DTC e-commerce · Sleep · Feb 2017–Apr 2021. Case study by Eugen Stoicov, Senior Product Designer in Vienna.
Designing the shopping experience for a customizable mattress.
Developed and implemented the e-commerce design system, crafted the shopping experience, and collaborated with marketing on campaigns.
A mattress is the last product people expect to buy without lying on it. HONGi had no stores and no showroom. The entire purchase happened online, sight unseen, at €819 for a product that lives in your bedroom for a decade. The differentiator made this harder: an individually configured three-layer mattress, with two independently configured halves for couples. A better product that was genuinely worse to sell, because the value only exists once someone understands it.
High price, custom manufacturing, delivery measured in weeks, and understandable anxiety about comfort. Specs alone bounce people. The site had to earn trust in the ninety seconds before someone closes the tab, then carry that confidence through checkout for a product they cannot touch.
Never explain the product in words when you can let someone operate it. I put a working configurator on the homepage so one tap proved the three-layer logic; used 3D renders and material studies as the showroom; and let the Faultier mascot carry risk where a spec-sheet brand would feel cold. Checkout sequenced the reassurance instead of burying it in the footer: 100-night trial, free layer exchange, certifications as visual language.
The e-commerce platform recorded a 3.9% conversion rate and an average basket value of €1,600. My work spanned the design system, shopping experience and collaboration with marketing.
Focus: Product configurator, Art direction, 3D visualisation, Illustration, Motion.