1. Ineffective Product Discovery

The primary obstacle was an ineffective product discovery experience on their website. Customers frequently struggled to locate specific parts on the website due to:

Varying Terminology: With a broad array of products, each part was associated with a range of common names. This diversity in naming conventions made it difficult for customers to confidently identify and purchase the correct part. The lack of a unified or intuitive search and filtering UI compounded this issue, leading to customer frustration and decreased sales.

Impact of Counterfeit Parts: The difficulty and ineffectiveness in product discovery inadvertently aided counterfeit parts makers. These entities exploited the gaps in Shape’s ecommerce store, successfully diverting customers to their own products. This not only resulted in lost revenue for Shape Technologies but also risked damaging their reputation, as customers inadvertently purchased inferior counterfeit parts.

2. Cumbersome Platform Management

Shape Technologies’ custom ecommerce platform presented its own set of challenges:

Difficult to Manage: The platform was hard to manage and update. This challenge was primarily due to the platform's custom nature, which lacked the flexibility and user-friendliness of more modern ecommerce solutions such as Shopify.

Hindered Improvement Efforts: The time and effort required to manage the existing platform left little room for Shape Technologies to focus on improving their offerings. This situation created a cycle where the company was constantly dealing with platform management issues instead of innovating and enhancing their product range available online or customer experience.