Checking a supplier
Choosing an Australian research peptide supplier: a buyer’s checklist
The 16 checks behind every Vialwise score, from lab reports and ABNs to Australian dispatch and policies: what each one tells you, and where to find it.
- Published
- Reading time
- 8 min read
On this page7 sections
Key takeaways
- Judge what you can verify: lab reports you can open at the lab, a business you can look up, and policies in writing.
- Lab testing carries the most weight, 40 of 100 points: publishing reports, being able to check them at the lab, and reports that name the supplier are worth 12 points each, and the share of the products you can order today that have a public report is worth 4 points.
- A missing item means “not found on the pages checked”. It is a reason to ask the supplier, not a verdict.
- Run the same checklist on any supplier with our free tool, and compare your answers with our rankings.
Plenty of Australian websites sell research peptides, and at first glance most of them look alike: clean product photos, a purity figure, a line about shipping. The differences that matter sit in the details a supplier publishes, or doesn’t, about who they are, how their material was tested and what happens after you order.
This is the checklist behind every Vialwise score, written up so you can run it yourself on any website in about fifteen minutes.
Start with what you can check
Every check below is something you can confirm on the supplier’s own website, plus one lookup on the Australian Business Register. That is deliberate. The score measures how much a supplier lets you verify, not how good its product is: we don’t lab-test other suppliers’ stock, so we don’t pretend to rate it. Reviews aren’t scored either, because star ratings are hard to verify and easy to collect.
The checks fall into four groups, weighted by how much each one tells a buyer. The full method, including how partial answers are scored, is on how we score.
Where the points go
100 in total
- 40 points:Lab testing4 checks
- 25 points:Business identity6 checks
- 20 points:Australian fulfilment3 checks
- 15 points:Policies & labelling3 checks
Lab testing
Lab testing carries the most weight, 40 points of 100, because it is the only evidence about the material itself that you can see before you order. Within it, publishing reports, being able to check them at the lab, and reports that name the supplier are worth 12 points each, and the share of the products you can order today that have a public report is worth 4 points.
We grade the two report checks from the reports themselves: the first ones on each supplier’s own site, read one by one where they could be opened, with what each shows listed on the supplier’s profile under “Reports we opened”. When you look for yourself, open a few reports rather than one, and read the client field as well as the result.
4 checks
40 points in total
Certificates of analysis published on the site
12 pts- Why it matters
- A report for each product, on the site, before you buy. Without one you have only the supplier’s description.
- Where to look
- Product pages, and a lab results or COA page, usually linked from the menu or footer.
COAs checkable at the testing lab (verify link or key)
12 pts- Why it matters
- A verify link or code that opens the same report on the lab’s own website turns a document into evidence.
- Where to look
- A verify link beside each report, or a task number printed on it. Our Janoshik walkthrough shows the steps.
Reports name this supplier
12 pts- Why it matters
- A report that names the supplier, as the client or in the manufacturer, sample or vial-label details, shows whose sample was tested. With the client covered or showing another name, and no supplier name in the manufacturer, sample or vial-label details, the report alone doesn’t tie the result to this shop.
- Where to look
- The Client field near the top of each report, then the manufacturer and sample lines.
Share of the products you can order today that have a public report
4 pts- Why it matters
- A long list of reports says little if the product you want isn’t on it. What counts is how much of what you can actually order today has a report you can open.
- Where to look
- The shop’s catalogue, every page of it: count each compound or blend once, leave out what is sold out in every size, and check which of the rest have a report on the COA page or the product page. How we count it.
When you open a report, read what it measured, not just the headline figure: see purity versus peptide content and how HPLC and mass spec work.
Business identity
The identity group, worth 25 points, asks one question: can you tell who you are buying from, and reach them if you need to?
6 checks
25 points in total
ABN displayed on the website
8 pts- Why it matters
- It names the legal business behind the site, and anyone can look it up for free.
- Where to look
- Footer, contact, about or terms pages.
