2018 Amazon Prime Day for Lab Shopping?
At Lab Spend, our data is showing a steady increase in the number of products that labs are purchasing from Amazon. This increase has mostly been for office supplies such as printer ink, batteries, cleaning supplies and not lab focused items. Amazon lists many of their scientific supplies, chemicals and equipment in their Industrial and Scientific section, which has existed for a number of years.
As the leader in scientific pricing, we are constantly comparing product offerings taking into account quality, stock and pricing to name a few. Amazon being the leader in consumer online shopping is always worth exploring. Prime Day on Amazon is currently their largest single volume day since it is known to offer special deals and promotions. We thought it would be a good time to compare their offerings on lab products.
Amazon: Lab Markers by VWR, catalog number 52877-398
Lab Spend Pricing Distribution:
Although $46.75 is less than the current list price from VWR of $71.08, it is not competitive compared to what researchers are actually paying as the average pricing is about $19. This means that Amazon is charging more than double what a lab would expect to pay.
Amazon: 10ml Serological Pipettes by Globe Scientific, catalog number 1760
Lab Spend Pricing Distribution:
The current list price from Globe Scientific for their 10ml serological pipettes is $65.60 and therefore are aggressively pricing on Amazon. However, the average price of what researchers are paying is closer to $30 so not yet competitive the average research lab. The pricing distribution show above represents what labs should expect to pay across the industry for 10ml serological pipettes and not this exact product.
Amazon: 50ml Centrifuge Tubes, Racked by Celltreat, catalog number 229420
The list price from Celltreat is $142 for their 50ml centrifuge tubes and therefore like Globe Scientific is listing products for less on Amazon. This centrifuge pricing is just on the cusp of what an average lab pays. Again this pricing distribution represents what labs should expect to pay for an equivalent 50ml centrifuge tubes and not this exact product.
Sigma Aldrich (Millipore Sigma) also has some products listed on Amazon, but they are more expensive when compared to their website.
For now, Amazon is not offering competitive prices compared to Fisher Scientific, VWR, Millipore Sigma and other major scientific distributors. The most competitive area for Amazon other than office supplies is in basic general labs supplies such as those used in a high school or undergraduate research labs such as nylon brushes and basic glassware. For example, VWR and Fisher have a 12 packs of nylon brushes for about $25 while Amazon has 20 for only $10. It has not escaped us that companies maybe trying to target different customer segments with their pricing and don’t want to compete with research labs through Amazon.
Since you or your lab manager have limited time to comparison shop, we recommend still focusing on lab suppliers and attaining multiple quotes. If need help knowing if your lab is paying a fair price, feel free to use our free pricing search engine within Lab Spend.