Rebuilding e-commerce to give 1.1B hours back

Most of us think of e-commerce as convenience. But in healthcare, it’s one more burden on an overstretched system.

In the U.S. alone, physicians lose a staggering 1.1 billion hours each year to administrative work (American Medical Association). One hidden drain on time: ordering mission-critical supplies online.

Outdated systems, unhelpful UX and complex workflows impose a “time tax” on physicians, dentists and administrators — directly at the expense of patient care.

For Henry Schein, a global healthcare supplier serving 1 million customers across 300,000 products, this wasn’t just a UX issue. It wasn’t just an optimization problem. This was about how the company showed up. For physicians, for dentists, and ultimately, for patients. Plus, it had mounting pressure from Amazon and was still recovering from a massive 2023 cyberattack that exposed its outdated infrastructure.

Henry Schein partnered with Code and Theory on full-scale transformation. Over two years, we rebuilt its platform from the ground up to deliver the most customer-centric ordering experience in healthcare.

Rebuilding Henry Schein’s global e-commerce platform helped reduce the administrative burden that slows down ordering for healthcare professionals. By streamlining the path to purchase, we cut purchase touchpoints by 46% and made it easier for teams to get what they need faster. The result is a simpler, more intuitive experience designed to give time back to the people delivering care.

That simplicity also translated into stronger performance, with revenue per visit increasing by 23%. Because the platform was rebuilt to reduce friction across the path to purchase, more visits could convert into completed orders with fewer steps. The work shows how focusing on clarity and efficiency can improve both usability and business outcomes. Henry Schein now has a global platform built to reduce friction, support day-to-day purchasing, and keep attention where it matters most.