B2C website targets makers, hobbyists, education

2nd February 2018

Mick Elliott

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Hobbyists and makers as well as those involved in technology education now have a website to call their own. Premier Farnell has launched forthings.io, a B2C website described by Steve Carr, Global Head of Marketing at Premier Farnell and Farnell element14 as “a content-driven and transactional site.”

There are 600 products on the site all chosen to support an electronics project or more ambitious box build. Single board computers including BeagleBone and Arduino will be prominent alongside Premier Farnell’s best-selling Raspberry Pi computer and the BBC Micro:Bit.

Memory cards, power jacks, sensors to support an IoT eco system will be found alongside tweezers and wire cutters as well as basic test and measurement tools such as multimeters.

“It saves customers having to trawl around sites finding the right products for their project, they can find it all here on one site,” says Carr. It offers everything a consumer needs for the build out of a project.”

Content will be key to the success of the site, and it will be educational and project-related.

On the one had Carr sees parents and children finding the solutions for Raspberry Pi-based school projects which might embrace basic coding. How to make music with the BBC Micro:Bit will be a feature of the site when it goes live today (February 1)

Carr hopes it will be a stepping stone to encourage children to pursue a career in electronics engineering.

Makers and hobbyists will also find content which will include examples of successful projects based on BeagleBone or Arduino giving advice and support to take a project to fruition. Opening day features a Raspberry Pi-based IoT project.

Content is being harvested both from an in-house team and from Avnet sister company Hackster.io. Videos, white papers, project plans and guides will all feature.

“We believe that forthings.io is unique in the market as the only place where customers can access project-based content and products to support their adventures in electronics”, continues Carr. “Customers can access these benefits via a user-friendly site with a format that bundles together a “one-stop” approach to sales, service and product support, backed by the massive resources of the Premier Farnell organisation. The result is faster access to the latest technology developments at competitive prices, enabling users to achieve results that would not previously have been possible.”

The forthings.com site has gone live in the UK and Ireland, Spain, Denmark, Finland and Sweden.

Other sites will follow as Premier Farnell works to meet other European countries’ different B2C site compliance regulations