10x Genomics is expanding its business to e-commerce. While it’s growing, I’ll share some insights into our customers and features we’ve built along the way.

About 10x Genomics

10x Genomics is a biotechnology company that designs and manufactures gene sequencing technology used in scientific research. I manage the company’s web platforms, including 10xgenomics.com and kb.10xgenomics.com.

A year into my tenure, 10x Genomics launched the beginnings of an e-commerce platform at 10xgenomics.com/store. Two years into my tenure, the 10x Genomics Store became an official part of my product ownership.

 

How does B2B e-commerce differ from B2C?

In B2C, you can authorize purchase and payment yourself.

In B2B/institutional purchasing, you need business function and finance authorization to place an order. Products are paid for via Purchase Orders.

At a Glance

The 10x Genomics Store is divided into a few key experiences. We’ll dive into a couple of features I worked on below.

Experiment Builder

A customer that’s new to the 10x workflow may not realize that several products are required to conduct a single experiment. The 10x products often interact in complex ways, depending on the product type and its intended use.

Here’s just a small subset of the types of products we have:

  • Nuclei Isolation Kits

  • Library Construction Kits

  • Feature Barcoding Kits

  • Core Reagents Kits

Before we entered e-commerce, Sales representatives needed to talk directly with customers to understand their needs and suggest products. Recommendations varied by who the customer spoke to.

To address this, we created the Experiment Builder. This tool includes forms that help customers choose the right products from our catalog based on a few key inputs. Now, Sales representatives have a reliable reference and can focus on more personalized conversations.

Verification

Let’s come back to B2B purchasing. To reiterate the above, with this business model, you need business function and finance authorization to place an order. Products are paid for via Purchase Orders.

Our customers’ funding source is unique, compared to many other businesses. The United States Federal Government issues millions of dollars in grants to universities and research institutions, via large organizations like the National Institutes of Health (NIH). We use authenticated purchase orders to ensure that our customer’s funding source is legitimate and authorized.

The organization affiliation features we have then link these multiple, separate entities together: the Customer’s Organization (the buyer), the Customer (a representative from the buyer), and 10x Genomics (the seller).

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