Mouser releases breakthrough virtual catalog

MANSFIELD, USA: Mouser Electronics Inc., known for the rapid introduction of the newest technologies, today announced the introduction of a new virtual catalog. This
advanced catalog will eclipse all other electronic component e-catalogs in features, capabilities, timeliness and speed.

“We are proud to launch this new e-catalog and believe customers will find its options for on-line catalog browsing and ordering like none they have seen before,” said Hayne Shumate, Mouser’s VP of Internet Business.

For the first time, customers can browse, search, and buy products without ever leaving the ecatalog. Mouser’s e-catalog customers can see product availability, extended prices, detailed specifications, and alternative images -- all while in the e-catalog application. The new catalog is available from the top right corner of the Mouser homepage and can also be accessed at www.mouser.com/enhanced_catalog.

“Feedback from the first release has been very positive,” said Shumate. “One of our goals was to reproduce, online, the ease of product browsing that has made our paper catalog so popular over the decades. Customers have been excited about their ability to explore and find products with this tool. Viewing extended product attributes, spec sheets, and inventory within the pages has also been popular.”

One of the core design elements of Mouser’s e-catalog is the ability to swap easily between the ecatalog and the traditional Web site. Other features include:

• View product availability and specifications without leaving the e-catalog
• Order products directly from the e-catalog
• Search catalog by keyword or part number
• Browse product taxonomy in 11 languages
• Browse suppliers by name
• Page view history recalls last 20 catalog pages viewed
• Customer assigned bookmarks for up to 100 pages

The web site development team at Mouser spent months perfecting this integrated tool, to help customers easily navigate Mouser’s massive product catalog. Mouser’s e-catalog is the first to employ Microsoft Silverlight to fully integrate a paper catalog experience with rich internet content.

Shumate said Mouser chose Silverlight because of its flexibility, scalability, and its cross-browser support running on Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows machines.

“The platform’s ability to seamlessly integrate high-performance web services allows us to add products as they are ready and bring realtime product information to the page. Mouser’s e-catalog can be accessed by anyone who downloads the free Silverlight plug-in for IE6, IE7, IE8, Firefox, Safari, Opera, or Chrome,” said Shumate.