Why UX and Accessibility Are Crucial to Your Manufacturing WebsiteWhy UX and Accessibility Are Crucial to Your Manufacturing Website

Why UX and Accessibility Are Crucial to Your Manufacturing Website Transcript:

Jeff White: Welcome to The Kula Ring, a podcast for manufacturing marketers brought to you by Kula Partners. My name is Jeff White. Joining me today is Carman Pirie. Carman, how are you doing, sir? 

Carman Pirie: I’m happy to be here per normal. And you? 

Jeff White: I’m doing great. Thank you. 

Carman Pirie: Look, I think today we’ve got a special kind of episode lined up for folks today. A bit of a different approach. So often, of course, as we typically interview someone. And every once in a while, though, we’ll take it upon ourselves to basically interview one another. And so folks, I’m gonna be mostly trying to quiz Jeff today on some of his points of view that come out of the insights that we gathered during our most recent Industrial Buyer Pulse research report.

This launched back in September, the Q3 2025 Industrial Buyer Pulse research came out, and an awful lot of the findings in that research report frankly impact how you ought to be thinking about your website in 2026. And Jeff has authored a couple of different POVs we call them on that research, which we’ll make available with this show as well. So if folks wanna kind of dive in and understand more of what Jeff is recommending here. You can certainly do that, and of course, download the full research report as well, which we’ll also link up. So Jeff you’re on the hot seat today. 

Jeff White: I don’t really mind being here either, but because I do think that this research has illuminated something that I’ve been preaching for a very long time.

Carman Pirie:  And it’s always next when the research agrees with you, is what you’re saying.

Jeff White: Yeah. And that you don’t just create it in order to have something to agree with you. It’s not valuable as far as research goes. It is good for your ego, though, but no, in this particular case, what we’re talking about is some of the findings in the research report highlighted the importance of the quality of the experience and of the accessibility in UX of a manufacturer website There’s really two key points here that we found that point to some changes and some, housekeeping or an outright kind of revamp of how your website works for you as a manufacturer. And so one of those is that we found that 77% of buyers said they’d obtained a price or a lead time quote directly through a manufacturer’s digital tool without ever talking to anyone in sales. And, I think that it’s pretty remarkable that the website is standing in for your sales team in a lot of cases. But it also means that if things aren’t working, you may not ever find out that somebody had a failed quote in your quoting platform where they’re not talking to anybody, so you’re not having that dialogue back and forth. So there’s a number of different things that can impact that. 

Carman Pirie: Yeah. If the experience is substandard in some way, you may not get that information. You may not know. You just may not get included in the comparison, especially if there’s three or four other competitors who can.

For instance, get a lead time quote or something of that sort seamlessly from a competitor. Then all of a sudden the clunkiness that’s in your workflow could be more highlighted. Jeff the thing I’ve heard you say a lot over the years is. It’s really a better idea for your website to do something rather than just say something.

And that’s what we’re talking about here, right? Is that the research showed us that people are damn more expecting websites to do stuff. 

Jeff White: Yeah. Most industrial websites, they still treat things like quoting is a manual handoff, fill out this form and we’ll get back to you. That kind of thing. 

But, there’s an awful lot of platforms now where you may be able to upload a model or describe your part or reorder a part or product that you already have purchased or things like that. Or get a quote on a number of different components and. There, there’s varying levels of quality in a lot of those tools.

In some cases, I think especially the fact that an awful lot of people are doing most of their work on their phones now. We see regularly in the statistics that we look at for our client and partner manufacturing websites. And it can be as much as 50% of the browsers visiting a particular website are mobile. Sometimes even more than that. 

So if things don’t work on a mobile device or there are awkward PDFs that you have to download and read or sign, and calculators that don’t adapt to smaller screens, then you run the risk of losing people before they even get started. 

Carman Pirie: I think, I guess I can imagine an awful lot of the large multi-billion-dollar global manufacturing brands. I guess a number of them aren’t getting with this religion, a number are as well. And, I guess my mind goes to those kinds of smaller and mid-size manufacturers who feel within a certain niche, within a certain sliver of the market, they can really compete against even the big boys. And it seems like an area where. My thinking is they probably find it quite daunting in order to get there. What do you think stands, what do you think is the thing that stands in their way the most? Is it because they don’t need to have the technical capability?

