When it comes to digital transformation, Suzie Young doesn’t just talk the talk—she sprints it. As Head of Digital at Metagenics ANZ, Suzie has led the health and supplements giant through one of the most impressive ecommerce upgrades we’ve ever seen.
Metagenics, home to iconic brands like Inner Health Plus, Ethical Nutrients, Endura, and its practitioner-only flagship range, has been a trusted name in natural healthcare for over 40 years. But when Suzie Young joined as Head of Digital, the business needed a bold digital leap forward—and she treated it like a startup move within a global business.
“We’re a startup inside a global business. That means we’ve got the backing—but we’re building everything from scratch. It’s tough. But it’s pretty bloody exciting too.”
In just six months, Suzie Young changed that—leading a dual B2B and DTC replatform to Shopify Plus, complete with subscriptions (loyalty via Yotpo) and a modernised tech stack. With leadership experience working alongside ex-Amazon, Johnson & Johnson and global ecommerce teams, Suzie brought her sharp commercial thinking and agile mindset to modernise a traditional business, without losing what made it special. Here’s how she did it.
Set the Guardrails Early, Then Stick to Them
From the get-go, Suzie and her team knew they didn’t want to fall into the trap of over-engineering their ecommerce platform or the customer experience. Instead, they created a set of design principles that would keep the project tight and outcomes-focused. They set out to aggressively avoid custom code and use out-of-the-box wherever they could.
This became more than a philosophy for her and the team. It was a hard rule that helped them avoid tech debt, stay lean and hit deadlines. To make sure Shopify Plus would deliver, Suzie and her team ran a proof of concept with agency partner Overdose Digital. It gave them the confidence to proceed and the ammunition they needed to get stakeholder buy-in.
We said, hey, we need to do an eight-week deep dive with a partner to flesh this out… And our steering committee backed us…When you go to one of those committees and you’re asking for a small amount of money versus a massive amount of money—that’s where the proof of concept really works.
With those principles in place, Suzie had the framework she needed to push back on scope creep when it inevitably came.
“We’d be deep in a meeting and I’d just catch myself going—hang on, we’re going way too deep here. We agreed we weren’t going to customise this section. Let’s pull it back.”
B2B + DTC? Build with Both Lenses
While launching DTC was a massive priority, Suzie never treated it as a separate play from B2B. The new Shopify platform had to serve both audiences—and reflect the nuances of each. One of the standout features? A virtual dispensary model, where practitioners can invite patients to purchase online via affiliate-style links, keeping them connected post-consult.
We have this really great solution for our practitioners. It’s almost like a virtual dispensary. They can connect patients to order from our website—and they’re still linked to them.
At the same time, the team rolled out subscriptions and loyalty—not just for convenience, but to encourage consistent product use over time. This is something Suzie says is key to long-term health outcomes, while helping practitioners to support their patients more effectively.
And while the site is now open to consumers, the role of the practitioner hasn’t been lost—it’s built into the entire content strategy.
“You’ll see videos of naturopaths talking about what they do and why. The call to action is often to find a practitioner, not just buy the product.”
Team Structure Can Make or Break Transformation
Beyond the tech, Suzie’s biggest asset was her team, and more specifically how she structured, empowered and supported them throughout. When they launched their loyalty program, they hit a snag with Shopify’s new customer accounts. Instead of escalating to devs or external partners, her team solved it—on the spot.
“I love my team. They just found a solution. We didn’t need to escalate—it was all handled internally, fast.”
She also knew when not to lean on internal teams—bringing in external specialists where needed, including project management support with deep ecom and technical experience to free her up to focus on strategy.
All of this was wrapped in a disciplined agile approach, with full transparency and shared accountability. But two pieces for tech were key to keeping the team on track and the project smoothly sailing forward.
We’re Trello addicts in my team. It’s life-changing. Jira and Trello run our world…The whole premise of agile is that people are collaborating over a very visible project board. It takes the need to micro-manage out of the process.
Move Fast, But Don’t Skip the Foundations
Metagenics’ transformation proves that even in a traditional, highly regulated industry, you can move fast – if you get the structure right. Suzie’s success came from setting clear principles, deeply understanding the business model, and empowering her team to operate independently.
For ecommerce leaders staring down the barrel of a transformation—whether it’s replatforming, launching DTC, or just cleaning up legacy tech—this is the gold standard in how to do it with focus, clarity, and speed.
Want more insights? Listen to the full episode with Suzie Young here.
