Carolina Biological Supply CompanyMastering the Science of Product Content

Company Overview

Founded in 1927 by Thomas E. Powell Jr., a geology and biology professor at Elon University, Carolina Biological Supply Company is a leading supplier of science teaching materials. Their mission is simple: To provide educators with the finest products and services that help students of all ages learn and understand science. Carolina Biological Supply Company partners with educators and scientists to supply everything from living organisms and preserved specimens, to laboratory equipment and microscope slides, and thousands of other items. Their products are used by students, teachers, professors, doctors, NASA scientists, astronauts and others in the scientific and health communities. Since its founding, Carolina Biological Supply Company has provided customers with world-class support, including exceptional service and prompt, reliable delivery.

The Situation

For years, the company relied on its mail-order catalog for sharing the latest products with its customers. But as the e-commerce landscape evolved, Carolina Biological Supply Company began to see a shift in how customers placed their orders. With the growth of online sales, Carolina Biological Supply Company struggled to optimise its pricing content into a single feed.

“As we expanded our online sales, it became increasingly difficult to get our pricing feeds into a consistent template. Data feed requirements are constantly changing. Our process for uploading pricing information across multiple marketplaces was inefficient, and oftentimes, the fields were not destination-compliant,” says Elizabeth Stanfield, Contract and B2B Manager, Carolina Biological Supply Company.

Known for its exceptional service, Carolina Biological Supply sought a solution to maintain their high levels of customer satisfaction and sales. They required a data feed service that would transform the quality of its pricing feeds to a variety of shopping engines, including Google.

The Solution

Carolina Biological Supply Company turned to ChannelAdvisor’s Product Content Optimisation (PCO), which enables brands and retailers to quickly and accurately map product and pricing data to the correct fields on various channels. Whether a seller is delivering feeds to marketplaces, shopping engines, affiliate networks or review sites, ChannelAdvisor’s data feed management software helps ensure product data is destination-compliant and mapped to the correct fields. Optimizing product and pricing content also means that feeds are approved faster – improving the customer experience and driving more sales.

The Results

“Implementing ChannelAdvisor’s Product Content Optimisation has made uploading data more efficient for the team,” Stanfield says. “Without this tool, the process would be manual through complex excel tables or queries. It’s given us extra time to focus on projects that require more attention.”

Stanfield emphasises that they “rarely have to contact the helpdesk” because the technology is user-friendly and intuitive. “However, any time we’ve had a question – from how to exclude items to how to write a specific formula in our feeds – the helpdesk has always been prompt.”

She adds, “ChannelAdvisor offers a straightforward, systematic process for managing our data feeds. The number of marketplace integrations they offer is also a huge benefit for any seller who wants to increase their sales.”

As Carolina Biological Supply Company looks to expand to additional marketplaces, Stanfield emphasises that she’ll continue to turn to ChannelAdvisor for strategic support and advice. “ChannelAdvisor is a great resource for us. It’s allowed us to maintain our competitive edge as well as our commitment to our customers, and we look forward to implementing additional platform capabilities this year.”