After years of making your own personal purchases online, it might occur to you that you might also be able to cut costs in your research lab by ordering fine chemicals from an online supplier. This can be an easy way to get chemicals more cheaply than you might be used to and to get the amounts you need at a lower price. However, if you've not made this kind of online purchase before you've got to think about the following.
Buy Domestically
One thing that's important to check out before you place any order is whether the supplier is from your country or another one. Some countries can offer you large discounts, but your chemicals could very well be stopped at the border and require you to provide certain documents or complete certain forms before you can accept delivery. This can be a tiresome and time-consuming process that you can easily avoid by sticking with domestic companies when you order fine chemicals over the internet.
Investigate Purity
When you see great prices, you may be delighted and eager to buy what you need for the lab. However, be aware that prices could be low because the quality is not what you're used to working with. Look for percentage purity and find out how they determine purity of their fine chemicals before you buy anything from them. Ensure that any chemicals you purchase will be at the same purity levels as the chemicals you have been using so that you don't disrupt experiments and studies you're working on.
Ask About Refunds
If you buy fine chemicals and get a batch you suspect isn't as pure as you were told or there's another problem, you need to be able to seek a refund. Ask about the policies in place so that you feel comfortable that if the chemicals you receive aren't what you expect, you can recoup your costs.
Call Customer Service
Whether or not you think you'll have a problem with your order, take some time to contact online suppliers to see if you can interact with their customer service department. You should be able to reach a live person easily and they should be able to answer your questions. Doing this before you order can save aggravation later; you don't want to buy chemicals only to find out that you can't reach anyone at the company.
Being able to prepare yourself for these issues can ensure that your order for fine chemicals will go through smoothly. Discussing your order with peers and doing some research into different suppliers, such as N&M Specialty Chemicals, can give you confidence that you're buying from a good company.
Share21 July 2017
Growing up in a family of entrepreneurs, I was always interested in how business worked. I spent a lot of time in my family's businesses watching the operations and trying to learn how to ultimately work for myself when I got older. Now that I am an adult, I'm still putting time into learning about entrepreneurship, start-ups, and small business management. I know that there are many people who would love to work for themselves but don't know where to start. I hope this site helps you to work through some of the basics and get started with launching your own business.