Swiss Sense: A composable transformation for digital growth
Sleep is precious—after all, we spend a third of our lives in bed. That’s why a system that perfectly suits your body and sleeping position makes all the difference. Swiss Sense offers a high-quality collection of beds, mattresses, bedding and bedroom accessories. They are a major player in the European market, operating more than 125 physical shops and a webshop in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria and Denmark.
The challenge: Growing pains in the digital age
Swiss Sense is experiencing rapid growth in terms of revenue, staff, and beyond. This expansion has put pressure on their existing systems. To maintain this growth, the need to stay ahead digitally became crucial.
In response, Swiss Sense implemented numerous changes to their Adobe Commerce platform. By late 2021, it became clear that their Adobe Commerce stack alone could no longer meet the needs of both the company and their modern customers. Constant modifications were necessary to meet expectations, which proved time-consuming and cumbersome. These customizations eventually reached a point where they were no longer scalable or future-proof. The signs were clear:
- They faced increasing management costs due to the customizations.
- Content management and rolling out global campaigns was very labor-intensive.
- The CMS wasn’t user-friendly for employees who had to work with it daily, particularly when launching global campaigns.
- Technical blockers were impacting SEO and conversion.
In short, Swiss Sense realized that a thorough overhaul of their systems and CMS was necessary.
The result: Early wins in a new digital journey
Swiss Sense began seeing positive results almost immediately:
Rave feedback from employees
Swiss Sense’s regional teams now work faster and more efficiently in their CMS thanks to Contentstack. While switching to a headless CMS initially removed some freedoms for users, this actually brought more standardization, which the team embraced.
Improved web vitals
Web vitals are currently the biggest indicator of improved performance, with long-term benefits expected in other areas as well.
No SEO dip after go-live
After a replatforming, it’s common to see a drop in SEO results, but that didn’t happen here. Rankings stable, a great result in this context.
Less maintenance costs, more innovation
Previously, high maintenance costs were tied to “technical debt.” Now, these resources are being invested in innovation and advanced technology implementation, allowing Swiss Sense to stay ahead of new industry trends.
The future: A wealth of growth opportunities
While not all features on the roadmap have been implemented yet, Swiss Sense is thrilled with the quality and the time/budget/scope balance. The team is now focused on expanding operations and enabling regional teams to fully leverage the new system. Meanwhile, work continues on the remaining roadmap features.
Looking ahead, Swiss Sense is well-prepared for growth and changing consumer trends. With their headless commerce solution, their ecommerce platform is an enabler for better campaigns and improved conversions. The growing pains we mentioned earlier have now become growth opportunities.
Everyone put their shoulder to the wheel. The project marks the beginning of a shared journey to future-proof our customer experience tech stack. That journey relies on transparent, open communication between the teams. No empty words or sugarcoating: just that typically Dutch directness.
Stefan SchuylemanManager Digital Commerce
The people behind the project
Even with the best technology in the world, you’re nowhere without a team you can count on. Culturally, the collaboration between Swiss Sense and Vaimo was a great fit. Every project has its ups and downs, things that go well right away and things that don’t. How a team deals with that makes all the difference.
Despite the unexpected complexity of the project and the high pressure at go-live, everyone worked tirelessly to achieve the desired result. That drive has everything to do with the high degree of ownership: you get much further when you truly stand behind your project.
