Farnell website is very slow in UK...why?

[olkipukki]

Digikey website is quicker but we have to pay £15 postage and it takes three days to get  here.

What is your average order size? DK provides a free shipping over $50/€50/£33... well, this is a pre-Brexit FX rate 

[MK14]

Hi,
Why is Farnell so slow in UK? We need to use Farnell because its one of the only ones that do next day delivery to UK.....but its horrendously slow. Do you know why this is?

Let's put it another way.
If Farnell spent time and money at that problem, they could solve it and speed up their website.

But in many/most real companies, spending money and resources, doesn't happen easily.

E.g. From a completely secret website/source, somewhere in the world. An employee/manager/business, refused to spend £0.01 (or more) per unit, to make it work reliably.

We cannot afford to buy a bigger heatsink than the one that we have for it. And in any case, we couldn’t afford to re-do the board so we could fit a bigger heatsink in.

tl;dr
You're complaining because a business won't spend time/money and other resources to solve a problematic (slow) website.
Yet, you yourself, have apparently refused to spend any more resources/money, to solve a potential reliability issue.

EDIT: I'm NOT trying to be nasty here. I'm trying to make you realise, that businesses spending more money/resources at things, is not easy or straight forward.

[olkipukki]

I really do not understand how farnell can succeed with such a crappy site compared to digikey or mouser.

They do not need to succeed anymore, they part of Avnet family now... and to be honest Farnell & Co websites are superior compare to 'new' Avnet that used to be "ugly" and very productive (similar to DK these days) many moons ago, but some "smart" person (who probably never used before) decided to "refresh" with new modern UI/UX 

As long as nobody complains them directly and face to face at shows like electronica or via email they won`t move....

Usually, they do not bother to reply to your emails at all (regardless 'complains', status updates or RFQs), save you time and use it for something more useful

[olkipukki]

We need to use Farnell because its one of the only ones that do next day delivery to UK.....

If you after JIT approach, good luck with that, once s**t hit a fan, Farnell issues problems become only (and only) your problems... be ready to be patient and have an unlimited phone plan to sort these out   

[ocset]

Well, for what its worth, someone (an ex-colleague) sent me this petition to get Farnell sorted out in UK....please sign it if you can...at least 5 names are needed otherwise it'll never go forward.
He is a working engineer , so i guess he knows what he's on about, and you guys seem to have corroborated that farnell is really slow...i must admit i mostly use ebay for my bits, because it has royal mail deliveries , and you just pick it up from the depot later.

(Sorry it appears to be only for the UK farnell.....)



Click this link to sign the petition:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/228786/sponsors/new?token=bbrIWsfi6Xv2DyqZ9aNs

My petition:

British industry must have faster access to components.

British Electronics companies wishing to buy components/tools often use the Farnell.com website. The problem is that the Farnell website is horrendously slow. Ordering components often takes hours. ..Meaning a high operating cost to British electronics companies and Engineering companies.

Farnell is UK’s biggest distributor of electronics components, and has very good component search engines, a huge stock of components, and offers next day delivery. Please can the UK Government act to speed up the Farnell.com website, and hence make British Engineering companies far more effective? The only near alternative to Farnell is uk.rs-online.com, however this site has inferior search engines, and often stocks less components than Farnell.

[Monkeh]

... seriously?

This has nothing, at all, to do with Parliament. Stop wasting everyones time.

[MK14]

... seriously?

This has nothing, at all, to do with Parliament. Stop wasting everyones time.

I don't think Parliament could do anything about it (ignoring crazy solutions, which follow). Partly because it is a company, NOT a government institution and partly because it is an international company (I believe, hence outside of UK jurisdiction).

So the best the Government could do is either ban them from UK soil, Nationalise the UK parts of them or start a UK Government Electronics supply company. Whose website would probably be massively worse than Farnells current one (I'm joking here, but only partially joking. Government and IT projects, often don't work out too well, especially as regards over-running costs and being ready on time).

[ocset]

Thanks, this problem has afflicted British industry for a very long time.......as can be seen here..other countries don't have this problem with their local components  order systems.
Contacting  farnell does nothing.
So if the petition is wide of the mark...then what should be done about it?

