StudiesAdoption and Use of eCommerce in the Lab The Internet continues to change every aspect of our lives and affects the way you, as a scientist, make decisions about the products necessary to conduct your research. The Science Advisory Board conducted a study on how eCommerce influences your productivity in the lab. Almost 1,800 members from The Science Advisory Board shared their experiences with online ordering, supplier Web site functionality, and electronic customer service in the life sciences. Highlights from the study are presented in this Study Snapshot to help you make the online ordering of research products efficient and hassle-free. Integrating eCommerce into the Lab As scientists become more accustomed to online ordering - whether through their personal and/or professional lives - expectations of what constitutes an optimal eCommerce experience evolves. Whether or not a scientist decides to purchase a product online is to a large extent based upon his or her perceptions of the costs and benefits of finding, ordering, and receiving that product. How life science suppliers minimize these costs - usability flaws and unmet customer needs - will influence scientists’ willingness to purchase products online in the future. In general, the use of eCommerce by life scientists is likely to be relatively high. Of the nearly 1,800 scientists surveyed for this study, only 31% have never personally placed a life science product order online. Study respondents currently purchase 34% of their life science products online. This percentage has risen 14% since 2004. Custom products such as oligos and antibodies (51%) and biologicals (44%) are the most frequently purchased products online. Academic respondents purchase more custom products online than industrial respondents. In contrast, industrial respondents tend to purchase more of the following products online than academic respondents: • Accessories and replacement parts • Apparatus • Biologicals • Equipment/instrumentation • Glassware/plastics • Research specialty kits Due to the expense of instrumentation and the potential for customization sales reps are often required to facilitate the ordering process and hence, instruments and expensive piece are the least purchased products online. Feeling Secure about Internet Security How widespread eCommerce becomes in the lab depends to a large extent on keeping supplier Web sites and customer data safe. Fortunately, most respondents are not overly concerned with such security-related threats as compromised personal data, phishing attacks, spyware intrusions, unauthorized access to credit card information, and virus infections. This lack of apprehension may reflect the confidence scientists feel in suppliers’ ability to safeguard their sites and the information they obtain from their customers. Deciding Where To Shop When scientists consider where to purchase products online, the breadth of products available is a more important factor for suppliers that serve a distributor role (e.g., VWR International and Thermo Fisher Scientific) than for manufacturers. Additionally, for manufacturers known to have extensive product offerings through their print catalogs (e.g., Sigma-Aldrich, Bio-Rad, Invitrogen), scientists expect their online product offerings to be comparable. This product diversity is a deciding factor in their online purchase decisions. For other suppliers with a more focused product offering (e.g., Promega, Qiagen, Integrated DNA Technologies), breadth of products is not as critical to scientists in their online purchase decisions. Respondents typically order life science products online from approximately six different companies. This finding suggests that the types of products purchased online are diverse and that scientists can not fulfill all of their product needs by only purchasing from a single supplier. Study respondents voted Sigma-Aldrich, Invitrogen, and VWR International as Web Sites that had the most user-friendly eCommerce tools. Finding Out Your Price Access to product prices is an essential piece of information for many scientists who order products online. Scientists are particularly interested in knowing institution-specific pricing and any special promotions. They are less concerned with finding out lab-specific pricing or list pricing when making an online purchasing decision. Respondents also expressed a preference for the types of products that were most important for them to receive pricing data: biologicals, apparatus, and custom products. Specifying a Payment Option Most scientists appear to be happy with the way they pay for products purchased online. The majority of respondents use purchase order numbers. Credit cards are used by slightly more than one-quarter of survey respondents and are the only other means of online payment that scientists would actually use in any significant numbers. Supplier-specific cards that can be loaded with a particular dollar balance have not yet become popular. Actual and Preferred Means of Paying Online  Managing the Order Process Scientists need to document and track their online orders. Ensuring that these tasks can be performed efficiently using the tools provided through a Web site’s eCommerce software helps to ensure that a customer’s needs are being adequately met. For example, after purchasing a product online, 45% of respondents prefer to receive confirmation of their order via email. Additionally, 41% of respondents believe that it is extremely important to be able to access their order status online Customizing Your Online Ordering By customizing the online shopping experience, suppliers can modify the functionality, interface, content, or distinctiveness of their eCommerce site in order to increase its relevance to an individual customer. This degree of personalization facilitates the building of a mutually beneficial online relationship between a supplier and a customer. At the core of this relationship is the sense of trust felt by the scientist, which is an essential component of any successful life science eCommerce site. Personalization can help to improve a scientist’s online shopping experience by enabling him or her to: • Engage in the purchasing process • Experience Web-based interactivity • Receive relevant information • Participate in a peer community Web Features that Customize the Online Shopping Experience  By balancing privacy concerns and their willingness (and patience) to set up complex personalization features, scientists can maximize the benefits of Web site customization. Such online features as saved shopping carts, lists of favorite products, product recommendations, and automatic reordering options put the onus on suppliers—rather than themselves—to generate, thus minimizing the shopping burden. Scientists have the opportunity to enhance their eCommerce experience by providing feedback to suppliers on the informational, transactional, and interactive aspects of their Web sites. Suppliers continue to need your suggestions on how to improve their eCommerce Web sites and better meet your online purchasing needs with regard to pricing, functionality, customer service, product selection, payment options, and order-related information [ View Current & Future Studies ] [ View Past Studies ] |
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