Wayfair: Shop Home Furniture & Decor Online

Wayfair is one of the world’s leading destinations for home furniture and décor, with thousands of brands and millions of SKUs across every room, style, and price point. Our mandate was to refine the digital shopping experience so it feels as considered and curated as a professionally designed interior—while still supporting the scale and complexity of a global marketplace.

Project overview

We focused on elevating product discovery, visual inspiration, and purchase confidence for customers furnishing everything from a single reading nook to an entire home. The work combined UX, performance, and merchandising improvements to make browsing large catalogs feel effortless instead of overwhelming.

• Help customers quickly narrow down furniture options that fit their space, style, and budget.
• Turn category and product pages into “mini showrooms” with high-impact visuals and context.
• Reduce friction between inspiration (ideas, room images) and transaction (add to cart, checkout).
• Ensure a consistent, responsive experience across desktop, tablet, and mobile devices.

Experience design & navigation

Furniture shopping is deeply visual and often involves multiple decisions across size, finish, fabric, and configuration. We redesigned the browsing and navigation patterns to respect this complexity without overwhelming the user.

• Room- and style-based entry points: Landing experiences for living room, bedroom, office, and outdoor furniture with curated themes (modern, mid-century, farmhouse, minimalist) so users can start from inspiration rather than SKU lists.
• Guided filters & faceted search: Granular filters for size, material, color palette, upholstery type, seating capacity, weight limits, and delivery timelines—designed to remain readable and usable even on smaller screens.
• Sticky actions & quick views: Sticky “Add to Cart / Save to List” actions and quick views allow users to make decisions without constantly reloading pages or losing their place in long product grids.

Visual merchandising & storytelling

To better reflect the premium and design-forward side of Wayfair’s assortment, we enhanced how products and collections are presented.

• Room scenes & lifestyle imagery: Emphasis on styled room photography alongside product shots, helping customers imagine how pieces will look in real spaces.
• Collection and bundle views: Grouping complementary items—sofas, coffee tables, lighting, rugs—into ready-to-shop “looks” that can be added to cart individually or as a bundle.
• Detail-rich product pages: Expanded sections for materials, care instructions, assembly details, and close-up shots of stitching, hardware, and textures to reduce returns and support high-consideration purchases.

Personalization & recommendations

With such a large catalog, intelligent recommendations are critical. We worked on integrating data-driven suggestions throughout the funnel.

• Style-aware suggestions: “Complete the room”, “Pairs well with”, and “Similar in your style” modules that combine browsing behavior with category context.
• Shortlists & favorites: Improved wishlists and idea boards for customers planning larger projects, allowing easy revisits, comparisons, and sharing.
• Behavior-based merchandising: Surfacing best sellers, highly rated items, and top return performers in each category to build confidence quickly.

Mobile-first performance & usability

A significant portion of Wayfair’s traffic comes from mobile devices, particularly when customers browse casually for inspiration. The experience was tuned to feel light and responsive on smaller screens.

• Responsive components tailored for thumb-friendly interaction and easy scrolling.
• Optimized image delivery and lazy loading to keep category and product pages fast and smooth.
• Refined cart and checkout flows for mobile, minimizing typing and form complexity.

Real-time inventory & operational clarity

For large, bulky items like furniture, expectations around delivery and availability are especially high. We focused on keeping information accurate and transparent.

• Real-time stock visibility: Synchronization with inventory systems so customers see current stock levels, lead times, and backorder options.
• Shipping & delivery transparency: Clear presentation of estimated delivery dates, white glove options, and assembly services where available.
• Post-purchase clarity: Order status tracking, shipment stages, and alerts integrated into the account area and email/push communication.

Business impact

The updated Wayfair experience for furniture and décor strengthened both discovery and conversion:

• Improved product discoverability through better filters, navigation, and visual merchandising.
• Higher engagement on furniture categories thanks to inspiration-led entry points and curated looks.
• Increased conversion and average order value as customers confidently built full-room combinations.
• Better customer satisfaction driven by accurate availability, transparent delivery expectations, and a smoother multi-device journey.

Overall, the platform evolved into a more elegant, intuitive destination for home furnishings—balancing Wayfair’s massive catalog with a shopping experience that feels curated, modern, and easy to navigate.