Furniture subscription eCommerce platform

Posted March 28, 2025

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Photo of furniture from lifestyle shoot

Photo of furniture from lifestyle shoot

This project was a major undertaking I led as sole developer for over four years—taking the company from an existing Squarespace site to a fully interactive eCommerce platform. Throughout this time, I not only handled all development but also played a key role in design work for every version except the final facelift. I also did the initial studio and lifestyle photography for the site.

Existing website

Originally, the company operated with a simple Squarespace site featuring a basic form that stored submissions in a Google Doc. It had minimal features, analytics, and interactivity. Customers had no way to order online, pay, or even receive immediate feedback—they had to wait for a representative to contact them.

The rental model at the time was limited to three pre-defined furniture packages with minimal customization. Credit checks were conducted manually through Experian, adding another layer of inefficiency.

v2.0: Interactivity & automation

Recognizing the need for a more modern, efficient system, I spearheaded the transition to a WordPress site hosted on Azure. This version introduced significant improvements in performance, SEO, and user experience.

Tech stack: WordPress, WooCommerce, PHP, MySQL, jQuery

Key improvements

Interactive request form

To streamline customer interactions, I developed an interactive web app that replaced the static request form. The new form dynamically adjusted based on user input, reducing back-and-forth and improving the customer experience. Data was submitted to a custom backend API.

Automated credit checks with Experian API

Previously a manual process, I automated credit checks by integrating the Experian API:

Impact

v3.0: eCommerce integration

This version introduced eCommerce capabilities, allowing customers to configure packages, add them to a cart, and pay online—marking the company’s first foray into online transactions.

Key features

Additional enhancements

v4.0: Full site redesign

The company underwent a full rebrand, requiring a complete site overhaul. This version introduced a new logo, color scheme, fonts, photos, and copy, while maintaining the core functionality.

v5.0: “By the piece” & rent-to-own

This phase introduced a significant shift: customers could now rent individual furniture pieces rather than being locked into pre-defined packages.

Key features

Challenges & solutions

v6.0: Site split & rebranding

Initially, the site was built to handle both “by the package” and “by the piece” offerings. However, the company decided to launch a completely separate brand and website for the new model.

This required:

All in few month’s timeframe.

Final thoughts

Over four years, I transformed this company’s online presence from a basic Squarespace form to a sophisticated, interactive, multi-site eCommerce platform.

I handled every aspect of development—back-end, front-end, API integrations, performance optimizations, automation, and even significant portions of the design process. Despite juggling multiple other projects for the company during this time, I built, optimized, and scaled the entire system without additional development support.

This project stands as a testament to my ability to architect and execute large-scale, business-critical solutions from the ground up.