Poor performence of British companies means poor tax returns, meaning the UK national debt will get even worse.

Our group has this website to point out the poor performance of the UK....
https://massey276.wixsite.com/ukdecline

Please indicate if nothing should be done about this farnell slowness?

[MK14]

Thanks, this problem has afflicted British industry for a very long time.......as can be seen here..other countries don't have this problem with their local components  order systems.
Contacting  farnell does nothing.
So if the petition is wide of the mark...then what should be done about it?

Poor performence of British companies means poor tax returns, meaning the UK national debt will get even worse.

Our group has this website to point out the poor performance of the UK....
https://massey276.wixsite.com/ukdecline

Please indicate if nothing should be done about this farnell slowness?

I think you need better solutions.

A better solution, might be for the UK Government to encourage and make it easier. For better companies, such as Digi-key (hoping to avoid a forum war, over this, but there are other good companies), to come to the UK and open up a really nice, big, efficient and well run electronics supply business.

Maybe give them tax breaks and relaxed importation rules, at least for the first 5 years. E.g. Grants and stuff.

Or to put it another way. If a company is getting to be like the former Maplins, and on its way out. It is perhaps better to let it go, and start new stuff, than try to prop it up.

[MK14]

Another solution, is for us forum users to gather together, and raise a mere £32.99 for Treez.
He can then make his next order from Digi-key, with his £0.01 or more of orders, will bring it to >=£33.00 and it will get free delivery.
(Joke).

On a more serious note.
I can't see how an electronics department in a company, can't spend at least £33, each month (or more frequently) on buying stuff from Digi-key.

[ocset]

Thanks, but the key point about Farnell is that it has next day delivery.
Thats useful when prototyping and you run out of something

[MK14]

Thanks, but the key point about Farnell is that it has next day delivery.
Thats useful when prototyping and you run out of something

That's a very good point.
But surely their website is NOT that bad!

Whenever I've used their website. It has been a slow, sometimes buggy experience. I admit.
I also have to admit, I usually go elsewhere, such as Digi-key.
I'm happy to wait an extra day or two, unless it is urgent.

[ocset]

The server farm isn't the issue.  Farnell is slow because it is over-reliant on all this Web 2.0 stuff.  Which is fine if you are doing a dynamic website but there is no need for a parts directory to behave like that.  The content should be static and there immediately.  When you select an option on Digikey's website,  is it pulling the request over AJAX/etc?  No,  it is refreshing and reloading the page and just doing it the "good-ol fashion way", which works fine.

Thanks Tom66, it sounds like you may  have the answer.
Farnell is ok if you only order one or two parts now and again, and you already know the farnell number.

But if you're trying to order a list of several components, and you need to search and sort each one on various criteria, then Farnell is horrendously slow.

[mikeselectricstuff]

Farnell is ok if you only order one or two parts now and again, and you already know the farnell number.

But if you're trying to order a list of several components, and you need to search and sort each one on various criteria, then Farnell is horrendously slow.

If you are ordering enough parts that the speed is a major problem, chances are you're over Digilkey's free-shipping threshold.

[HwAoRrDk]

The server farm isn't the issue.  Farnell is slow because it is over-reliant on all this Web 2.0 stuff.  Which is fine if you are doing a dynamic website but there is no need for a parts directory to behave like that.  The content should be static and there immediately.  When you select an option on Digikey's website,  is it pulling the request over AJAX/etc?  No,  it is refreshing and reloading the page and just doing it the "good-ol fashion way", which works fine.

I'm sorry, but that's just nonsense. The DigiKey website uses just as much JS/AJAX/etc as the Farnell website. How do you think DigiKey shows the live "XXX remaining" count as you select parameters to refine your selection? And with Farnell, does it not reload the page (i.e. the 'old fashioned way') when you hit the 'Apply Filters' button on the pop-out?

A simple test that is nothing to do with 'Web 2.0' stuff is this: load up the home page of each respective website and do a simple part number search (e.g. "LM2931"). That operation will be entirely server-side, dependent purely on the nature of their database and code. The DigiKey website performs the search and returns results in less than 0.5 seconds for me; Farnell leave you waiting for several seconds before results are returned. Their back-end systems are just shit, regardless of the technology in use.

