Be creative while designing our automotive website! B2B

Benmatt Industries

Benmatt Industries sells on car advertising, promotional, business functional, apparel, and childrens products to car dealerships. (View our website to see all of the products we offer) Things such as license plate frames, insert cards, key fobs, gift box sets, coloring books, basically anything that is useful to a car dealership.

Benmatt does not sell to the public- we only sell to car dealerships. We currently do not get that across to our customers- we would like that to be apparent in our new website. We only sell large quantities (500 & up) so we do not want to give the impression that anyone can ask us for a quote on 10 of something.

Our parent company is called LaFrance Corp. They sell branding products to companies such as Bose, Motorola, Oakley, Nike Golf, Coach and so on. http://www.lafrancecorp.com/

http://www.benmatt.com

Maccosmetics.com

I know we are nothing like a cosmetics company, but we really like the way MAC lays out their menus. They are VERY easy to navigate. No matter where you are on the site, you can always see where you came from (what category you are in & what else you can browse).
We really like the left sidebar compared to top drop-down menus.
We also like the idea of a search bar to allow our customers to quickly find an item based on key words.
I included samples of the mac website- as well as I mock up that I came up with.
I am not sure if this design is almost a one page layout or not?
**Pictures included**

Sanmar.com

We like the way sanmar lays out their clothing desciptions. It is very easy to understand and everything is laid out in front of you.
An area for a large picture of our product is important.
We would also like to see smaller pictures below or next to the larger image that would show other pictures of that same product.
The tabs are a great feature. That way description, comparable products and anything else is just a click away. Very easy to understand and navigate.
**Picture included**

Freepeople.com

Again, we really like the idea of a very large picture of the product (we almost want it to sell itself!).
Also- we really like how easy and large the tabs are on the desciption page. Very visable and simple to navigate.
The right hand side bar that shows products they may also be interested in is also a key factor on our website.
**Picture included**

We would like to see a...

Main Page: All tabs visible with room for a large photo. We would have room for our values or some sort of tag line. We really just want things to be simple and easy. If you see our home screen and can easily find what you are looking for- then its a job well done.

Second Click page (view all products in that category): This would be what you would see if you had chosen a certain category.... say Frames. It depends on your layout what we could expect to see. If it is a drop down (left side bar) menu... then the picture wouldn't change from the home screen image- but if it were some other way- you may see all of our frame options. Again, make it simple and easy!

Product Detail Page: EASY. Let our customers see a bright image of the product. The tabs would be a great addition here if they are layed out in an easy to use way. You can also include some sort of "raise your image with these products" suggestion/photo area.
-In the tabs area there would have to be an option for Order Now that can be removed/added as needed. We want the order now to be integrated into this product detail page. The only products that can be "ordered now" currently on our site are pens and screws (we do not accept credit cards- we just "bill" our customers) all products would be added to a shopping card page- so it would just have to say "Add to cart" at the bottom.

Form Page: This extra page should be easy to create. All we need is an updated look to our existing for our form pages (ie. sample request/quote request/information request). It has the possibility to be created into a "Request Page" with a drop down of what they want to request- information- sample-quote. Then the options would be based on that!

** Feel free to use any photos on our website. You may have to pull some of the photos into photoshop and change the background color to whatever you change it to.

(If all of these are rolled into one, such as the Maccosmetics.com site- we also need a page for "About Us" - and a possible order online outline (for our pens and screws- which you CAN "order" online.) *See our current website to see what I am referring to*

We are looking for a COMPLETE overhaul. There isn't much that we like about our website. Be creative! We are excited to see all of the different designs. As long as its easy to navigate and looks professional but has a unique touch, we should be good!!

We cannot show any car manufacturer's logos on our website. (Only our products can have logos on them because a dealership name is on it as well.)

Java script is welcome- we would just like to stay away from Flash considering customers may be accessing our site from mobile devices.

We are open to color schemes. (Black/white/integration of other colors.. etc.) Our logo is black, white & red.

Again, we only sell to car dealerships. We want to get that across to the viewers of our website.

Our 5 Core Values are very important to our company - they NEED to be present in our website.
- Enhance Customer Experience
-Boost Your Brand Recognition
-Advertise In The Neighborhood Of Your Marketplace
-Family Values
-Raise Your Image

We do not "sell" many of our products online. We have sales representatives around the country that sell our products.

We would like to see a search bar in our new website.

Some of our competitors are:
http://www.guard81.com/
http://www.suttersmill.com/default.aspx
http://www.reyrey.com/index.asp
We would like to stand out from our competitors.

Keep things simple- management isn't a fan of gimmicky things, cartoons and anything too bright or flashy.

Instead of using "you may also like..." you could use "raise your image with..."

** Feel free to use any photos on our website. You may have to pull some of the photos into photoshop and change the background color to whatever color you end up changing it to. **

The goal of our website is that we have customers calling us to place an order & that we are selling our values through our website.