Metagenics has supplied practitioner-grade nutritional supplements in Australia for four decades, and for most of that time its products reached people only through a natural healthcare practitioner's recommendation or prescription. When the Australian business decided to open a direct-to-consumer channel while also modernising the ordering experience for the practitioners who had always been its core customers, it faced a tricky balancing act: grow a new consumer channel without weakening the practitioner relationships at the heart of the brand.
The company replaced a fully custom legacy website with Shopify Plus, running B2B and DTC commerce on a single platform. A minimum viable product went live in October 2024, roughly six months after the project was approved, with further features released afterward. According to Shopify's published case study, total year-on-year ecommerce revenue rose 67%, conversion rates improved 25%, and first-year DTC revenue came in at three times the original annual forecast.
About Metagenics
Metagenics is a vitamins and supplements brand with a 40-year history in Australia and is part of the US-based Metagenics Group, whose portfolio also includes Inner Health and Ethical Nutrients. Its range has traditionally been positioned as practitioner-grade, meaning patients typically discovered and bought products through naturopaths, nutritionists and other natural healthcare professionals. The business therefore serves several distinct audiences at once: practitioners who order stock and recommend products, retailers, and the patients and consumers who ultimately take the supplements. Inside Retail reported that only around 4% of Australians visit a natural healthcare practitioner, which the brand viewed as a significant missed opportunity to reach health-conscious consumers directly.
The Challenge
The company's previous website was fully custom-built, and it had become a brake on the business. Inside Retail reported that the site suffered from speed problems, that carts containing many SKUs sometimes timed out, and that the interface looked dated. Shopify's case study adds that the platform was rigid and dependent on developers, so even simple site updates took far longer than they should have. For a brand whose practitioner customers place frequent, multi-line orders, slow performance and timeouts were not just an inconvenience: they directly affected the people Metagenics relies on every day.
At the same time, the strategic brief was expanding. Metagenics wanted to launch a DTC channel to meet growing consumer demand for health products, but it could not do so at the expense of practitioners. Any new system had to preserve the educational support, recommendation mechanism and tiered pricing that practitioners depended on, while still giving consumers a modern, fast shopping experience. That meant supporting prescription-based ordering, customer segmentation and flexible B2B pricing alongside a conventional consumer storefront, all without multiplying the maintenance burden on a small internal team.
- A fully custom legacy website with speed issues and carts that timed out on large multi-SKU orders
- Heavy developer dependency, so routine content and site changes were slow and costly
- A need to add a DTC channel without undermining practitioner relationships, recommendations or tiered pricing
- Complex B2B requirements including prescription-based ordering, segmentation and practitioner-specific pricing
- A requirement to serve practitioners, retailers and consumers from one manageable platform
The Solution
Before committing, Metagenics ran a proof of concept with Shopify's technical team and its implementation partner to test the hardest workflows, including prescription-based ordering, customer segmentation and flexible B2B pricing. Once the approach was validated, the company chose Shopify Plus to run both B2B and DTC on one scalable platform, deliberately favouring out-of-the-box capability and minimal custom code so the internal ecommerce team could own day-to-day changes.
B2B on Shopify Plus
Custom catalogues give practitioners their own pricing, support volume orders and allow personalised account structures. Shopify customer accounts underpin the practitioner experience, and B2B capabilities were connected to the company's Microsoft Dynamics environment through Boomi middleware, according to Inside Retail. Offline invoices remain available for B2B customers who prefer to pay on account.
Checkout Extensibility and Shop Pay
Checkout Extensibility was used to add custom logic, loyalty triggers and practitioner-linked purchasing without heavy bespoke development. On the consumer side, Shop Pay provides a fast single-page DTC checkout, removing friction for new customers who are buying from the brand directly for the first time.
Virtual dispensary and practitioner finder
A commission-based virtual dispensary lets practitioners invite patients to buy online through affiliate-style links, so the DTC channel rewards rather than bypasses the practitioner. A store locator tool was repurposed as a find-a-practitioner service, helping consumers who discover the brand online connect with a qualified professional.
Marketing, subscriptions and content
Dotdigital handles segmented email and SMS automation for both B2B and DTC audiences. A dedicated app supports subscriptions and loyalty, and Tolstoy powers video content featuring practitioners, reinforcing the educational positioning that sets the brand apart.
Expansion stores and low-code tools
Expansion stores allow Metagenics to run multiple branded websites from a single dashboard. Low-code and no-code tooling means the internal team can manage updates, campaigns and testing without waiting on developers.
Implementation Journey
The full project ran for about six months from approval to launch and was treated as a business transformation rather than an IT upgrade. Inside Retail reported that Metagenics organised the work into dedicated streams covering technology, DTC, content and marketing, supply chain, commercial, internal communications and change management, using an agile framework. A minimum viable product went live in October 2024, with additional features rolled out afterward rather than delaying launch for every enhancement. The Australian team led the programme, and two additional branded websites have since launched in Australia and New Zealand. The company plans to bring its Inner Health, Ethical Nutrients and education websites onto Shopify as well, and the wider global organisation is considering a similar approach in other markets.
The Results
The new platform changed both the commercial trajectory and the way the team works. Shopify's case study reports a 67% year-on-year increase in total ecommerce revenue and a 25% lift in conversion rates, with first-year DTC revenue reaching three times the initial forecast. Inside Retail, reporting around six months after launch, noted that 24% of consumers and patients had opted into subscriptions and that the find-a-practitioner tool had become the site's third most-visited page. Practitioners reported more new patients and leads, and the company described uplift in revenue and average order value, although it did not publish specific figures for those. Just as importantly, the ecommerce team became self-sufficient for updates, testing and campaigns.
- 67% year-on-year increase in total ecommerce revenue (Shopify case study)
- 25% increase in conversion rates
- First-year DTC revenue at 3X the initial annual forecast
- B2B and DTC migration completed in about six months, with an MVP live in October 2024
- 24% of consumers and patients opted into subscriptions around six months after launch (Inside Retail)
- Find-a-practitioner tool became the third most-visited page on the website
Key Takeaways for Growing Businesses
Protect your core channel while adding a new one
Metagenics grew DTC by designing it to reinforce practitioners, through a virtual dispensary and a practitioner finder. Businesses adding a new channel should look for ways to make existing partners beneficiaries of the change rather than casualties of it.
Prove the hard parts first
A proof of concept focused on the most complex workflows, such as prescription-based ordering and tiered pricing, reduced risk before full commitment. Testing edge cases early is often cheaper than discovering them mid-build.
Launch an MVP and iterate
Going live with a minimum viable product and releasing features afterward helped deliver a six-month programme. Growing businesses can capture value sooner by defining a clear launch scope and treating the platform as a product that keeps improving.
Technology Stack
Shopify Plus, B2B on Shopify, Checkout Extensibility, Shop Pay, Shopify customer accounts, Expansion stores, Dotdigital, Tolstoy, Microsoft Dynamics, Boomi
This story is compiled by the ONEXT DIGITAL editorial team from public sources and is shared as an industry reference. Metagenics is not an ONEXT DIGITAL client.
Sources: https://www.shopify.com/case-studies/metagenics , https://insideretail.com.au/case-study/how-metagenics-transformed-its-legacy-tech-stack-to-improve-cx-and-grow-revenue