Historically, lab supply distribution has been a largely opaque business. Lab managers and researchers would place orders and hope for the best. There typically wasn’t a great deal of accuracy with regard to delivery times or product availability, and reaching out for customer support was a futile effort, especially when buying from massive suppliers.
But thanks to the role that Amazon has played in elevating customers’ expectations for fast service, other businesses, including lab supply manufacturers, have had to step it up. As suppliers work to provide a better service to their customers, distributors like Quartzy are spotlighting those who excel at satisfying customers.
An end-to-end lab supply inventory management platform, Quartzy is dedicated to pushing suppliers to be more data and experience-driven—for the sake of delighting a shared pool of customers and the industry at large. To that end, we recently introduced a supplier scorecard, a proprietary rating system that it uses to evaluate suppliers and improve the effectiveness of search results on our own ecommerce platform, the Quartzy Shop.
Understanding the Quartzy Scorecard
Quartzy evaluates suppliers across a number of factors, including order volume, cancellations, customer ticket volume and resolution rate, delivery time and accuracy, and backorders. Quartzy also considers the cost of maintaining a supplier’s product catalog, and evaluates how effectively the supplier’s inventory is integrated with Quartzy’s customer-facing inventory platform.
Though other distributors employ similar rubrics, Quartzy’s scorecard is unique in that it relies on data not only from its ecommerce searches and transactions, but also customer data housed in Quartzy’s supply management platform. Altogether, this rich data set yields a score and ranking of gold, silver, bronze, or none. So what is the incentive for suppliers to move up the ranks? Greater visibility in search results, co-marketing opportunities with Quartzy, shared analytics, and more.
“We're working really hard to make our website accurate and increase user trust when it comes to the lead times that we're quoting on products. We're pulling the suppliers and the manufacturers along with us. Our goal is to speed up and automate the communications around orders. Some suppliers are better at this than others, and that's what led to the development of the scorecard,” Steve Tolmie, director of business development at Quartzy, says.
So who are the top-rated suppliers according to Quartzy’s scorecard? The six gold companies below have a few similar traits, including delivery estimate accuracy, reliability of products, and responsiveness to customers. Here’s what makes each stand out:
Meet Quartzy’s Top 6 Suppliers
Millipore Sigma provides biochemicals and reagents for both research and industry labs. Over the course of the pandemic, the supplier has worked to increase the scarce availability of COVID research supplies, expediting orders that pertain to this timely research.
A provider of molecular biology reagents and solutions for next-generation sequencing (NGS), New England Biolabs excels in consistency. Its supplies rarely fail during experiments—this reliability is crucial in the expensive field of sequencing, where one faulty run in a sequencer can cause thousands of dollars.
Agilent offers not only lab supplies, but also analytics instruments and software for life sciences, chemical analysis and diagnostics labs. Its products span a wide range of categories and research types. Yet, despite its massive catalog, the supplier offers one of the most simple and seamless order experiences in the industry.
Jackson ImmunoResearch is the go-to source for antibodies and conjugates. The supplier offers antibodies across many different hosts and targets, meaning it can meet an array of research needs. When working with antibodies, binding specificity is essential, and Jackson ImmunoResearch has a proven track record of reliability and verified results.
Specializing in sample collection and preservation kits, Zymo also offers a full suite of epigenetics testing kits. Users praise it for the simplified workflows and completeness of its kits—its EZ DNA Methylation kits are the most cited in the industry for DNA methylation analysis.
Quartzy has two fulfillment centers on both coasts of the United States in Hayward, CA and Pinebrook, NJ. We provide reliable access to the supplies you need and accelerated shipping times so that you’re never out of stock. We stock and ship supplies from our portfolio of 1,800+ brands to make sure you get greater product availability and the best possible buying experience. To find items shipping directly from Quartzy, activate the “Ships from Quartzy” toggle within the Quartzy Shop.
