Thomas Scientific

Thomas Scientific has been serving the worldwide scientific supplies market since 1900. Traditionally, business has been generated by sales calls and by catalogs as thick as phone books, found in nearly every science lab in the country. Thomas Scientific knew that to continue to be relevant to the future of science, they needed to invest in eCommerce. But they didn't just want a new B2B eCommerce site; they wanted to leapfrog their competition by creating the most powerful site in their industry.

One of the big challenges for Thomas was accurately reflecting different pricing structures across their wide and disparate customer base. This is a common issue for companies that have grown in more traditional sales environments, where sometimes different deals are made even within different departments of the same institution. The new site, built on the WebLinc Direct for B2B platform, provides variable pricing based on customer login. Just as importantly, the site also allows for approval routing, enabling primary account holders to approve the spend limits of sub-account holders. This is essential functionality for schools and large institutions that have specific procurement procedures in place.

Thomas’s vast catalog demanded a site that could contain hundreds of thousands of SKUs across varied product types, from acids to beakers to spectrophotometers. Helping Thomas’s customers easily find exactly the right supplies was crucial — their scientific experiments depend on it. WebLinc incorporated faceted search functionality that helps customers navigate their search results. Faceted search also allows for product browsing alphabetically, and by suppliers or industry, all without the need to involve third-party technology partners. The site also allows customers to compare up to four products at a time, to easily see the differences between each.

The products that Thomas Scientific sells come with a high quantity of associated content. Not only do the products need to communicate catalog numbers, manufacturer part numbers, and multi-faceted descriptions, but they also needed to be flexible enough to allow for MSDS data sheets and educational PDFs. Using tabs within product pages, WebLinc was able to convey this information in a way that makes shopping easy.

The new site also helps customers track spending against grants, easily categorize and re-order products through Frequent Buy Lists, and generate competitive quotes from the company’s sales and customer service departments.

Business-to-Business and manufacturer eCommerce sites are often plagued by antiquated designs and haphazard site functionality. These businesses are beginning to understand that eCommerce is a vital part of their future. WebLinc Direct for B2B can help make that future a reality now.

Visit the site:

www.thomassci.com