Consumers like to take a few days to create a shopping list, shop for the best options and then create an online order without having to re-key the items into the vendor’s website or mobile app. B2B buyers also want this type of streamlined, efficient way to turn their “shopping lists” into quotes and orders.

Digi-Key lets you do this with Digi-Key Quotes in myLists, which was introduced in June 2021 and consolidates a few existing web services into a single, unified experience for users. The new quoting feature is being introduced in May in response to customer demand and based on the distributor’s deep expertise in the market.

A Seamless Shopping Experience

Using myLists, buyers can take the list of parts that they’ve built—whether sourced from an engineer, added from the product detail page, or uploaded from an Excel spreadsheet—and convert it into a quote. This capability offers a new and improved experience over the existing Quote Manager and provides many new capabilities.

myLists unifies the shopping experience across all of Digi-Key’s different products, which are accumulated either in a cart, as a parts list, or as a quote. This is one of many different website features that are available to registered customers, who can retain their lists, add to them, include new substitutes, and also refer back to them over time—every time they place an order.

That way, buyers don’t have to continually search for their parts lists, re-upload them, adjust the quantities or take other time-consuming steps that easily eat up hours in any professional’s workday. myLists supports quantities of up to six when requesting per-part pricing, which means the buyer who needs pricing on four different price breaks—or four quantities for the same part—only has to add the item to the list once.

Simplifying the Quoting Process

myLists simplifies the quote process and guides buyers through the basics of entering the data and having a quote generated. For a specific part that has a minimum order quantity of 200 pieces, for instance, buyers that only order 100 pieces can set the platform to “update quantities” to autocorrect to the right minimum quantity. Consequently, the customer doesn’t have to scroll through a list of all parts to correct such quantities one by one.

The platform also lists valid quantities that are available to purchase, order lead times, and any potential substitutes (and their stock quantities)—all of which can be previewed and adjusted before hitting the “create quote” button. This provides a level of insurance and lets the buyer know that all items have been reviewed and/or edited while in the “list” state.

Understanding that not all customers have spreadsheets of the required parts ready to upload, Digi-Key accommodates all different types of procurement processes with its myLists and other applications.

The buyer who was given a list of parts from an engineer and who wants to check stock on those items, for instance, can use the “parts search” feature to get those answers and subsequently create a quote and place an order. Alternatively, the engineer who has downloaded a list of parts in text format can use the “bulk add” feature to upload that list to myLists and start the quoting and ordering process.

The Power of Choice

By providing a high level of flexibility on a streamlined platform that accommodates different procurement approaches, Digi-Key Quotes in myLists puts the power of choice into the customer’s hands. It also removes the heavy lifting and manual work from the quoting process, letting buyers focus on more important tasks.