Development
Mattress Warehouse
Mattress Warehouse needed a scalable and highly-performant eCommerce solution that supported realtime product filtering, and an effective purchase funnel.
Year :
2024
Industry :
Furnishing
Client :
Mattress Warehouse
Project Duration :
10 weeks
Problem :
Mattress Warehouse, a leading South African mattress supplier, wanted to modernize its online store by providing a flexible platform for the business and a frictionless purchase experience for customers.
The primary goal was speed and ease of use: remove all friction from the buying process so customers could quickly find the right mattress. Conventional e-commerce setups with standard filtering work well if you already know what you’re looking for, but many customers need more guidance. Mattress Warehouse needed something faster, smarter, and more intuitive.
Solution :
We built a headless, high-performance, and scalable site using Gatsby.js, a framework designed for speed. Techniques used included static site generation with incremental updates and regeneration. Other optimizations included intelligent page prefetching based on user interaction, as well as media optimization techniques such as sharp image transformations.
To improve the shopping journey itself, we developed a custom “Bed Finder” tool — a guided funnel that helped customers make decisions quickly and confidently. This not only streamlined the buying process but elevated it beyond the typical “filter-and-scroll” e-commerce experience.
A headless setup also gave us the flexibility to integrate Magento for e-commerce and WordPress for content management. This architecture made the system easier to maintain and future-proof, since each backend service could evolve independently without breaking the overall site.
Challenge :
Balancing performance with dynamic functionality requires careful trade-offs. Pre-generating too much content can lead to large payloads and slower load times on weaker devices, while generating too little undermines the benefits of static delivery. In this project, we had to find the middle ground that kept filtering instant without overloading the client.
Integrating separate backends also demands deliberate architectural choices. Without clear structure and separation of concerns, a headless setup can quickly become messy and difficult to maintain. We avoided this by adhearing to the principle of 'separation of concerns', and implemented a solid, predictable data layer.
This approach proved valuable when the chosen e-commerce provider had to be replaced midway through the project due to licensing issues. Thanks to the architecturel decisions, the transition was smooth and minimally disruptive.
Summary :
The Mattress Warehouse site now delivers a shopping experience that is both fast and intuitive: instant filtering, seamless navigation, and a guided “Bed Finder” funnel that removes friction from the buying process. For the business, the headless architecture ensures long-term flexibility and easier maintenance, with the ability to adapt as tools and platforms change.
For me, this project was a chance to apply performance-focused development at scale. It required navigating trade-offs between speed and functionality, as well as making architectural decisions that would keep the system clean and adaptable. Seeing those choices pay off — especially when the e-commerce provider had to be swapped mid-project — reinforced the value of building for both present performance and future resilience.
More Projects
Development
Mattress Warehouse
Mattress Warehouse needed a scalable and highly-performant eCommerce solution that supported realtime product filtering, and an effective purchase funnel.
Year :
2024
Industry :
Furnishing
Client :
Mattress Warehouse
Project Duration :
10 weeks
Problem :
Mattress Warehouse, a leading South African mattress supplier, wanted to modernize its online store by providing a flexible platform for the business and a frictionless purchase experience for customers.
The primary goal was speed and ease of use: remove all friction from the buying process so customers could quickly find the right mattress. Conventional e-commerce setups with standard filtering work well if you already know what you’re looking for, but many customers need more guidance. Mattress Warehouse needed something faster, smarter, and more intuitive.
Solution :
We built a headless, high-performance, and scalable site using Gatsby.js, a framework designed for speed. Techniques used included static site generation with incremental updates and regeneration. Other optimizations included intelligent page prefetching based on user interaction, as well as media optimization techniques such as sharp image transformations.
To improve the shopping journey itself, we developed a custom “Bed Finder” tool — a guided funnel that helped customers make decisions quickly and confidently. This not only streamlined the buying process but elevated it beyond the typical “filter-and-scroll” e-commerce experience.
A headless setup also gave us the flexibility to integrate Magento for e-commerce and WordPress for content management. This architecture made the system easier to maintain and future-proof, since each backend service could evolve independently without breaking the overall site.
