Built Around You: The Thinking Behind Our New Website

For a lot of people, our website is the first Mag & Turbo store they walk into. Sometimes that’s on the couch on a Sunday night. Sometimes it’s in a car park, just after hearing a noise that doesn’t sound right. Either way, you’ve come to us with a question, and the website’s job is to help you get an answer quickly and without any fuss.

Our current website has served us well, but the way people shop for tyres and wheels has changed, and so have the standards we hold ourselves to. So we’ve been quietly rebuilding it from the ground up. It isn’t finished yet, and we won’t switch it on until it’s right, but we wanted to share the thinking behind it now.

This isn’t a feature list. It’s the handful of principles every decision on the new site has had to pass, in order of priority.

1. Your Experience Comes First

Before anything was designed, we asked one simple question of every page: would this make sense to someone who has never bought a tyre before?

Take searching for tyres by size. To do it, you need three numbers from the side of your tyre: the width, the profile and the rim size. Most people have no reason to know what those are, or where to find them. On our current site you’re handed three drop-down menus and left to work it out. On the new site, a picture of a real tyre shows you exactly where each number is, highlights the one you’re looking for, and walks you through it one step at a time. And if you get stuck, help from a real person at your local store is one tap away.

Searching for tyres by size on a phone. Left: our current website. Right: the new guided search, which shows you where each number is on your tyre.

2. Easy For Everyone To Use

A great experience doesn’t count for much if some people can’t use it. Ease of access is our second priority, and it means a few different things.

Designed for your phone first. More and more of you are visiting us on a phone, often with one hand and not always with great coverage. So the new site is designed at phone size first and then scaled up for bigger screens, not the other way around. Buttons are big enough for a thumb, text is big enough to read without zooming, and calling or emailing us is always one tap away.

Built for the way you use your device. We’re building in clear contrast between text and backgrounds, visible highlights when you move around a page with a keyboard, labels that screen readers can announce properly, calmer motion if your phone is set to reduce it, and a dark mode for anyone who finds it easier on the eyes.

Plain English. We’ve swapped jargon for everyday words. Where a technical term does matter (and with tyres, a few do), we explain it right there and then.

3. Clear, Honest Information

When you walk into one of our stores, you can see the range, compare things side by side and ask as many questions as you like. We want browsing online to feel just as natural, and just as upfront.

On the new site, every tyre is shown the same way on the same clean background, so you’re comparing tyres rather than photos. The things most people want to know, like the rim sizes a tyre comes in and whether it’s an all-season, summer or EV-suitable tyre, are right there at a glance. Choose your size or vehicle type and the range narrows down instantly, with no reloading and no starting again.

A preview of the new tyre range page: set your size once, then narrow things down by vehicle type.

4. Quick, Even On A Slow Connection

Nobody likes waiting for a page to load, especially when you’re standing next to your car. We’re redoing our product photos in a modern, lightweight format so pages load faster and use less of your data, and we’ve cut out steps wherever a step wasn’t earning its place. Fewer taps, less waiting, more time on the road.

5. Real People, Close By

A new website doesn’t change who we are. Same people, same honest advice, same 0800 624 748 number, and the same team at more than 20 stores around the country. There’s nothing you need to do: when the new site is ready, it will simply replace this one.

What Isn't Changing

A website should never get in the way of talking to a person. Every store gets its own page on the new site, with the address, phone number, a map and directions, so your nearest team is never more than a couple of taps away.

Speaking of finding us: From mid-October you’ll find us at The Mount, on the corner of Hull Road and Totara Street, with great parking. Nothing changes at our Cameron Road or Tauriko store on Matakokiri Drive.

Tell Us What Would Make It Better

Some of the best ideas in this rebuild came from our customers and store teams. If something on our website has ever frustrated you, or there’s something you wish it did, we’d love to hear about it. Mention it next time you’re in store, or give us a call on 0800 624 748.

We’ll share more as we get closer to launch. Because tyres matter, and so does your time.

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