ABN active on the Australian Business Register
5 pts- Why it matters
- An ABN that has been cancelled, or that belongs to a different business, is worth a question before you pay.
- Where to look
- ABN Lookup at abr.business.gov.au. See checking a supplier’s ABN.
Legal entity named
4 pts- Why it matters
- The company or person you would be buying from, not only a brand name.
- Where to look
- Contact and terms pages, and the checkout.
Business address published
3 pts- Why it matters
- Where the business operates, and where correspondence can go.
- Where to look
- Contact page and policies.
Contact email published
3 pts- Why it matters
- A direct way to reach a person, and a written record of what was said.
- Where to look
- Contact page and footer.
Contact phone published
2 pts- Why it matters
- Usually the quickest way to sort out a problem with an order.
- Where to look
- Contact page and footer.
Australian fulfilment
Fulfilment, worth 20 points, is about what happens between paying and receiving. Material that spends less time in transit, with a carrier you can track, arrives in a more predictable state.
3 checks
20 points in total
States it dispatches from Australia
10 pts- Why it matters
- Domestic dispatch means an Australian carrier, tracking you can follow end to end, and no international customs step.
- Where to look
- Shipping policy, FAQ and product pages. Look for a named city or state.
Shipping policy with fees and timeframes
5 pts- Why it matters
- Fees and timeframes in writing, ideally in business days with a cut-off time.
- Where to look
- A shipping page, usually linked in the footer.
Tracked delivery stated
5 pts- Why it matters
- A tracking number shows where a parcel is, and gives both sides a record if it goes missing.
- Where to look
- Shipping policy, FAQ or the order confirmation.
Policies and labelling
The last group, worth 15 points, covers the pages most people only read when something has gone wrong. It is better to read them first.
3 checks
15 points in total
Refund / returns policy published
6 pts- Why it matters
- Sets out what happens if a parcel is lost, damaged or wrong, before you need to ask.
- Where to look
- Footer: refund, returns or shipping policy.
Terms and privacy policy published
4 pts- Why it matters
- Terms say what you are agreeing to. A privacy policy says what happens to your details.
- Where to look
- Footer.
Research-use-only labelling
5 pts- Why it matters
- Research compounds are sold for laboratory use. A supplier that says so plainly is being straightforward about what it sells.
- Where to look
- Product pages, product labels and the terms of service.
Things worth a second look
Some findings don’t fit neatly into a score but are worth noticing. None proves a problem on its own. Each is a reason to ask the supplier a question, and when we can’t find something we record it as “not found on the pages we checked”, never as missing.
- A COA shown only as an image on the shop’s own site, with no task number or verify link.
- The same report shown against several products or vial sizes.
- A purity figure with no testing lab named.
- A brand that doesn’t appear on the ABN record, with no explanation of who trades under it.
- Shipping promises with no timeframe in business days and no cut-off time.
- No email or phone number, only a contact form or social media account.
- Product copy aimed at personal use rather than laboratory research.
Run the checklist on any supplier
The supplier checklist turns this guide into a worksheet. Open it beside a supplier’s website, answer each item as found, partly found or not found, and the score updates using exactly the weights above. Nothing you enter is stored or sent.
- Work through the footer, contact, about, shipping, refund and terms pages, then one product page and the lab results page.
- Look up the ABN on the register before you score the identity group.
- Note the date. Suppliers update their sites, and your answers describe the day you checked.
- Compare your result with our rankings, or put two suppliers side by side on compare. Every fact we found links to its source page, and anything not found carries the date we checked.
Vialwise is published by APL Research Pty Ltd, which also runs Au Peptide Labs. Every supplier, ours included, is scored on the same published checklist. How we handle this
Research use only. Everything on Vialwise concerns research-grade material sold for laboratory and analytical use only. It is not a registered medicine, is not supplied for human or veterinary use, and nothing here is medical advice. Nothing in this guide is legal advice either; where regulation matters to your work, get advice for your own situation.