Challenge :
Balancing performance with dynamic functionality requires careful trade-offs. Pre-generating too much content can lead to large payloads and slower load times on weaker devices, while generating too little undermines the benefits of static delivery. In this project, we had to find the middle ground that kept filtering instant without overloading the client.
Integrating separate backends also demands deliberate architectural choices. Without clear structure and separation of concerns, a headless setup can quickly become messy and difficult to maintain. We avoided this by adhearing to the principle of 'separation of concerns', and implemented a solid, predictable data layer.
This approach proved valuable when the chosen e-commerce provider had to be replaced midway through the project due to licensing issues. Thanks to the architecturel decisions, the transition was smooth and minimally disruptive.
Summary :
The Mattress Warehouse site now delivers a shopping experience that is both fast and intuitive: instant filtering, seamless navigation, and a guided “Bed Finder” funnel that removes friction from the buying process. For the business, the headless architecture ensures long-term flexibility and easier maintenance, with the ability to adapt as tools and platforms change.
For me, this project was a chance to apply performance-focused development at scale. It required navigating trade-offs between speed and functionality, as well as making architectural decisions that would keep the system clean and adaptable. Seeing those choices pay off — especially when the e-commerce provider had to be swapped mid-project — reinforced the value of building for both present performance and future resilience.
More Projects
Development
Mattress Warehouse
Mattress Warehouse needed a scalable and highly-performant eCommerce solution that supported realtime product filtering, and an effective purchase funnel.
Year :
2024
Industry :
Furnishing
Client :
Mattress Warehouse
Project Duration :
10 weeks
Problem :
Mattress Warehouse, a leading South African mattress supplier, wanted to modernize its online store by providing a flexible platform for the business and a frictionless purchase experience for customers.
The primary goal was speed and ease of use: remove all friction from the buying process so customers could quickly find the right mattress. Conventional e-commerce setups with standard filtering work well if you already know what you’re looking for, but many customers need more guidance. Mattress Warehouse needed something faster, smarter, and more intuitive.
Solution :
We built a headless, high-performance, and scalable site using Gatsby.js, a framework designed for speed. Techniques used included static site generation with incremental updates and regeneration. Other optimizations included intelligent page prefetching based on user interaction, as well as media optimization techniques such as sharp image transformations.
To improve the shopping journey itself, we developed a custom “Bed Finder” tool — a guided funnel that helped customers make decisions quickly and confidently. This not only streamlined the buying process but elevated it beyond the typical “filter-and-scroll” e-commerce experience.
A headless setup also gave us the flexibility to integrate Magento for e-commerce and WordPress for content management. This architecture made the system easier to maintain and future-proof, since each backend service could evolve independently without breaking the overall site.
Challenge :
Balancing performance with dynamic functionality requires careful trade-offs. Pre-generating too much content can lead to large payloads and slower load times on weaker devices, while generating too little undermines the benefits of static delivery. In this project, we had to find the middle ground that kept filtering instant without overloading the client.
Integrating separate backends also demands deliberate architectural choices. Without clear structure and separation of concerns, a headless setup can quickly become messy and difficult to maintain. We avoided this by adhearing to the principle of 'separation of concerns', and implemented a solid, predictable data layer.
This approach proved valuable when the chosen e-commerce provider had to be replaced midway through the project due to licensing issues. Thanks to the architecturel decisions, the transition was smooth and minimally disruptive.
Summary :
The Mattress Warehouse site now delivers a shopping experience that is both fast and intuitive: instant filtering, seamless navigation, and a guided “Bed Finder” funnel that removes friction from the buying process. For the business, the headless architecture ensures long-term flexibility and easier maintenance, with the ability to adapt as tools and platforms change.
For me, this project was a chance to apply performance-focused development at scale. It required navigating trade-offs between speed and functionality, as well as making architectural decisions that would keep the system clean and adaptable. Seeing those choices pay off — especially when the e-commerce provider had to be swapped mid-project — reinforced the value of building for both present performance and future resilience.