I used to work for an auto supplier and saw the McMaster site and catalog nearly every day. The thing that was always fascinating about their site was they basically translated their Catalog 1:1 to the web and added some interactivity to it. It's similar to what IKEA did with the early versions of its website. As a result, McMaster's site is hyper-focused on presenting information in the densest and cleanest way possible because it's using techniques from print. It's not trying to upsell or advertise or offer support or this or that. It's pretty much the gold standard catalog-to-site port and one of the best ecommerce experiences out there.
That said, the way they've done things won't work for many ecommerce platforms. They're established, they have a massive catalog of highly-customizable parts, they sell in bulk, and they're (mostly) B2B. Those factors really lend themselves well to a simple, catalog-like experience. A new name selling to customers that only has 15 products isn't likely to benefit as much, although there are still things they could likely learn.
That said, the way they've done things won't work for many ecommerce platforms. They're established, they have a massive catalog of highly-customizable parts, they sell in bulk, and they're (mostly) B2B. Those factors really lend themselves well to a simple, catalog-like experience. A new name selling to customers that only has 15 products isn't likely to benefit as much, although there are still things they could likely learn.