As the world continues to increase investment in scientific research, the scale of the global scientific services industry is estimated to exceed 200 billion US dollars1. It is expected to continue to grow steadily in the future, with great potential. At the same time, with increasingly improved delivery services and a richer selection of online products, one-stop procurement through e-commerce has become the first choice for researchers from more and more enterprises, universities, medical care, government and other institutions. This trend is occurring not only in China, but also in countries and regions with larger industries such as the US and Europe.
In a questionnaire survey in 2023, 66% of participants said they purchased more than 50% of laboratory products online; of these, the proportion of online purchases of glass and plastic products in chemical reagents and laboratory consumables already exceeded 60% 2.

Moreover, scientific research and experimental supplies are also a racetrack with very obvious B-side attributes. Major industry users in this category include biopharmaceuticals, educational institutions, industrial commerce, government, and clinical institutions. According to third-party research, one notable characteristic of these users is that they value product quality more when purchasing, and price is not the primary factor in purchasing decisions 3. Nearly half of the respondents said their lab's budget for 2022 was over $500,000.
The rise of online procurement + B-side users with strong procurement demand has made scientific research and experimental supplies an emerging racetrack with great potential for growth. Now, more and more Chinese scientific research and experimental products companies have begun to replicate their e-commerce experience accumulated at home overseas by entering Amazon and relying on the huge advantages of China's supply chain. For example, LACHOI (LACHOI) and Four E's Scientific (Four E's Scientific) have become representatives of the transformation from traditional foreign trade to cross-border e-commerce, opening up huge business opportunities for overseas scientific research supplies.

LACHOI was founded in 2013. At that time, domestic e-commerce was still in a stage of rapid development, and many domestic scientific research institutions began experimenting with the new model of online procurement. LACHOI has grasped this perfect opportunity to lay out various products such as mixing, mixing, and separation, and have unearthed the “first pot of gold” on the scientific research circuit. By 2019, the sales volume of domestic e-commerce channels had reached hundreds of millions.
Although LACHOI has several years of e-commerce experience at home, in the past, overseas business was mainly based on traditional foreign trade. Mr. Shen mentioned, “Because developed countries such as Europe and America have higher requirements for the quality and performance of scientific research products. For example, magnetic stirrers require functions such as temperature setting, etc., so in the early days, our products actually had some limitations. ” Therefore, by 2019, LACHOI began choosing to carry out independent R&D and independent manufacturing, and with the improvement of LACHOI's product strength and brand power, it was also on LACHOI's schedule to develop its own e-commerce overseas through Amazon.

In 2022, LACHOI first entered Amazon's US and Japan sites, and then began expanding the European site. “Joining Amazon is a great opportunity for us to take our brand overseas. Overseas, we focused on Amazon because we think this approach of facing users is more valuable for brand development and settlement. ” At present, LACHOI has completed the layout of six categories on Amazon, including mixing, mixing, centrifugation, weighing, cleaning, and pipetting.
However, as an uncompromising cross-border “newbie,” LACHOI also naturally encountered some problems that had not been encountered before.
1. Compliance certification
Cross-border e-commerce for scientific research experimental supplies often requires special certifications, such as the EU Packaging Law and the Japanese Pharmaceutical Affairs Law.
2. Logistics transportation
Our products are basically standard parts. FBA can be used. We can also pack some powders, liquids, etc. into an integrated package, and complete domestic and foreign bilateral certifications to achieve smooth customs clearance and solve transportation problems.
3. Refined operation
In terms of product selection, scientific experimental supplies are not that detailed on Amazon. As a result, the data obtained by each product is not matched enough, making refined product selection difficult.

Amazon Business Purchase Becomes LACHOI's Growth Accelerator
The obvious B-side attributes of scientific research experimental supplies allowed LACHOI to choose to launch Amazon Enterprise Purchase as soon as it entered Amazon. After that, LACHOI quickly solved various operational problems with the support of the Enterprise Purchase Account Manager.
Reach a large number of customers: Corporate purchases have also brought LACHOI a large number of high-quality corporate users overseas, including MIT and Johns Hopkins University. From the initial small order to the maximum single order of 20,000 to 30,000 US dollars, they have established a long-term partnership with LACHOI. Since the end of 2022, MIT has placed 5 orders to purchase various products such as weighing and centrifuges.
Exclusive promotions on the enterprise side: At important points such as the beginning of school season, corporate purchases have also launched corresponding exclusive promotions to help us easily increase exposure and promote conversion. For example, after the back-to-school season promotion this year, the overall number of visits to the LACHOI store increased by 16%, the number of visits from the top 100 companies increased by 22%, and the overall share of B-side sales increased by about 14%.
After-sales are more worry-free: Professional B-side customers have skilled product usage experience. While saving the cost of user communication and education, they also bring valuable suggestions to LACHOI's product development, helping us improve various aspects such as panel materials, anti-corrosion design, and temperature control.