[ocset]

If you are ordering enough parts that the speed is a major problem, chances are you're over Digilkey's free-shipping threshold.

Thanks, but we often order big component lists on Farnell, ...but  also often order just 2 or 3 components for say £2 on Farnell....we get all this free...if we were with Digikey we wouldnt be able to get the small orders  for free.
Also, Digikey is not next day.
Very often you need  something next day.

[MK14]

It's not just you.
https://www.element14.com/community/thread/60611/l/page-changes-painfully-slow-on-farnell-website?displayFullThread=true

Apparently, Farnell, have messed up as regards their web site.

[tom66]

Thanks, this problem has afflicted British industry for a very long time.......as can be seen here..other countries don't have this problem with their local components  order systems.
Contacting  farnell does nothing.
So if the petition is wide of the mark...then what should be done about it?

Very simple.  Don't order from them.  Tell your Farnell reps (I have) that a major reason you don't order from them is their shit website.

They'll either adapt or die,  that's capitalism,  and that's the beauty of it.

[MK14]

Very simple.  Don't order from them.  Tell your Farnell reps (I have) that a major reason you don't order from them is their shit website.

They'll either adapt or die,  that's capitalism,  and that's the beauty of it.

The thing is, that UK Electronics businesses, need to build stuff and supply it to their customers, sometimes somewhat urgently.

There are not that many ways, of buying, quality properly sourced, surface mount components.

So it is very easy to say "NEVER BUY FROM THEM". But, if you need to make prototypes and stuff, for your company and/or customers, or even as a hobby. Then Farnell are one of the options.

But I would say, that where possible. Time things, so that you can cope with the extra delay from buying from Digi-key/Mouser etc.

Even Digi-key has some annoyances. (It might just be me), but I sometimes have to go through lots of items, with a silly minimum order quantity (e.g. 1,000), just because I selected, 'find the lowest price item', with that spec.
It should have an option, so that the components available at x1 quantity are shown first. Not massive reels of 2,000 parts, which comes to £1,000 and you only need one £0.70 MCU or whatever.

EDIT: On reflection, the solution might be to choose 'packaging' options, such as tube/tray. Which then stops the bulk quantity reels from coming up.

[tom66]

The server farm isn't the issue.  Farnell is slow because it is over-reliant on all this Web 2.0 stuff.  Which is fine if you are doing a dynamic website but there is no need for a parts directory to behave like that.  The content should be static and there immediately.  When you select an option on Digikey's website,  is it pulling the request over AJAX/etc?  No,  it is refreshing and reloading the page and just doing it the "good-ol fashion way", which works fine.

I'm sorry, but that's just nonsense. The DigiKey website uses just as much JS/AJAX/etc as the Farnell website. How do you think DigiKey shows the live "XXX remaining" count as you select parameters to refine your selection? And with Farnell, does it not reload the page (i.e. the 'old fashioned way') when you hit the 'Apply Filters' button on the pop-out?

A simple test that is nothing to do with 'Web 2.0' stuff is this: load up the home page of each respective website and do a simple part number search (e.g. "LM2931"). That operation will be entirely server-side, dependent purely on the nature of their database and code. The DigiKey website performs the search and returns results in less than 0.5 seconds for me; Farnell leave you waiting for several seconds before results are returned. Their back-end systems are just shit, regardless of the technology in use.

Of course Digikey uses Javascript, you can't make any modern website work without it.  However, their use of Javascript is appropriate for the application and only used where truly needed.  It is not server back-end time;  it is the application on the browser side that is slow.  If the application takes a while to load once acquired from the Farnell website, no backend improvement will help.

As evidence I submit two screenshots of identical searches with Farnell's taking 4.2 seconds and DK taking 1.3 seconds.  Note how that the Javascript time is half that of Farnell, and the rendering time is much lower.  The time spent loading actual resources is, for all intents and purposes, about the same - 60ms for Farnell and 21ms for Digikey.  But, the most interesting thing is that the idle time is so much higher (660ms vs 2300ms),  that is because the Farnell application is constantly waiting for data to arrive from...somewhere, probably via a remote API.  Also pay attention to the fact that Farnell uses GPU-driven animations, why?  To make the website look "sleek" and "sexy",  but it slows it down.

