Bio-Rad Unlocks Agility and Scale with BigCommerce
Discover how customisable, cost-effective and reliable BigCommerce is and why we built it that way.
- Featured
B2B Edition
Advanced B2B features for enterprise plans.Catalyst
NewCreate stunning, high-performing storefronts that captivate and convert.Feedonomics
Omnichannel feed and data transformation.Multi-Storefront
Manage multiple unique stores from one account.International
Grow your brand across the globe.
- Launch Services
Overview
Chart your path to success with specialised services.Implementation Project Management
Experts to ensure you launch on time and under budget.Solution Architecture
Seasoned advisors to help you best design your store.Data Migration & Optimisation
Expertise on a clean and clear path to migrating your data.Enterprise Launch Package
Personal training on how to set up and launch your BigCommerce Store.
Professional Services Blog Series
Get to know our teams and how they support your success in this Q&A series.
The Global B2B Buyer Behavior Report
This in-depth report provides actionable strategies to help you sell more online.
2.3
million country-specific SKUs
200+
live promotions managed centrally across all markets
2X
faster development and deployment cycles
Highlights:
CHALLENGE.
Outdated legacy platform slowed innovation and couldn’t support personalisation.
Complex SKUs, pricing, and workflows made global scaling difficult.
Internal teams lacked agility to launch new products, categories, and markets.
SOLUTION.
Replatformed to BigCommerce’s composable, API-first architecture for speed and flexibility.
Centralised 2.3M+ SKUs and pricing records into a unified global storefront.
Simplified ordering with “Buy Now” and streamlined workflows for different user types.
RESULTS.
Development cycles now move 2x faster across teams.
Standing order workflow reduced from five pages to one, improving conversion and usability.
Significant shift in revenue from offline to online across global markets.
End-to-end ecommerce transformation
Bio-Rad is a global leader in life sciences and clinical diagnostics, providing complex products to researchers, clinicians, and scientists around the world.
With a reputation built on scientific precision and quality, the company supports everything from basic pH testing to DNA sequencing for personalised healthcare.
But even the most innovative businesses need to evolve. Faced with growing customer expectations and an outdated digital platform, Bio-Rad knew it was time to modernise how it sells.
The goal wasn’t just to replace technology. It was to rethink their digital foundation in a way that could support the complexity of their catalog, and the pace of their customers.
CHALLENGE
Outdated systems limited speed, scale, and customer experience.
Bio-Rad’s ecommerce platform had been in place for more than a decade. Built on IBM Sterling Commerce, it was deeply entangled with back-end systems, increasingly difficult to maintain, and falling short of modern B2B expectations.
Key challenges included:
A legacy, unsupported platform that slowed development and required specialised resources
Poor performance and limited ability for buyers to find products
No ability to personalise experiences by region, user type, or contract
Complex SKUs and pricing tightly coupled to SAP, varying by country and product
Fragmented internal workflows for launching new products, categories, and regions
The company needed more than a system upgrade. It needed a strategic shift — one that could accelerate execution, simplify global complexity, and deliver a better digital experience for both customers and internal teams.
“Our ecommerce system was over a decade old, unsupported, and nearly impossible to maintain,” said Suzanne Lazarus, IT Director at Bio-Rad. “We were using Sterling Commerce. It was the weakest system in our data centre, and we couldn’t even find developers to work on it anymore.”
“Our ecommerce system was over a decade old, unsupported, and nearly impossible to maintain.”
SUZANNE LAZARUS, IT DIRECTOR, BIO-RAD
SOLUTION
Modern commerce architecture accelerates agility.
To break free from the limits of its legacy system, Bio-Rad rebuilt its global ecommerce experience on a modern, composable architecture.
Migrating to BigCommerce allowed the company to decouple its storefront from tightly coupled systems — including its SAP ERP — giving teams more flexibility and control over what they shipped and when.
By moving to an API-first foundation, Bio-Rad made ecommerce a standalone engine for innovation, no longer bottlenecked by the rest of its tech stack.