Compared to LACHOI, Four E's Scientific already has full experience across borders, and is a veritable big cross-border seller. In 2022, Four E's Scientific's sales volume on Amazon reached 2.4 million US dollars, of which B-side sales accounted for 35%.

First transformation: brand awareness+hard core product power OEM belt ➡ to establish own brand
In 2014, Four E's Scientific was founded in Guangzhou. The founder of the company was a supply chain executive of a leading enterprise in the scientific research instrument industry. He has a forward-looking and in-depth insight into the development potential of this industry. In the early days of its establishment, Four E's Scientific mainly relied on China's supply chain advantages for B2B foreign trade, but they always had the goal of becoming “China's Thermo Fly” and used their unique cost-effective advantage to seize new overseas growth. Precisely because of this vision, Four E's Scientific initially paid great attention to brand building and registered trademarks overseas.
From general laboratory instruments such as mixers and centrifuges to more technological pipettes, Four E's Scientific has built its own technical barriers. For example, the R&D, design, and manufacture of pipettes involves hundreds of materials. R&D investment is huge, and there are extremely high requirements for technical indicators such as accuracy, feel, and weight. Any minor error may have a “fatal” impact on the test results. For a long time, such products have been dominated by foreign brands. Four E's Scientific spent three years developing the pipette. In the middle, it repeatedly optimized the feel, weight, accuracy, and even experienced a wave of recalls, and finally built its own technical barriers on this product.

Breakthroughs in core technology have empowered Four E's Scientific to create highly competitive products. In 2015, Four E's Scientific met Amazon at Pittcon (Pittsburgh Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy Applications Conference and Exhibition), and Four E's Scientific's management team soon realized that cross-border e-commerce is not only an outlet for Chinese companies to go overseas, but also an excellent opportunity to build a global brand. In 2016, Four E's Scientific officially entered Amazon and began moving from traditional OEM/ODM and foreign trade businesses to more autonomous cross-border e-commerce, giving greater value to core technology through brand building.

Second transformation: Entering Amazon and starting enterprises to buy traditional foreign trade ➡ cross-border e-commerce
On Amazon, Four E's Scientific mainly sells miniaturized and affordable experimental equipment, and through a multi-brand and multi-store operation strategy, it provides customers with more accurate product choices in response to differentiated segmentation needs. This operating strategy also distinguishes them from traditional offline dealer channels and creates greater value for customers.
On Amazon, Four E's Scientific will focus on creating unique products such as general laboratory equipment to stand out on the racetrack. Prior to product development, we insist on thoroughly understanding user needs, conducting research and analysis in conjunction with Amazon reviews, paying special attention to the situation in different price ranges, accurately grasping user pain points, and ensuring that our products closely meet user expectations during the development process.
In the process, Amazon's exclusive account manager also provided us with valuable category data analysis and guidance to help us better expand the scientific research product category according to market capacity and growth trends.

At the same time, Amazon Enterprise Purchase has also become an important tool to drive Four E's Scientific's sales growth. Its transaction guarantee reduces the “cost of trust” of B-side transactions and helps drive sales conversion rates.
First, a series of tools provided by Amazon Enterprise Purchase have greatly simplified B-side operations. We fully combined a large amount of B-side order data and Amazon back-office suggestions, used the Enterprise Price and Quantity Discount (BPQD) tool to set pricing and quantity discounts for corporate purchases, and adopted differentiated pricing strategies for consumables, instruments, etc., which led to product orders. Currently, we have about 200 SKUs, the enterprise price and quantity discount (BPQD) setting rate has reached 72%, and the enterprise price browsing coverage rate has reached 99.1%.
Second, through Amazon Business Shopping, we can better understand our core online audience. The enterprise shopping back office has a data analysis of a group of sellers. From this, you can see the sales situation of categories, understand users' shopping habits, and promote the optimization and adjustment of listing and the creation of brand flagship stores based on this, attract B-side users with more attractive copywriting and scenario-based images, and further increase the conversion rate through Subscribe & Save (Subscribe & Save) and brand followers (Followers) remarketing.
Third, Amazon corporate purchases also have many exclusive promotions, such as the construction season, back-to-school season, and exclusive B-side events such as brand farms, which can promote bulk purchases of consumables and other products. Promotions bring an increase in traffic and conversion rates — we can see double-digit sales growth with every promotion, and the average conversion can also increase by nearly 20%.

At the same time, Four E's Scientific focuses on providing excellent pre-sales and after-sales services. “We will mark the technical characteristics and usage details of the product on the listing, and will be equipped with detailed instructions such as instructions and usage videos. When customers encounter various problems during use, our experienced after-sales engineer team will escort them, respond quickly, and solve all kinds of problems. Abbottt, Premiere Creative’s creative director.