Bio-Techne Unified Brands E-Commerce Site

By unifying the brands under one umbrella, the company created a true one-stop shop where customers can seamlessly find everything they need in one place.

Client

Bio-Techne

Role

UX Designer/Developer

Duration

1 Year

Live Project

View Live

Project Overview

Bio-Techne is a global life sciences company with a diverse portfolio of brands offering research, diagnostic, and therapeutic products. Previously, each brand operated its own website, leading to a fragmented online experience. Many of these legacy sites were outdated, lacked modern e-commerce functionality, and were not mobile responsive—posing challenges for customers trying to discover, compare, and purchase products. Our mission: to consolidate all Bio-Techne brands into a single, cohesive, modern e-commerce website that served as a one-stop shop for all products, streamlined the customer journey, and aligned with current UX best practices.

The Problem

Before this project, Bio-Techne’s digital presence was scattered across numerous brand websites, each with its own look, navigation, and shopping flow. Many of these sites were outdated, lacked mobile responsiveness, and made it difficult for customers to search, compare, and purchase products. This fragmentation not only caused frustration for researchers and lab managers but also diluted Bio-Techne’s overall brand presence, making it clear that a unified, modern e-commerce experience was urgently needed.

Fragmentation

Customers needed to navigate multiple sites to find and purchase products. Legacy sites lacked modern usability standards, making search and product comparison difficult.

Outdated UX/UI

Many older sites weren’t mobile responsive, leading to accessibility and usability gaps. Different brands had different tones, designs, and flows, causing friction in the user journey.

Research & Discovery

To design an experience that truly served Bio-Techne’s diverse customer base, we began by grounding our work in research. Since the project was about consolidating many fragmented brand websites into one unified e-commerce platform, it was essential to understand customer expectations, common pain points, and industry best practices. Our research combined qualitative methods (interviews and usability tests) with quantitative insights (market and competitor analysis), ensuring that decisions were informed by real user needs as well as broader market trends.

User Interviews

We conducted interviews with a range of Bio-Techne’s customers, including academic researchers, lab technicians, and procurement specialists. Key takeaways included:

Product discovery challenges: Customers often struggled to locate specific reagents or instruments because product taxonomies were inconsistent across sites.
Reliance on desktop: While most ordering was still done from the lab computer, many participants wanted mobile-friendly access for quick searches or to check order statuses.
Frustration with checkout: Multiple steps and unclear pricing structures across sites led to frequent cart abandonment.

These insights shaped our approach to simplifying navigation and streamlining the purchase flow.

Market Analysis

To benchmark against industry standards, we analyzed competitor websites within the biotech and life sciences space, as well as best-in-class e-commerce experiences outside the industry.
Findings included:

Leading e-commerce platforms emphasized powerful search and filtering, something critically lacking on Bio-Techne’s legacy sites.
Responsive design was now the norm, whereas many of Bio-Techne’s sites still did not support mobile use.
Competitors increasingly offered integrated product recommendations and account dashboards, features that Bio-Techne could adopt to boost repeat business.

This analysis provided inspiration and clear benchmarks for where our redesign needed to excel.

Usability Testing

Before developing new concepts, we ran usability tests on the existing brand sites to validate pain points uncovered in interviews. Testing confirmed that:

Users frequently became lost in inconsistent navigation structures.
Search often returned irrelevant results, forcing customers to contact sales reps.
Mobile testing sessions showed significant frustration, with tasks often abandoned due to broken layouts or missing functionality.

These tests provided a strong case for unification and modernization, while also helping us prioritize which problems to address first in the new design.

The Solution

The outcome of this project was a modern, unified e-commerce platform that brought all Bio-Techne brands under one roof. By reimagining the shopping journey—from the homepage to product discovery to checkout—we created a clean, responsive experience that balanced scientific credibility with the usability of a best-in-class e-commerce site. The new design not only simplified complex product discovery but also positioned Bio-Techne as a forward-thinking leader in the life sciences digital space.

Solution 1: A Fresh, Modern Homepage Experience

We designed a homepage that serves as both a brand gateway and a functional launchpad for product exploration.

A clean, science-driven visual design with modern typography and white space established credibility and trust.
A unified mega-navigation system allowed customers to browse Bio-Techne’s full product ecosystem without confusion.
Quick links and prominent search supported both returning customers who knew exactly what they needed and new users exploring product categories.

Solution 2: Powerful Product Search & Intuitive Product Pages

To solve the fragmentation and inconsistency of the old sites, we built a robust search and product browsing system with:

Advanced filtering and sorting tools, allowing researchers to narrow thousands of SKUs by application, category, or technical specifications.
A modern, responsive product detail page template that displayed technical data, images, specifications, and ordering options in a structured, scannable format.
Prominent calls-to-action for adding to cart, requesting a quote, or contacting sales, ensuring every user had a clear next step.

Results & Impact

After launch, we measured the new Bio-Techne e-commerce platform against both usability metrics and business KPIs. The results validated our design decisions, showing that consolidating multiple outdated brand sites into a unified, responsive shopping experience not only improved customer satisfaction but also drove measurable business impact.

72%

Faster Product Discovery

User testing showed that researchers were able to locate specific products nearly three times faster than on the legacy sites, thanks to streamlined navigation and advanced filtering.

45%

Increase in Mobile Engagement

With a fully responsive design, mobile traffic grew significantly. Customers increasingly used phones and tablets for quick searches and order tracking—tasks that were previously frustrating or impossible.

34%

Reduction in Cart Abandonment

By simplifying checkout and clarifying pricing, we reduced drop-offs during the purchase process. More users completed transactions without needing support or manual intervention.

89%

Customer Satisfaction Post-Launch

In follow-up surveys, nearly nine out of ten customers rated the new site as “easy” or “very easy” to use, highlighting improvements in product search, page clarity, and overall trust in the unified Bio-Techne platform.

"I had the pleasure of working alongside John Long as a UX Engineer at Bio-Techne. John consistently demonstrated strong leadership, a collaborative spirit, and a deep understanding of user experience principles. He approaches challenges with a positive attitude and a genuine eagerness to learn and grow, and his ability to communicate clearly across teams and disciplines helping to bridge the gap between design and development. Whether leading by example or stepping in to support a teammate, John is always ready to offer thoughtful solutions or connect others with the right resources. He’s a trusted team member and a natural leader in any UX-focused environment."

Luke Hinrichs

UX Designer/Developer at Bio-Techne