Lincoln Electric Company improved its public Web site to provide users with an online catalog that allows users to locate products through several search tools.

“Our goal in rebuilding the public site was to provide our customers with all the information they wanted in the shortest amount of time,” said Jim Appledorn, Lincoln Electric's manager of e-business. “To facilitate this, we have created a much more efficient site structure that will get visitors to their desired destination as quickly as possible.”

The improved site, www.lincolnelectric.com, features five primary categories of navigation: products, knowledge, customer focus, corporate and community. The products section includes the product catalog, which allows visitors to locate products, select products to compare and then create a customized side-by-side comparison of the chosen products.

There are three ways to search the online catalog:

• Step search — With this method, users answer questions based on their particular needs to guide them to the appropriate product for the intended application.
• Browse — This search function allows visitors to find the Lincoln products they want by searching through various families of equipment and consumables.
• Keywords or product number — If the individual knows specific keywords or item numbers, they can be lead directly to the product they are looking for.

Selecting the “knowledge” category will provide users access to a library of articles and other written materials about the latest trends in the welding industry. The “customer focus” section allows visitors to access articles and information based on their individual interests. They can select from home/hobby/farm, construction, fabricating, manufacturing and motor sports. The “corporate” section provides site users with information regarding the company history, investor relations and even career opportunities. The “community” section provides information about upcoming trade shows and allows users to sign up for one of the company's distributor or customer newsletters.

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