Metagenics is a leading natural health brand supplying practitioner-grade supplements, with a history in Australia that spans more than four decades. With growing consumer demand, Metagenics wanted to add a new direct-to-consumer (DTC) channel while transforming their existing business-to-business (B2B) platform for healthcare practitioners and retailers.
However, the company’s existing digital infrastructure had become a limitation: difficult to manage, slow to scale, and lacking the flexibility required for the company’s ambitious goals. Metagenics migrated to Shopify to power their dual-channel transformation. Partnering with Shopify experts Overdose Digital, Metagenics replaced their outdated custom platform in just six months with a scalable, user-friendly solution tailored for both consumers and professionals.
Since moving to Shopify’s Plus plan, Metagenics has seen:
- 67% increase in total YoY ecommerce revenue
- 6 month migration of DTC and B2B commerce platforms to Shopify
- 36% of consumers and patients have opted into subscriptions
- 3X initial annual forecast in DTC revenue results, with 85% growth forecast in first year on Shopify
- 25% increase in conversion rates
Challenge: Scaling ecommerce for two audiences
Metagenics faced growing pressure to evolve their digital presence. Their legacy platform was rigid and developer-dependent, making even basic site updates time consuming. As the consumer market beckoned and practitioner expectations evolved, Metagenics found themselves unable to deliver timely digital experiences, slowing innovation and responsiveness.
Further, Australian consumers are highly engaged in their health. Metagenics recognised a need to responsibly expand access to high quality, evidence based healthcare, while continuing to partner closely with its practitioner community to support patients who require personalised advice and consultation. This shift required a model that could meet consumers where they are, with trusted products backed by clinical quality and practitioner expertise.
The brand also needed to maintain the integrity of their relationships with healthcare practitioners. Any digital transformation would have to preserve the educational support, recommendation mechanism, and tiered pricing their B2B customers relied on. They needed to achieve this while supporting the convenience and accessibility that modern consumers expect from ecommerce.
We were looking at a complete transformation to support a major evolution in our business model. It had to be fast, future-proof, and frictionless for practitioners who rely on us daily. Shopify ticked all of those boxes.
Solution: One agile platform for consumers and practitioners
Shopify’s Plus tier was selected for its ability to support both B2B and DTC needs within a single, scalable platform. Metagenics worked with Shopify and Overdose Digital to run a proof-of-concept, exploring Shopify’s ability to handle complex workflows, including prescription-based ordering, customer segmentation, and flexible pricing for B2B sales.
With design principles that prioritised speed, modularity, and minimal custom code, Metagenics Australia launched their new ecommerce presence in just six months. The results spoke for themselves: In parallel with global platform initiatives, the Australian team’s Shopify implementation demonstrated how a focused, out-of-the-box approach could accelerate time-to-market while delivering strong commercial results.
The global organisation took notice, with leadership now looking to replicate the Australian approach across other markets. The implementation included Shopify's customer accounts functionality and Checkout Extensibility, giving the team the ability to personalise the customer experience and streamline the purchase process.
Shopify’s Checkout Extensibility gave us the flexibility to tailor Metagenics’ checkout experience without adding complexity. We could introduce custom logic, loyalty triggers, and practitioner-linked purchasing seamlessly, keeping performance high and the codebase clean.
Shop Pay powered streamlined DTC transactions, with its single-page checkout, while Shopify’s optimised checkout supported offline invoices for Metagenics’ B2B customers. With B2B on Shopify, Metagenics used native wholesale selling features such as custom catalogues to enable practitioner-specific pricing, volume orders, and personalised account structures. A commission-based virtual dispensary allowed practitioners to invite patients to purchase online via affiliate-style links, keeping them connected post-consult.
Metagenics leaned on a robust suite of marketing tools available via the Shopify App Store. The Dotdigital app powered automation across email and SMS. Yotpo enabled subscriptions, reviews, and loyalty features, while Tolstoy introduced video content that spotlighted practitioner voices.
Shopify’s expansion store capability has given Metagenics the ability to act on their multi-brand strategy, with the retailer launching two additional branded websites in both Australia and New Zealand. Shopify’s unified backend means Metagenics can manage each of the new storefronts from the same dashboard, making for a more efficient multi-brand business.
Internally, the shift to Shopify empowered the ecommerce team to take full control of updates, campaigns, and testing without relying on developer resources thanks to Shopify’s low-code and no-code capabilities.
Shopify gave us the flexibility to move fast without compromising what matters. We saw it not just as a tool, but a partner in transformation.
Results: Fast growth, future-ready foundation
Metagenics launched a seamless ecommerce experience that supports both its loyal practitioner network and an entirely new DTC audience. Year-on-year, Metagenics’ ecommerce revenue is now growing by 67%, showing the immediate market appetite for direct access to Metagenics’ high-quality supplements.
DTC revenue results were three times the initial forecast in the first year after switching to Shopify, driven by a more streamlined purchasing experience. This has also helped to drive a 25% increase in conversion rates. On the backend, the ecommerce team became fully self-sufficient, accelerating updates, testing, and campaign execution.
The company also reported that 36% of consumers and patients have opted into subscriptions, powered by Order Groove. These are a key metric of engagement and operational success. Looking ahead, Metagenics is launching a multi-brand expansion to bring their Inner Health, Ethical Nutrients, and Education websites into the Shopify ecosystem, extending the success of this transformation even further.
The launch gave us more than a website. It reshaped how we operate. With Shopify, we’re in control of our growth and have a platform that can scale with us.