They can outsource that? Is it just, I wonder, do they maybe not value it themselves as much or…

Jeff White: It is. For most manufacturers, it would be a relatively large endeavor to stand up a quoting platform that is one-to-one with what’s going on in your ERP as an example.

So you may choose to have something that kind of provides notional pricing or higher level pricing for particular. Components or a subset of of regularly ordered parts or things like that, that you might have you might have a whole quoting platform for. That’s relatively easy to do, if you are a large manufacturer who’s dealing in a lot of custom things, it may be rather difficult to actually provide an exact quote without somebody talking to sales. So maybe you need to get a little bit more inventive about how you go about using some of these things and enabling these processes for people to to interact with your site to get that information.

Carman Pirie: Because I suppose it’s worth noting, it doesn’t have to just be about getting a quote. It doesn’t have to be financial in nature. It can be a configuration, it can be a lot of different interactive assets that can help connect you to your prospect. By adding digital value without necessarily needing to tap into the ERP?

Jeff White: Yeah, exactly. Like even in the phrasing of the of the question in our research report, it was around lead times as well as prices. There, there could be other things, other valuable metrics that you could be providing. To to potential prospects. Yeah. 

Carman Pirie: Now, there was a the stat as well that 82% of buyers in the survey indicated they had shortlisted a supplier without ever speaking to them. So that goes beyond just, did you receive a quote or lead time or what have you, without speaking to sales, but we’re actually bringing somebody to the dance in a shortlist capacity. I guess it just goes to show that. Again, providing a way for them to do something on the site to interact, knowing that it may be the only interaction they have with the brand preshortlist, right? 

Jeff White: Yeah, absolutely. And I think. In a lot of cases, what you’re talking about there as well is not just the more functional aspects that we’re talking about, like quoting and potential lead time information and things like that, but answering the questions that people have, it’s that old school. If I can figure out the questions that my buyers have and answer those questions, then that’s gonna bring me all kinds of traffic. That may not necessarily be the case anymore, but once people do arrive at your site. It should be able to answer a lot of the questions that your prospects or buyers might have about working with you, about your products, and about your stance on certain things. You know that there’s actually content that covers that information on the site, and can answer some of those questions, so that you can get shortlisted before they talk to somebody. 

Carman Pirie: I’ve gotta think there has to be at least a few manufacturing marketers listening to this to say, can we maybe get the large enterprise SaaS people to play by these rules as well? Like to actually give us a quote. My goodness. Sometimes getting a quote for a piece of software can be about the hardest thing on the planet. 

Jeff White: Yeah. And it’s not like you have to go away and manufacture them. 

Carman Pirie: No. Exactly. They have no excuse. 

Jeff White: Yeah. 

Carman Pirie: If we can’t, if we can’t kick the odd SaaS provider on this podcast, what can we do?

Jeff White: No, that is true. But there are other things that you know, as part of that, getting your quote tools right, making sure that you’re not doing hugely long forms and asking for absolutely every infinite detail with that, because people just don’t fill it out in the end.

I’m one of those people who actually likes to fill out forms on the internet, but I don’t think most people are like that. 

Carman Pirie: He can get, he’s getting help for it. 

Jeff White: It’s a very strange 12-step program. But you have to fill out forms at every step. Yeah. You have to fill out a form each way, and each time they get shorter. But the other part is thinking about the communication, we call it the microcopy, that’s on those elements of the site that are telling you what’s going to happen next. What should you be putting in this field? Other bits of supportive information about how long it’ll be before we get back to you, those kinds of things, to shepherd the conversation along for once you do receive that. That quote or information, how you’re gonna follow up and when they can expect to hear from you, that’s certainly gonna make a pretty big difference, rather than just hitting submit and having it go out into the ether, and I don’t know what’s gonna happen next. 

Carman Pirie: Yeah. And it’s critical, every salesperson wants to get that person on the line. I can’t imagine, there are a lot of salespeople who enjoy hearing that folks are being shortlisted without ever talking to sales. No, these are the Glengarry leads. But that microcopy, that idea that you just mentioned about just making sure you’re nurturing that interaction. It is a way that you can nurture it through human interaction. The sales team can get what they desire through that nurturing. 

