In the eCommerce world, there are some things that just make sense. In the more specific world of lab supply eProcurement, suppliers using a digital marketplace is one of those things.
Now in their second decade of use, digital marketplaces are a one-stop shop for lab managers and scientists to virtually order their lab supplies, materials, and equipment that they need to succeed in the lab. For these lab managers and scientists, the introduction of digital marketplaces has revolutionized the way they procure supplies. The digitization of the lab supply procurement process has not only made it easier for them to receive the supplies they need when they need them, but it has reduced human errors in the process and made the entire ordering process much easier for buyers.
How Digital Marketplaces Benefit Lab Supply Vendors
For suppliers and vendors, this digitization of the lab supply procurement process practically reinvented the eProcurement wheel. Vendors no longer need to rely on sending reps to individual labs in order to manually procure or renew customer contracts. Instead, vendors can use digital marketplaces as a resource to reach new clients, be more accessible for labs looking for niche supplies, and participate in an even playing field between large vendors and smaller suppliers.
As a supplier, the more active a role you take in the order procurement process, the more you will signal to potential future customers that you are up for the task of delivering them with the supplies they need. In 2021, that active role looks like partnering with a digital marketplace to streamline your lab supply procurement process.
4 Reasons Why Suppliers Should Use a Digital Marketplace
In 2021, biopharma R&D teams intent on supporting innovation and in order to address product availability added up to 50% new suppliers. To put it mildly, the industry is getting crowded. And with such a long roster of vendors for scientists to choose from when in need of supplies, it’s more important than ever that suppliers make themselves accessible to customers through the use of a digital marketplace.
Not convinced yet? Here are the top four reasons why suppliers should use a digital marketplace:
With so many different specialties buyers can have in the life science world, it’s natural for suppliers to create customer segments for more targeted marketing and product creation. The only problem with segmented customer lists is that the segmented nature implies that they all reside in different places or corners of the internet.
The strength of a digital marketplace comes from its ability to become a central location for all specialties to utilize equally. When a supplier uses a digital marketplace they have the ability to appeal to all of their customer segments at once, and discover niche segments like researchers who purchase chemical products, genetic products, or pharmaceutical development-focused lab supplies.
It comes as no surprise that scientists and lab managers don’t often have an abundance of extra time on their hands and one of the most time consuming things they are tasked with is comparing vendor prices when ordering supplies.
One of the primary benefits of using a digital marketplace is that they automatically compare vendor prices for users, cutting down the time it takes for them to place an order. For this reason and many others, scientists have flocked to digital marketplaces for their supply procurement needs.
This is great news for vendors, particularly those with smaller marketing budgets that may struggle to attract new customers. Instead of creating demand for new customers elsewhere, suppliers can host their products on a digital marketplace and in turn meet customers where they already are.
Another primary reason why the digitization of the lab supply procurement process helps lab supply vendors is the inclusion of a search tool. Not only does searchability in a digital marketplace make it even more user friendly for scientists and lab managers who have previously had to struggle with nonexistent or non-functional search functions, but it also exists as a way for smaller, niche vendors without any existing name recognition to be found.
When scientists search for an item, they may not be tied to a certain brand. Particularly during a time where the supply chain is variable, researchers may seek out alternate sources of lab products that are needed for research projects to move forward and hit key project milestones.
A dominant recent trend in the industry is the emergence of biopharma vendor consolidation. In order to keep up with scientific innovations and experiments, some big suppliers are banding together in order to form these biopharma vendor consolidation super groups.
Without digital marketplaces, this move would have the power to halt any potential success that smaller vendors might have had coming for them down the road. Digital marketplaces don’t allow this consolidation to affect the chances of a smaller vendor competing for customers with a larger one and instead allow specialty vendors to be on the same playing field as their larger competition.
The digitization of the lab supply procurement process transformed the way scientists and lab managers obtain materials as well as the way vendors reach their audiences. For more insights into the lasting impact of this embrace of the digital, explore 7 Benefits of Digital Procurement for Life Science R&D.
