How Thermo Fisher Scientific became the hub for life sciences products

Thermo Fisher, life sciences equipment manufacturer deployed Adobe Experience Manager to deliver a more harmonized experience on the company’s website.

The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us many lessons, one of which is that too much information can be as paralyzing as not enough. Between a constant stream of COVID-19 news, experts sharing their health and life advice, as well as updates on the myriad of initiatives underway to fight the virus, it’s easy to get pulled in many directions without getting the clarity we need.

The same is true for the scientists and researchers on the front lines. They face a major battle in leading society out of the pandemic quickly and safely and need a clear idea of the products and support required to get the job done, as well as access to both.

Enter Thermo Fisher Scientific, one of the world’s primary manufacturers of life sciences equipment. Thermo Fisher is a key player in the COVID-19 supply chain, outfitting researchers and scientists with everything from diagnostics, personal protection equipment (PPE) and instrumentation to the manufacturing of vaccines and therapies. The challenge when delivering such a broad range of products is to make sure buyers can quickly find the equipment they need, rather than having to dig through an enormous online offering.

“Our site is a one-stop shop for life sciences products,” says Malia Ursida, global digital program manager of Strategic Programs at Thermo Fisher. “We have an incredible range of products, from cotton swabs to genomic sequencing equipment, but during COVID-19 we realized we needed to rethink the way we promote and get these products to our customers on our website, which is why we teamed up with Adobe.”

A digital one-stop shop

The ability of Thermo Fisher to scale is one of its greatest strengths, but over the years it has also created complexity in the way it communicates its product offerings to customers. That’s why Thermo Fisher deployed Adobe Experience Manager in January 2020 to eliminate siloes between product teams and deliver a more harmonized experience on the website.

Thermo Fisher created new COVID-19 web pages instantly, providing researchers, scientists, and healthcare professionals with vital information about the pandemic. The site also directs visitors to the company’s own virus research, vaccine production capabilities, and several other products and services related to the pandemic.

In addition to the above, Thermo Fisher created two specialty COVID-19 web spaces for scientists, one dedicated to its clinical diagnostic kits and another to its research-based solutions — both easily navigable from the Thermo Fisher homepage. By putting relevant information at scientist’s fingertips, the company made it easier for them to find products and services specifically suited to their needs.

“We’ve turned our e-business group into a complete one-stop shop. People can visit our premiere brand sites and find anything from small consumables to heavy research equipment, to chemicals. Our goal is to make it as easy as possible for anyone to access the relevant pieces in our COVID-19 portfolio,” adds Ursida.

Among its many enhancements to the website, Thermo Fisher redesigned five of its web pages with improved content, imagery and layouts. It also translated its COVID-19 marketing pages into three additional languages, and its outbreak response pages into 11 languages.

Most importantly, Thermo Fisher customers have clearly benefitted from these changes. The company has seen its overall web traffic jump and its product page traffic rise significantly. It has also seen form fills for its vaccine development leads climb 1.5 percent, a significant rise for an equipment supplier in the life sciences sector.

Breaking down barriers

Looking back at her team’s journey over the past year, Ursida reflects on how the COVID-19 pandemic kicked their digital plans into high gear. Thermo Fisher had begun to strip some of the complexity from its website in early 2020, but the pandemic accelerated its plans and changed mindsets across the company.

“Every team had a collective understanding that this was more than a website redesign. We had an imperative to make sure crucial players in the healthcare supply chain could access the tools and information they need to do their jobs,” she recalls. “We’ve always been guided by enabling our customers to keep moving science forward, but we needed to build a digital experience that would allow us to deliver that in a simpler, faster, and easier way.”

Thermo Fisher continues to set an example for the rest of the business with its cohesive and collaborative approach, which has allowed them to deliver true end-to-end stories on the website and move away from the siloed approach of the past.

Setting the tone for a new era

Companies big and small have been tested by COVID-19, but for Thermo Fisher and its customers the stakes are especially high. Ursida is proud of her team’s achievements to date and knows this is only the beginning of the digital evolution at Thermo Fisher.