for partial PN strings.  Thanks for the feedback.

[KE5FX]

If a manufacturer could just send on all their excess inventory for the likes of Digikey to "hold onto" for them until it's sold, what would stop them from just sloughing off all their stuff that doesn't move quickly, any unnecessary inventory that their major clients don't need today, off onto the likes of Digikey's free warehouse-my-shit program under your scenario.... 

Again, consider the grocery-store model.  Grocery store shelf space is carefully segmented by value based on presentation (prominent endcaps up front versus the back corner by the pharmacy) and access (products stocked at eye level versus on top of the freezers where you have to ask an employee for help).  This space is rented to wholesalers at corresponding rates.  On a square-foot basis, shelf space at your local grocery store is probably the most expensive real estate in town, except for maybe the ICU at the hospital. 

DigiKey's endgame -- as well as Amazon's for that matter -- will be to collect similar rent from manufacturers as well as third-party "Marketplace" sellers.  There is no question of them acting as a free warehouse or dumping ground for obsolete parts, that was never going to happen.

That's NOT what they're doing with "marketplace."  If I want one of the items they're hocking in their "marketplace" I will just go directly to that supplier and save the 25% cut that Digikey is trying to take.    Digikey won't ever be warehousing any of this "marketplace" stuff!!!  It will not be "fullfilled by Digikey" !! If it were, I would be able to order it directly from their stock!

I'm not so sure.  'Fulfillment by DigiKey' is an important economic element in the overall business model.  When's the last time you ordered only one or two line items from DigiKey?  That's the value of owning a 2-million square foot warehouse -- one-stop shopping.  When I'm building a prototype, I'm not going to place 300 orders with random vendors from Shenzhen to Syracuse, and I don't expect my EMS facility to do the same.  Likewise, I'm not willing to pay for direct shipping from dozens of different sellers just because DigiKey happens to make it easy to order from them. 

At the end of the day they have to hold the parts in stock.  They just don't have to pay for them.  In principle I have no beef with this.  DigiKey will continue to run a large-scale warehousing operation, and that's fine.  The problem is that they will eventually start commingling dubious products from marketplace sellers with prime merchandise, just as Amazon does.  That seems to be necessary to make the whole scheme profitable.

What's Mouser's shipping system to Canada usually like?  I suppose I'll try them for my next order.

I think it's a mistake to assume Mouser isn't working hard to implement similar plans.  These companies need to understand three things:

• They are not Amazon
• They are never going to be Amazon
• Force-feeding a "Marketplace" model to their customers carries much more risk to them than it does to Amazon

That's why it's so important to make your feedback heard, loudly.

[SilverSolder]

[...] The problem is that they will eventually start commingling dubious products from marketplace sellers with prime merchandise, just as Amazon does. [...]

The other side of that coin is that GOOD products can also be available on a "Fulfillment by Digikey" basis.  For example,  you might one day be able to buy Keysight, Rigol, Keithley, and other known brands from the Digikey web site, get it delivered next day, with a sound return policy.

Bottom line, don't buy brands or products you don't like...

With Fulfilment by Amazon, sellers have to pay for the storage space they use...   as a disincentive to letting stock pile up in Amazon warehouses.  Digikey would obviously have to do the same.

[ataradov]

one day be able to buy Keysight, Rigol, Keithley, and other known brands from the Digikey web site, get it delivered next day, with a sound return policy.

I can already do with TEquipment and other reputable equipment suppliers.  I would never buy equipment from DigiKey. I want to deal with people, whose entire business is based on selling equipment. If TEquipment fails to do a good job, they are out of business. If DK fails, they will just close that division and move on.

Bottom line, don't buy brands or products you don't like...

Because reputable brands are not being faked at all. And now you have to guess which FTDI chips you will get from the random marketplace supplier, which is effectively no different than a random dude on AliExpress.

[Bud]

The problem is that they will eventually start commingling dubious products from marketplace sellers with prime merchandise, just as Amazon does.  That seems to be necessary to make the whole scheme profitable.

And just like Amazon, Digikey also should sell dildos. Because why not.

[floobydust]

Digi-Key needs to implement a review/rating system for components or suppliers/manufacturers, by account holders. This can help with marketplace quality control, albeit after the sale and a few guinea pigs have squeaked. You forgot to copy the usual 5-star system in your copying other e-commerce sites.

This whole corporate expansion seems so disjointed or too much too fast - the website is getting better but suffers gee it was so slow the other day 5 seconds to respond to clicks. A half-assed Marketplace rollout that just shows poor planning to the point of comedy. Approaching 10M items in the Product Index 

Digi-Key does have Tech Forums you know. They are kind of soulless as well, is it to be like the forums here for generic advice or specific component issues or what?
It's like the leadership is clueless about the soul of the company- was it service, selection, integrity, the small guy, the big inventory etc. it's all forgotten.

P.S. Please continue the pumpkin head tradition of 9 sig. digits on price, it keeps showing us how a multi-billion dollar company has clowns at the steering wheel.

[Alex Eisenhut]

"Classic View is Now Available.

We've heard your feedback and have created a Classic View of our search and filtering pages. You can control your view using the settings toggle at the upper right hand corner of the page."

[ataradov]

I don't see it, even on Canadian version of the site. But also, is it going to be one more thing you have to flip every single time?

[Alex Eisenhut]

You won't see it on the home page, but when you do a search it will pop in its own frame over the search results.