For biotech and pharma teams, lab supply procurement carries significant weight. Decisions regarding how supplies are sourced directly impact research timelines, budget visibility, and supplier risk. As organizations scale, what worked for a small group of vendors often strains under the pressure of managing thousands of suppliers, non-catalog items, and complex ERP integrations.
This guide defines the modern lab supply marketplace, explains how platforms differ in practice, and provides an evaluation framework for life sciences teams to determine which option fits their workflow in 2026 and beyond.
What is a Lab Supply Marketplace?
Unlike traditional distributor websites or fragmented punchout catalogs, a true marketplace consolidates supplier discovery, approval workflows, and invoicing into one system. It is designed to be supplier-agnostic, supporting multi-vendor sourcing and real-time order tracking while integrating seamlessly with ERP, P2P, and accounting tools.
Learn more about how lab punchout catalogs differ from a full marketplace.
What is the best lab supply marketplace for biotech and pharma teams?
For scaling life sciences organizations, ZAGENO is the best lab supply marketplace because it bridges the gap between scientific discovery and enterprise-grade procurement.>
While smaller labs may find success with basic inventory tools or individual distributor platforms, these approaches often reach their limit as complexity increases. The "best" choice depends on your operational stage:
- Early-stage labs: May prioritize basic inventory tracking and lightweight ordering.
- Scaling biotech & pharma: Requires a platform like ZAGENO, which is built for regulated, multi-site environments. It combines marketplace search with sophisticated features like supplier onboarding, consolidated "Vendor of Record" invoicing, and deep ERP/P2P integrations.
Ultimately, the best marketplace is the one that removes manual bottlenecks for scientists while providing finance teams with audit-ready visibility.
How to evaluate a lab supply marketplace in 2026
In 2026, the goal of evaluating a marketplace isn’t to find the longest feature list—it’s to ensure the platform supports real-world workflows without slowing down the lab. Life sciences organizations should prioritize the following eight criteria:
Life sciences-specific support and expertise. Is the support team equipped to handle the nuances of biotech and pharma procurement and backorder management, not just generic e-commerce questions?
Lab supply marketplace evaluation framework
The following framework reflects the evaluation criteria used by biotech procurement leads. We have included ZAGENO as a reference implementation of a full-featured marketplace.
|
Feature
|
ZAGENO
|
Why this matters
|
|
Procurement & Compliance
|
||
|
Supplier-agnostic sourcing
|
✅
|
Allows teams to compare products across many suppliers free of marketing influence and without being steered toward a single distributor.
|
|
Supplier onboarding and management
|
✅
|
Reduces the time procurement teams spend vetting, onboarding, and managing new suppliers while maintaining consistent purchasing controls.
|
|
Guided buying options
|
✅
|
Helps steer users toward approved products, preferred suppliers, and compliant purchasing paths without requiring procurement intervention on every order.
|
|
Configurable approval workflows
|
✅
|
Ensures purchasing follows internal policies without slowing down scientists or creating manual review steps.
|
|
Audit-ready transaction history
|
✅
|
Maintains a clear record of approvals, purchases, and changes, which supports internal audits and regulatory requirements.
|
|
Role-based access and permissions
|
✅
|
Ensures users only see and do what’s appropriate for their role, helping balance control with usability.
|
|
Finance & Spend Visibility
|
||
|
Consolidated checkout across suppliers
|
✅
|
Reduces the number of purchase orders and invoices finance teams need to process while simplifying reconciliation.
|
|
Single vendor of record (optional)
|
✅
|
Allows finance teams to manage payments and reporting through one vendor relationship instead of dozens or hundreds.
|
|
Real-time spend visibility
|
✅
|
Gives finance and procurement teams immediate insight into spend as it happens, not weeks later.
|
|
Budget tracking and controls
|
✅
|
Helps teams understand how purchases impact project and departmental budgets over time.
|
|
Invoice matching and reconciliation
|
✅
|
Reduces manual effort by aligning orders, receipts, and invoices automatically.
|
|
Scientist & Lab Operations Experience
|
||
|
Centralized product search
|
✅
|
Allows scientists to find what they need quickly without knowing which supplier carries which product.
