Formlabs
Formlabs Partners with Avex to Replatform its Commerce Backend and Build a Custom Shopify App Layer for B2B
Services
- Magento to Shopify Replatform
- Shopify Plus Architecture
- Custom App and Extension Development
- Shopify B2B Configuration
- CI/CD and DevOps
- QA, UAT and Launch Support
- Technical Handoff and Documentation
Challenge
Formlabs, a world leader in professional 3D printing, operates a sophisticated B2B ecommerce business built on workflows that go well beyond standard commerce patterns. Their customers expect to quote, submit purchase orders, retrieve invoices, and schedule deliveries as part of every transaction.
For years, Magento supported that. But aging infrastructure, deep customization, and a growing maintenance burden made it increasingly difficult to scale. The decision to move to Shopify Plus was strategic: modernize the commerce foundation, reduce platform debt, and build on infrastructure the business could grow with. Avex was brought in to extend Shopify beyond its out-of-the-box capabilities to meet Formlabs' B2B requirements, and to migrate a live commerce operation without disrupting the business in the process.
Tech Integrations
- Shopify Plus
- Shopify B2B
- Shopify Markets & Catalogs
- Shopify Functions
- Shopify Admin and Checkout UI Extensions
- Salesforce
- Cloudflare
Approach
Avex's approach was defined by two parallel tracks: extending Shopify's platform to support Formlabs' B2B requirements, and migrating a live commerce operation without disrupting the business.
The first track was an architecture and engineering challenge. Formlabs' B2B workflows required custom development at the Admin, Checkout, and Function layer. Each extension was designed and built from scratch, integrated into Shopify's extensibility platform, and tested against Formlabs' operational requirements before go-live.
The second track was a migration with real operational stakes. Years of commerce data had to move from Magento to Shopify cleanly and completely, with cutover sequencing designed to keep the business running throughout.
Both tracks ran simultaneously, in close collaboration with Formlabs' internal engineering organization. Formlabs has a mature technical team with their own standards and ways of working. The engagement was structured accordingly: a genuine collaboration, with CI/CD infrastructure, development environments, and technical documentation built alongside the commerce functionality so Formlabs could take full ownership of the platform after launch.
Magento to Shopify Migration
A migration of this scale is as much a business continuity exercise as it is a technical one. Formlabs' commerce data, spanning products, customers, companies, historical orders, and open orders, represents years of operational history that had to transfer to Shopify without loss or disruption.
Avex designed the migration sequencing with that in mind. A delta pass was built in to close the gap between initial migration and go-live, and cutover was coordinated across both platforms to maintain business continuity and deliver a clean, complete data foundation to the new Shopify environment.
Shopify B2B and Markets Configuration
Formlabs serves both B2B and B2C customers, and the commerce experience for each is fundamentally different. Pricing, catalog access, and purchasing logic all vary by customer type. Getting that separation right at the platform level was one of the foundational requirements of the implementation, with downstream implications for how every other part of the build functioned.
Avex configured Shopify's B2B, Markets, and Catalogs infrastructure to support those distinct experiences, building the segmentation into the platform architecture from the ground up.
Custom B2B Commerce Extensions
The core of the engagement was a suite of custom-built Shopify Admin UI extensions, Checkout UI extensions, and Shopify Functions developed to support Formlabs' B2B operational requirements.
- Self-Service Quoting. Formlabs customers require the ability to initiate and manage quotes without manual sales intervention. Avex designed and built a custom quoting architecture integrated into the Shopify storefront, enabling quote creation and syncing directly from the customer account layer.
- PO Upload at Checkout. B2B purchasing at Formlabs frequently involves purchase orders attached at checkout. Avex built a custom Checkout UI extension to support PO file attachment, with custom handling for upload failures above approximately 20 MB, potentially related to Cloudflare/WAF behavior.
- Preferred Delivery Date. Formlabs B2B customers need to specify delivery timing as part of the ordering process. Avex implemented custom checkout logic to capture and process preferred delivery dates, with subsequent optimization cycles to stabilize behavior across order scenarios.
- Invoice Retrieval. Customers required access to invoices tied to their order history through the Shopify storefront. Avex built custom authorization logic ensuring that invoice access was scoped correctly to each user's permitted orders.
- Cart and Checkout Validation. Shopify Functions were used to enforce Formlabs' business rules at the cart and checkout level, ensuring that order logic was applied consistently before transactions were completed.
- Draft Order and Account Extensions. Custom Admin UI extensions were built to support Formlabs' internal order management and customer account workflows directly inside Shopify.
Built for Internal Ownership
Formlabs has a mature internal engineering organization with its own standards, infrastructure, and ways of working. Handing off a platform that the team could not maintain or extend independently would have undermined the entire strategic rationale for the migration. Avex built with that in mind from day one: a CI/CD pipeline, documented architecture, and development environments structured around long-term internal ownership, not agency dependency.
Launch and Post-Launch Stabilization
Avex supported Formlabs through QA, UAT, launch execution, and a post-launch stabilization period. This included ongoing debugging and optimization across custom extensions as real-world usage surfaced edge cases requiring resolution, and direct coordination with a large cross-functional stakeholder group spanning Formlabs' internal engineering, operations, and business teams.
The project accommodated change requests as requirements evolved through technical blueprinting and stakeholder coordination, without interrupting forward progress toward launch.
Outcome
Formlabs completed its migration from Magento and launched on Shopify Plus with a backend engineered to support its actual B2B commerce operation. The platform replaces legacy infrastructure with a Shopify-native architecture extended by custom functionality at the Admin, Checkout, and Function layer. It is documented, maintainable, and fully owned by Formlabs' engineering organization.
Relationship
This engagement represents the kind of problem Avex is built to solve: a technically complex Shopify implementation where standard platform capabilities are a starting point, not a solution. Combining platform migration, custom Shopify application development, B2B architecture, and direct collaboration with a sophisticated internal engineering team, Avex delivered a backend designed to fit Formlabs' business and scale with it.
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