Jeff White: Exactly. And yeah, the personality and authenticity of the brand can come through in that copy. It doesn’t have to be very rote or mechanical in nature, or it can be; that could be your voice. So there are lots of different ways you can approach that. A lot of this ties into the second POV that I wrote coming outta the research report around this notion. We found through the manufacturers that we surveyed that, you know. They were willing to spend $50,000 or more in a single online order. And that is not insignificant. And it speaks to the growing segment of the population that’s very comfortable. With e-commerce, whether that’s in their personal lives or now as we’re seeing in their corporate positions, they’re willing to spend real money through a web platform and boy, does that ever mean that web platform should be up to snuff if you are getting ready to put in, the black card number to to make that purchase, you should feel as confident as you do when you go through a Shopify checkout to buy coffee beans. 

Carman Pirie: He says that because that’s the Shopify process that we go through every couple of weeks here at Kula Partners, which is to get coffee beans shipped in.

So it is the process. We know best, almost. To me, it was a real surprise from the research, the number of respondents who were willing, who had the confidence in e-commerce to transact at a 50k or above level. I think the way we used to, when I say we, the global we, the way people used to think about investments in e-commerce for B2B manufacturers is that they thought, even if I get the technology there, the attitudes aren’t there. The people aren’t willing to transact in that manner. That’s not how business is done, so we ought not invest in that. And the research shows just the opposite of that. It’s oh no, you’re actually the one holding it back. Probably they’re already there. It’s just whether or not you’re providing that option.

Jeff White: Yeah. Whether you’re prepared to do it. And I think there are almost two schools of thought on how this experience should be. A lot of website development agencies and B2B marketers think that the solution here is to make it as B2C as possible to make it as seamless as buying coffee beans through a Shopify platform, but on the other hand, you have this idea that, this isn’t buying a pound of coffee beans, this is potentially purchasing some very complex machinery or who knows what or consumables or anything of that sort. In a business context with procurement rules at play, there may be POS and other methods of payment rather than a straight-up credit card.

It’s not as simple as just having one shipped box. There is all kinds of extra information that may be required to make, to give someone the confidence that this is a true B2B buying experience. 

Carman Pirie: I think you need to, I’m trying to summarize how I think you’re thinking about it, Jeff, which is that you need, it’s okay to honour the complexity of the transaction. 

Jeff White: Yeah. And not try to gloss over the complexity of the transaction while still making it. Easy to use, and so it makes that a beautiful experience too. And I think we call it the two website problem, for when it goes too far the other way, where you completely leave the marketing site.

For a manufacturer, if you end up in some kind of ERP-esque hell, where there’s a whole system, you need to do webinars and training just to understand how to use the purchasing platform. The branding is gone, the navigation is gone. There’s no labelling that is the same throughout categorization might be different for how the products are talked about in the marketing context versus in the ordering context.

And, the regular search doesn’t necessarily work and all of these different things that can happen. And not to mention the fact that, far fewer. ERP-enabled sales, e-commerce platforms follow standard accessibility guidelines. Tapping through form fields and keyboard search and all of those different things that may be unreadable by screen readers and other assistive technologies may just fall down when you actually get to the point where you’re willing to place that order.

Carman Pirie: It seems like deploying that functionality in that way is eroding trust at the exact moment that you need it the most. And I know it’s, I guess, one of the things I think you talk about in that POV, Jeff, is the notion of integration as a trust signal. If the experience is seamless, the trust goes up. Yeah. If things look. If I have those constant cues that I’m in the same environment, this is the way it’s supposed to be, I’m being told what’s next, and then what I’m told happens next, actually does happen next, which sounds so simple. And people say, Oh yes, I experience that in my consumer life all the time. But it’s surprisingly rare in the B2B manufacturing context. 

Jeff White: I think it is. And I think you know that this may be why. There are a number of manufacturers implementing an ERP platform with the promise of it also enabling them to pursue their own e-commerce platform. I would caution them to understand that it’s sim, it’s not simply a bolt-on that. There’s a lot of additional work that goes beyond simply slapping your logo into the top left corner of the ERP E-commerce screens and calling it a day. Like, even if you update the colours, it’s still not quite enough. It’s what we’re looking for more of. Integration signals that. Maybe you’re not able to make it look exactly the same, but it can be a transition into that platform and have consistent typography, consistent colors, consistent branding, allowing for single sign-on if you have multiple platforms within the overall site architecture, and that your, that accessibility and usability are maintained that you’ve worked so hard to create on the marketing side that may simply not be carried over on the e-commerce side. 

