wayfair

about the project

I joined Wayfair to advance the physical manifestation of the digitally native brand from concept to reality. This was a huge project that spanned multiple years & I had the incredibly unique opportunity to develop the Visual Presentation strategy for the flagship brand's Frequency categories. I know that “Frequency” isn’t an industry term, so I always describe it as product the customer leaves the store with in-hand (versus Furniture categories, for example, which the customer orders & has delivered to their home). The Frequency product mix ranges from Decor & Housewares to Textiles & Lighting, representing over 6,000 items across 15 departments.

Because we built this store from a blank page, I not only designed the departments & product adjacencies, but the actual fixtures themselves. Here is an overview of the phases of work that brought this project from concept to reality:

• Concept (2022): I made a lot of maps & drew countless illustrations during this phase! This was the “what if…” portion of the project - my team was ideating in-store experiences while partnering with our Merchant team to source product, curate assortments, & right-size product categories for the store.

• Build (2023): This is when we started to physically build-out & test our concepts to operationalize a real presentation plan for the real store. We built mock departments in a warehouse south of Boston dubbed the Retail Lab. Our lab space was 1/3 the size of what our first store was going to be, so we built presentations in cohorts: we would build select departments (with a mix of first article fixtures, plywood stand-in fixtures, & foam board mock-up fixtures), review them with the larger cross-functional team, get sign-off from leadership, document them, then tear them down to build the next cohort of departments. This process went on for a better part of a year while the real 150,000 square foot store was under construction in the Chicagoland region.

• Set (2024): The store construction was complete, the fixtures were produced, & the product assortment arrived - it was time to (finally) put it all together! We spent over six weeks on-location - training, trouble-shooting, & pivoting - before Wayfair 1 opened its doors to customers on May 23, 2004.

• Repeat (2024-Forward): The Concept-Build-Set Phases of Work now repeat forever (in much more condensed timelines) as we (1) operationalize seasonal floor-sets, (2) evolve assortments & presentations, & (3) stand-up & scale stores across the country (each with different footprints & in-store experiences).

This project has been the most exhaustive & most rewarding work of my career - I hope you enjoy perusing the highlights of my contributions to this project!