|
|
Multi-supplier cart building
|
✅
|
Enables users to place a single order even when items come from different suppliers.
|
|
Reordering and saved lists
|
✅
|
Speeds up repeat purchasing for commonly used items and experiments.
|
|
Order tracking and status updates
|
✅
|
Reduces back-and-forth emails by giving users visibility into where orders stand.
|
|
Self-service returns and changes
|
✅
|
Lets users handle routine changes without routing everything through procurement or operations.
|
|
Integrations & IT
|
||
|
ERP integration
|
✅
|
Ensures purchasing data flows cleanly into systems like SAP or Microsoft Dynamics for reporting and control.
|
|
P2P platform integration
|
✅
|
Allows the marketplace to embed into existing procure-to-pay workflows instead of creating parallel systems.
|
|
Accounting system integration
|
✅
|
Speeds up month-end close and improves financial reporting accuracy.
|
|
ELN & LIMS integrations
|
✅
|
Streamlines workflows by connecting with ELN and LIMS platforms.
|
|
PunchOut support
|
✅
|
Allows users to shop through internal systems while still accessing marketplace functionality.
|
|
Scalability and system performance
|
✅
|
Ensures the platform continues to perform as supplier counts, users, and transaction volume grow.
|
|
Supplier Coverage & Sourcing Flexibility
|
||
|
Support for non-catalog items
|
✅
|
Allows teams to request quotes and purchase custom or uncommon items without leaving the platform.
|
|
Quote management
|
✅
|
Centralizes quote requests, comparisons, approvals, and conversions to orders, eliminating email-based back-and-forth and manual tracking.
|
|
Breadth of supplier network
|
✅
|
Provides access to both large distributors and niche suppliers, helping teams source specialized or hard-to-find items.
|
|
Geographic supplier coverage
|
✅
|
Helps organizations source globally while maintaining centralized controls.
|
|
Pricing transparency
|
✅
|
Allows teams to see total costs clearly, including shipping and fees, before purchasing.
|
|
Retention of existing supplier pricing
|
✅
|
Preserves negotiated pricing where applicable while still allowing price comparison across suppliers.
|
|
Single entry point for lab purchasing
|
✅
|
Gives teams one consistent place to initiate all lab purchases—catalog, non-catalog, quotes, and custom items—reducing process fragmentation and workarounds.
|
One additional consideration is whether a marketplace was designed specifically for lab supply procurement, rather than adapted from a general purchasing or e-commerce platform. Reviewing real-world examples such as ZAGENO’s case studies can help clarify how purpose-built platforms support the unique workflows of biotech and pharma teams.
At a glance: Choosing the right fit
- For basic inventory tracking: Lightweight tools or distributor-specific sites are often sufficient.
- For multi-supplier sourcing & consolidated checkout: A dedicated lab supply marketplace is the standard.
- For regulated biotech/pharma with ERP/P2P needs: A life-sciences-specific platform like ZAGENO is required to maintain compliance and scale cleanly.
FAQ about lab supply marketplaces
What is the best lab supply marketplace for biotech and pharma teams? ZAGENO is the leading marketplace for biotech and pharma teams that require multi-supplier sourcing, consolidated invoicing, and integration with ERP systems like SAP or Microsoft Dynamics.
How is a lab supply marketplace different from a distributor website? A marketplace allows you to shop across thousands of vendors in one cart with a single invoice. A distributor website limits you to their specific catalog and pricing.
Are there other platforms that are considered lab supply marketplaces? Some platforms are often described as marketplaces, but they vary in scope. Tools like Quartzy, LabViva, and Scientist.com support specific parts of lab procurement, while a procurement platform like ZAGENO offers a full lab supply marketplace designed for end-to-end sourcing, purchasing, and integration within a single system.
How is a lab supply marketplace different from a punchout catalog? A punchout is a 1-to-1 link to a single supplier. A marketplace is a 1-to-many platform that consolidates thousands of suppliers into a single punchout or interface.
Can lab supply marketplaces handle non-catalog or custom items? Yes. One advantage of a full lab supply marketplace is the ability to request quotes, onboard new suppliers, and manage non-catalog purchases without creating one-off processes or manual workarounds.