Carman Pirie: I think it was important information there, Jeff, because I think it’s important that people understand that you’re not advocating that it must be a fully integrated all one platform solution. Yes, that is probably ideal and what will deliver the most dynamic experience, but you’re not exactly closing the door on these kinds of e-com add-ons. You’re simply saying there’s a way to integrate them more thoughtfully to provide a more unified experience. It’s dismissing that notion entirely.

Jeff White: No, exactly right. 

Carman Pirie: In B2B commerce around designing for procurement and not consumers. Is it really just about the complexity of the checkout, or is there how else that comes to life?

Jeff White: Yeah, I think when you’re talking about designing for procurement and not consumers, those kinds of single-page, easy checkout.

Systems may fail in the context of a more deeply integrated B2B buying experience; you’re going to have things like multiple user accounts and saved carts and purchase order fields, and different approval workflows, potentially that simply don’t exist in B2C e-commerce. You do need to have the horsepower of that harder-working e-commerce platform, or at least have had somebody implement Shopify Plus or something like that in a manner that brings it to life. The required B2B experience, then you’re also, you’re thinking about any project reference fields and the ability to save and share or approve carts across different teams and things like that.

And the other thing is that in most cases, in B2B, buying dynamics are different. You have different pricing for different customers. So ensuring that, when you log into this system, that it remembers who you are and it’s showing you the appropriate pricing information so that somebody doesn’t have to follow up and try and get that fixed, there’s quite a number of different things that you need to be thinking about that somebody from another organization’s purchasing team may need to see in order to feel confident and comfortable in that platform. 

Carman Pirie: Yeah, that’s the right way to think about it as well. I think you stated in the POV, it’s not whether or not your customers are actually buying online. It’s whether or not they trust your site enough to transact with you online. So if this is an area, like I think it can be hard sometimes for organizations to assess some of their own communications, but I think, oddly, this one’s actually a little easier. I think most marketing teams that I’ve ever encountered, or sales organizations or manufacturers, if this process is falling down online, if their e-commerce is janky, everybody knows that. Yeah. It’s like the worst-kept secret. Nobody’s directing anybody to use it. 

Jeff White: Yeah. But they’re actually scared if somebody does, because they think something’s gonna go wrong. 

Carman Pirie: Yeah. This causes the second, it creates 10 more problems than solutions.

Jeff White: Yeah. Exactly. So it needs to be buttoned down. And the brand impact of when this works, is making it easier for your customers to make routine purchases potentially.

That normally would require a bunch of different inputs or back and forth with customer service staff or others on the phone. So it really makes things easier for them. It allows you to leverage different tactics and techniques for upselling online and things like that.

Like you can take into account the power of marketing in that checkout flow to influence somebody to make. Additional or different purchases, or higher-end or things like that. These are tools that you don’t necessarily have available to you if you don’t deal in e-commerce, and especially if you don’t manage your own e-commerce platform.

Carman Pirie: And I’ve gotta think the imperative for people to process this bridge sooner rather than later. I can’t, as you were just talking and you were talking about almost from the supply side of automatic replenishing of regular orders or something of that sort. That has to be some of the first corporate purchasing that will be done by AI agents. We can’t be that far away from seeing more and more of that. And if you think the previous bit of change happened to you fast, that’s coming way faster.

It’s a great opportunity for those who are ready and able to take advantage of it because they’re going to reap a lion’s share of the benefits, aren’t they? 

Jeff White: I certainly think so. If you don’t have a platform currently that can actually take online orders, it’s gonna be that much harder to then build one to also take generative orders. 

Carman Pirie: Jeff, you’ve given us lots to think about. Thank you for going through this. I think it’s been fun to peel back the research a bit and just learn more about how you’re thinking about it. Thank you for sharing.

Jeff White: Oh, thank you. It’s always fun to attack things from an accessibility and UX lens.