[mikeselectricstuff]

Very simple.  Don't order from them.  Tell your Farnell reps (I have) that a major reason you don't order from them is their shit website.

They'll either adapt or die,  that's capitalism,  and that's the beauty of it.

The thing is, that UK Electronics businesses, need to build stuff and supply it to their customers, sometimes somewhat urgently.

There are not that many ways, of buying, quality properly sourced, surface mount components.

So it is very easy to say "NEVER BUY FROM THEM". But, if you need to make prototypes and stuff, for your company and/or customers, or even as a hobby. Then Farnell are one of the options.

One of basically 2 options for a wide range of parts. And the other option (RS) is even worse

Even Digi-key has some annoyances. (It might just be me), but I sometimes have to go through lots of items, with a silly minimum order quantity (e.g. 1,000), just because I selected, 'find the lowest price item', with that spec.

It should have an option, so that the components available at x1 quantity are shown first. Not massive reels of 2,000 parts, which comes to £1,000 and you only need one £0.70 MCU or whatever.

You can enter a quantity and it shows items at that quantity price break. and with sufficient stock ( only works if you're logged in)
They've had this for years but still Farnell don't offer it.
 

[MK14]

You can enter a quantity and it shows items at that quantity price break. and with sufficient stock ( only works if you're logged in)
They've had this for years but still Farnell don't offer it.

Thanks!
That is great advice.

It makes a very big difference. Because, if you are in the middle of designing something, and hence choosing parts. You want to know about the component, quickly. So you don't lose your train of thought.

If you have to spend an extra 5 minutes, wading through three pages, of 2,000 part reels and things. By the time you find it, your concentration has been broken by the delay.

I often haven't been logged in. That must be part of the problem, then.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Another fast (delivery wise) option is:
https://www.tme.eu/gb/
TME, have done next day (if I remember, correctly, or very quick, but Brexit might mess things up), delivery for me. From Poland. I haven't used them in a while.
They do charge something like £7.99 (might have gone up), for delivery.
Possibly free if the order is above a (somewhat) large £limit and/or you buy lots of stuff from them, and they like you.
But their prices were cheaper, which justified the delivery charges, for me.
Their website, did take quite a bit of getting use to, to get the best out of it. It can be slow and/or problematic at times. In the past it has been for me, at least. It could be better now.

[ocset]

As evidence I submit two screenshots of identical searches with Farnell's taking 4.2 seconds and DK taking 1.3 seconds.  Note how that the Javascript time is half that of Farnell, and the rendering time is much lower.  The time spent loading actual resources is, for all intents and purposes, about the same - 60ms for Farnell and 21ms for Digikey.  But, the most interesting thing is that the idle time is so much higher (660ms vs 2300ms),  that is because the Farnell application is constantly waiting for data to arrive from...somewhere, probably via a remote API.  Also pay attention to the fact that Farnell uses GPU-driven animations, why?  To make the website look "sleek" and "sexy",  but it slows it down.

Thanks Tom66...i think you are on to something.

Strangely, one of the website software writers who actually works for Farnell has signed  the petition in post #29  of this thread.
I  am wondering about contacting him (i got his name and then  found him on linkedin).......maybe he is being forced to write the software in a slow way because the owner (Avnet) want to plough Farnell into the ground or something..who knows?

[station240]

Oh, by the way, the website is powered by IBM WebSphere Commerce. That runs on Java EE, and can use DB2 or Oracle as the DB backend. Make of that what you will.

Perhaps they just need to pay their IBM consultants some more to 'scale' it better.

Yeah that explains everything. I did work for IBM one, they had no bloody clue what they were doing.

In the website code it says "Aurora B2B Storefront" another fine(sic) product from Irrational Business Machines.
Suspect the database is un-optimized too, that would explain why the site dies completely at times, runs out of memory in database processes.


One tip for speeding up Farnell/Element14's website, use google to search instead of their own stuff. Where possible of course.

[Zero999]

I've had more luck with Farnell, than RS. The problem I have with the latter is they don't seem to stock things and their search engine can't be set to omit items which they don't have in stock. It's very frustrating to wander through result, after result, only to find that nothing is in stock. It seems to be worse with things such as connectors and cases, than electronic components.