How The Vitamin Shoppe Built Momentum for Composable Transformation
Modernizing their tech stack—and mindset—by taking a pragmatic, step-by-step approach to composability.
When Uman Chan joined The Vitamin Shoppe in 2017, the company’s tech stack was a textbook monolith: tightly coupled, heavily Java-based, and increasingly ill-suited to support the kind of seamless, omnichannel experience modern customers expect. But instead of pushing for a full replatform from day one, Chan and his team took a different route, one defined by pragmatism, persistence, and proof points.
Over the years, they chipped away at the monolith, building services on the side and decoupling high-impact areas like search and product listings. What started as a practical workaround became a strategic advantage, laying the groundwork for a full composable transformation. The team built confidence with every step, discovering the importance of steady momentum and what it takes to evolve not just the tech but the people behind it.
From Monolith to Momentum
When Chan stepped into his role as Senior Director of Digital Technology, the business was still running on a legacy platform with a tightly coupled monolith and a core team of Java developers. Feature delivery was slow. Customizations were painful. And the cost of change—technically and operationally—was climbing fast.
There was no explicit directive to go composable. The team simply recognized that the old model couldn’t keep up. So they started decoupling where it made the most sense, beginning with high-traffic, low-risk components like product listing pages and search.
“We decided this is what makes sense if we want to move fast and be agile as a business,” Chan says. “Search was a great place to start— not only because it didn’t involve sensitive data, but because it touched nearly every user. We knew we’d get the most bang for our buck.”
Those early experiments proved out. The architecture began to evolve. And as customer expectations changed, especially during the pandemic, it became clear that the business would continue to need greater agility to adapt.
Why Composability Made Sense—Eventually
Chan’s team didn’t set out to build a composable architecture. Their early decisions were about flexibility, not philosophy. But over time, as more services were pulled from the monolith, a pattern took shape.
The real turning point came when the legacy platform reached end-of-life. Security updates stopped. Core capabilities became harder to maintain. And post-COVID urgency put additional pressure on the team to move faster.
“We had started to build up this arsenal of services that sat outside of the monolith, so we had a hybrid model. And around 2021 we went to the business and said, ‘This is where we are, these are your options, and this is the one that makes sense,’” says Chan.
The business didn’t need much convincing. By then, the tech team had already delivered enough value to prove the case. When Chan presented the roadmap, leadership quickly saw that composability wasn’t just a smart choice— it was the only one that kept the company competitive.
How the Team Got On Board
Replatforming is hard. Replatforming while running two full stacks in parallel is harder. But Chan credits the success of the transition to a slow, intentional build-up in both capability and confidence.
The team had time to grow into the new model. Skills like cloud engineering and Kubernetes were developed gradually, first through structured AWS training, then through hands-on work. A small group of engineers acted as internal pioneers, running early POCs and establishing best practices. That helped others onboard faster and gave the team a shared language to work from.
“The most valuable part of the transformation wasn’t the architecture,” Chan says. “It was the mindset shift. Once people understand the value, they get into a mindset where they want to keep going.”
There were challenges: running parallel platforms increased operating costs, and stabilizing the old stack sometimes meant investing in systems they were actively deprecating. But those trade-offs allowed for a smoother rollout and fewer disruptions. “As a team, we work really hard,” notes Chan. “And we have a very trusting culture, so we got through all those hurdles as a team.”
Building for Agility, Not Just Architecture
One of the biggest wins of the transformation wasn’t technical. It was cultural. Before composability, Chan says, the team was focused on keeping the lights on. Afterward, people felt more invested. They started looking for opportunities to improve, not because they had to, but because they could.
That sense of ownership mattered. So did the systems supporting it. Chan highlights QA automation and platform tooling as critical enablers of speed. Without them, there’s no way to maintain a quick release cadence or manage a distributed ecosystem at scale.
Equally important was how the team partnered with the business. “As technologists, it’s our job to show the business what’s possible and what’s at risk if we stay put,” he says. “It’s not just about costs. It’s about missed opportunities, because if we don’t do it we cannot move at the pace we need to.”
For a company in the performance nutrition space, those opportunities can come quickly. Social media trends drive demand. New product lines surge. Without flexible architecture, keeping up becomes impossible.
Where AI Fits—and Where It Doesn’t (Yet)
The Vitamin Shoppe has begun to explore how AI can help augment both customer-facing experiences and internal workflows. Recommendation engines already use a degree of AI, and Chan’s team is testing generative tools to speed up repetitive engineering tasks. In one case, translating redirect rules with AI cut a five-day job down to 20 minutes.
More advanced AI adoption—especially agentic systems—remains cautious for now. The team is exploring use cases, but the regulatory nature of the business demands rigorous oversight.
“You can’t just let things run,” Chan says. “Checks and balances are always going to be important. But we’re optimistic. As the tech matures, we’ll build the trust and find the right fits.”
Advice for Teams on the Edge
For those still living inside the limitations of a monolith, Chan offers this advice: don’t try to do it all at once.
“Part of the beauty of MACH is that you can do things piecemeal. You don't have to go all the way in one go,” he says. “You can run a few services, maybe even non-critical services, just to get a feel for things.”
It’s an approach that has worked well for The Vitamin Shoppe, not because it was flashy or fast, but because it was grounded in purpose, proof, and persistence.
Leigh Bryant
Editorial Director, Composable.com
Leigh Bryant is a seasoned content and brand strategist with over a decade of experience in digital storytelling. Starting in retail before shifting to the technology space, she has spent the past ten years crafting compelling narratives as a writer, editor, and strategist.