Everyday researchers use Lab Spend to find savings on the products their lab needs.

We’ve discussed basics on how to save on lab supplies if you want to negotiate with supplier and manufactures. However, today we want to discuss a technique that most labs don’t consider which is to order internationally. We’re based in the USA therefore in this example we will explore buying items in Canada.

Currently the exchange rate between US dollars (USD) and Canadian dollars (CAD) is 1.29.

This means that if a supplier is offering a product for $10 in the USA then it should cost $12.90 in Canada, but this is not always the case. Scientific suppliers list products with significant pricing discrepancies even when you consider exchange rate.

Let’s look at some examples:

VWR is offering Holmium triiodide, 25 grams for $1,149 USD therefore it should be $1,482.21 in CAD.

As you can see, if you are based in Canada then you would paying about 35% more or $636.05 than the exchange rate would suggest verse ordering in the USA.

This chemical is also non-hazardous therefore the shipping cost will not make up the difference.

Fisher Scientific offers Disposable Animal Feeding Needles that have a list price of $410 USD using the exchange rate this product should sell for $528.90 CAD.

However, this product has a list price of only $277.13 CAD, which is $214.44 USD. The savings when comparing the item in USD would be $410 verse $214.44 resulting in a savings of $195.56 or about 63%.

In these examples, we are comparing list prices which may differ from your account price. We are excluding shipping costs, but the savings can more than make up of the difference. As a reference, a package that ships ground within the USA for $15 would be about $35 to Canada.

At Lab Spend, we analyze a lot of pricing on scientific supplies and chemicals. Labs, distributors and manufactures sometimes ask us what are some good resources to find chemical and product prices.

Welcome to the thrilling world of cleaning data, a good place to get started is to write down all the prices from supplier catalogs. You can request or view them from large distributors such as VWR or Fisher Scientific on line or have them mailed to your lab. Next write down all the information you need about each product such as name, quantity and list price. Using the Fisher catalog as an example, you should end up with about 30,000 products with the total list prices summing to $8.5 million. As you probably already know scientific supplies are not usually purchased based on the list price. To get a better idea of what labs are actually paying, request pricing information from public institutions or look for contracts that are being used such as the NASPO Value Point contract. For example, here is a link to the VWR contract from the NASPO Value Point contract, which lists the discount from list price.

A section of the 6 page discount table is shown above, next locate the category that your product of interest belongs too in the discount table, subtract the discount and the result will give you an idea of what researchers are actually paying. You should keep in mind that prices and discounts do change over time. We built a pricing search engine for scientific lab supplies within Lab Spend that you can use for free, just in case making your search engine looks time consuming and not that exciting.

Kayak, Zillow, TrueCar and many other websites have made it easier for people to comparison shop.

Each of these websites has a specialty such as travel, homes or cars.

At Lab Spend, we’ve built a pricing search to help with scientific lab supplies, equipment and chemicals.

It’s easy to use, just enter a catalog number and a price distribution is returned, here’s an example for parafilm:

Instantly, you now have an idea of what the market is paying for a particular item. As you can see from the image above, it is common for labs to purchase a roll of parafilm for about $20. What is also worth noting is that they’re labs paying 3x (~$66) for the same product. Use Lab Spend to ensure it’s not your lab that is paying waaaay too much! Learn from the mistakes of other labs.

You can now leverage this pricing knowledge to see if what you are paying is fair. If your pricing isn’t great, send us a quote in Lab Spend or reach out to manufactures or distributors for better pricing. We value educated customers, try asking your current sales representatives for the price range that they charge for a product.

Historically, it’s been painful to know if you are getting a good price. Often times labs have a single person whether that it is a principle investigator, lab manager or graduate student that does the ordering. This person gains experience and knowledge about products and pricing, but other lab members often miss out. We’re making this process easier as we would rather have scientists doing research or lab manager focused on more important activities than comparison shopping. By using Lab Spend even lab members which are removed from the procurement process can quickly get a since of how much supplies cost, reducing the amount of time (ie. experience) needed to make wise purchasing discussions.

Recently, Nature published an article entitled, “How to start a lab when funds are tight” by Elie Dolgin. We’re always excited to see more attention on the importance of comparison shopping for scientific research and supplies.

The article mentions, parafilm, which is used in nearly all research labs, from the article, “On Amazon, a $100 roll of paraffin film sells for around $25.” We mentioned lab shopping on Amazon in the past and it’s nice to see them emerging as a competitive vendor. However, the data from Lab Spend is showing that researchers are paying on average $22 per a roll, which is a 12% savings.

Price Distribution, Parafilm, Catalog Number PM996:

The data shows that some labs are paying under $14 per a roll which is about a 45% savings from $25 as mentioned in the article. A scientist or lab manager thinks that paying 75% from list price ($100 verse $25) is a great deal unaware that others are paying even less. This pricing difference largely occurs since the pricing of scientific products is not transparent, which we are fixing. Also it is time consuming for researchers to comparison shop and contact sales reps.

The article mentions Paul Bracher using negotiating tactics with sales reps. Paul was purchasing a mass spectrometer that he didn’t need it right away. Contacted a number of vendors with his pricing and waited. Months later, a sales representative offered the instrument for almost as low a price as Bracher had initially offered. Negotiating matters, mass spectrometers can easily be more than $100,000 therefore he likely saved tens of thousands of dollars.

This line from the article made me smile…

“Besides, there’s often no need for aggressive negotiation tactics; most suppliers will accommodate reasonable requests to secure the business of a newly hired faculty member, notes Lisa Witte, president of Fisher Scientific, a lab-supply company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.”

Of course a person in sales is going to tell you not to negotiate aggressively with them. We see the best method is to attain multiple quotes, which is why at Lab Spend, product requests are sent to multiple manufacturers and distributors. It will also be interesting to see if companies like Amazon will make negotiating obsolete by listing a competitive price for their products.

The article goes on to mention the New Lab Start-Up Programs offered by Fisher, MilliporeSigma and VWR offer something similar so new PIs don’t have to negotiate. We often come across labs that are in a so called ‘special program’  such as New Lab or Academic pricing, please actually compare the prices and wary of them changing. We disagree with this approach and as an experiment (hey, we’re scientists) take the new lab pricing and email your sales rep. asking for 10% less on 5 items. Although 10% may not seem like a lot on smaller products, it can add up as most new labs have start six figure start up budgets. Also search for products on Lab Spend which has a pricing search engine to help you know if you’re getting a fair price.

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.

Congrats! You’ve taken the time to set up accounts to buy lab supplies from various scientific distributors. Often by setting up an account, your pricing is less than the list price. What you may not realize is that your account pricing can be greater than the list price.

The images above, show a $45.05 or 24% increase in the signed in price compared to the list price. This is aggravating since it means logging off and on to check if your price has increased or decreased compared to the list price.

In other cases such as in the image above, it is easy to see that your price is greater than the list price (List price $215.26 and Your price $255.00). In most instances, the price is lower, but it’s another pricing trick that labs don’t usually consider.