Key capabilities included:
Fully headless architecture built for scale and speed
Flexible integration with SAP and other legacy systems
Faster feature delivery cycles and fewer internal dependencies
Platform-agnostic approach to future integrations and experience layers
“Going from a monolithic system over to a headless architecture that leverages APIs has allowed us to move twice as fast,” said Suzanne.
Unified experience across global markets.
With customers around the world and a catalog that spanned millions of SKU variations, Bio-Rad needed a platform that could simplify complexity without sacrificing flexibility.
The team partnered with Silk Commerce to consolidate all products, pricing, and user experiences into a single, centralised system.
Together, they delivered a scalable global storefront with consistent UX, localised pricing, and tailored access by region, customer type, and contract.
“You’re talking about 2.3 million price records and 200 live promos, all managed globally from a single back end. The scale of that complexity, and making it work across every region, is massive,” shared Michael Payne, VP of Strategy, Silk Commerce.
What they built:
A unified experience deployed across all global markets, with localised control over front-end content and workflows
Centralised management of 2.3 million country-specific SKUs and price records
Support for multiple languages, currencies, and user permissions
Global governance with flexibility for regional workflows and promotions
“We decided to go all in. We’re global, we have tons of products, and then we launched. I held my breath and it was silent. All the work our teams did together actually worked,” shared Suzanne.
Streamlined buying for scientists and researchers.
For Bio-Rad’s customers — including scientists, researchers, and clinicians — efficiency is everything. The new platform was designed to reduce friction at every step, especially for repeat and single-product buyers.
“Over 50% of our customers only buy one product at a time, so this really streamlined the process for them,” said Suzanne.
By simplifying complex ordering workflows and optimising user experience across personas, Bio-Rad gave customers more control, speed, and flexibility, without needing to call sales or support.
Key improvements included:
“Buy Now” functionality to simplify single-product purchases
Standing order workflow reduced from five pages to one
Personalised experiences by user type and region
Foundation for expanded self-service and future personalisation
“In our old system, standing orders took five pages to complete. Now it’s just one,” remarked Suzanne.
“Going from a monolithic system over to a headless architecture that leverages APIs has allowed us to move twice as fast.”
SUZANNE LAZARUS, IT DIRECTOR, BIO-RAD
“In our old system, standing orders took five pages to complete. Now it’s just one.”
SUZANNE LAZARUS, IT DIRECTOR, BIO-RAD
RESULTS
Transformative efficiency and speed.
Bio-Rad’s replatforming effort didn’t just modernise its infrastructure, it unlocked measurable improvements across internal operations and customer experience.
The new headless architecture gave IT teams the flexibility to move faster, while the updated storefront significantly reduced friction for buyers. As more regions come online, Bio-Rad is seeing a steady shift from offline to digital channels.
What changed:
Development and deployment cycles now move twice as fast
More than half of Bio-Rad customers typically purchase a single item per order, and the new “Buy Now” feature simplifies that process from start to finish
Standing orders went from five pages to one, improving conversion
Global revenue continues to shift from offline to online
Platform supports continued rollout into new markets and regions
“We made the right decision to launch globally all at once. It was an incredible project to be a part of and everything worked,” remarked Suzanne.
“We made the right decision to launch globally all at once. It was an incredible project to be a part of and everything worked.”
SUZANNE LAZARUS, IT DIRECTOR, BIO-RAD
LOOKING AHEAD
Personalisation and AI in focus.
With a flexible digital foundation now in place, Bio-Rad is focused on evolving its customer experience through smarter, more intuitive tools.
First up is expanding self-service functionality by giving researchers and clinicians the ability to access order history, product data, and support without needing to contact customer service.
Personaliation is also a top priority. Bio-Rad aims to tailor workflows based on user roles and preferences, creating more relevant experiences from the moment customers log in. And with AI on the horizon, the team is exploring new ways to enhance search, recommendations, and support.
“With BigCommerce, the possibilities are endless,” said Suzanne. “Now that we have the foundation in place, we can move fast.”
“With BigCommerce, the possibilities are endless. Now that we have the foundation in place, we can move fast.”
SUZANNE LAZARUS, IT DIRECTOR, BIO-RAD
February 2026
