BUYER'S CHECKLIST
A 12-point buyer's checklist for parts catalog software
Each question is written so that a vague answer is itself informative. Take them to a vendor, or to the internal team proposing the build — the questions do not change.
- Can a shopper reach a specific part without knowing its part number? Walk through it with a real assembly and a part that sits awkwardly inside it. Count the clicks. If the answer starts with “they can search by…”, the product is a lookup tool, not an identification tool.
- Does it render inside my existing storefront? If it lives somewhere else, you are maintaining a second catalogue, with its own checkout implications and its own SEO. Ask what is shared and what is duplicated.
- What does the script in my page authenticate with? The honest answer is a browser-safe, read-only key restricted to your domains, or a short-lived token minted by your own server. If the answer is your account secret in page source, stop there.
- After installation, how many places do I change a price? One is correct. Two means the catalogue has been duplicated and will drift.
- Which integrations are actually shipped, and can I install one today? Ask for the package, not a roadmap slide. Then ask what the install requires: a theme edit, a recompile, a Content Security Policy change, a settings screen?
- What happens on a product with no mapping? The only acceptable answer is that nothing renders, cleanly and without an error. An empty widget or a broken frame on an unmapped page is a sign of what the rest of the product is like.
- What happens when I revise a diagram? If callouts are stored as coordinates against the artwork, a redraw moves every marker. Ask how a revision is handled and who notices when it is wrong.
- Who owns the diagram, the mapping and the buy links? The mapping you build is the asset. It should be yours, exportable, and not lock the diagram to the vendor.
- Show me the meter. Ask exactly what you are charged for — models, catalogs, parts, domains, traffic — and what a doubling of each would cost. A price list without a meter is not a price list.
- Can I leave? If you stop paying, what remains? You should be able to export the mapping and keep the diagrams, because you brought them.
- Does it work on a phone, with a keyboard, and with a screen reader? Diagrams are visual by nature, but the parts list beside them is not. Ask how a shopper who cannot see the diagram selects a part.
- What breaks first, and how would I know? Every integration has a failure mode — a theme update, a hook removed, a domain changed. Ask what the product does when it fails, and whether it tells you or leaves you guessing.
How to score it. You are not looking for twelve yeses. You are looking for answers specific enough that the person giving them has clearly thought about your catalogue rather than about the category. Generic confidence is the thing to be suspicious of.
If you are evaluating Partsy with this list
Apply it the same way. It renders inside your storefront; the browser credential is a read-only publishable key restricted to your allowed domains; the mapping is yours and exportable; parts are unlimited on every tier including Free; and diagrams are stored by us but supplied by you. Where we are weak, we would rather say so: if you need a configurator that re-prices an assembly as components are ticked, that is not us, and you should build it.
For the reasoning behind the list, start with how to choose. For what it costs, the cost post breaks it into line items.