Get to Know Fritz Hansen

Founded in Denmark in 1872, Fritz Hansen continues to uphold its heritage of exquisite craftsmanship, quality and timeless design. The brand is world famous for their classic and contemporary furniture, lighting and accessories. Fritz Hansen’s work is guided by the philosophy that even one piece of furniture can beautify an entire space.

Through close collaboration with renowned designers such as Arne Jacobsen, Poul Kjærholm, Hans J. Wegner and Piet Hein, Fritz Hansen has produced some of the most iconic Danish furniture. Their collaboration now continues with top contemporary designers including Jaime Hayon, Piero Lissoni, Kasper Salto and Cecilie Manz.

The Goal

Fritz Hansen wanted to create a digital expression of the brand’s style and luxury through an online experience that mirrors their stores and showrooms. This required a new platform and e-commerce solution, together with a strong, international online presence.

The Transformation

Valtech transformed Fritz Hansen’s online presence from a web catalogue into a dynamic digital universe that puts design, product and material at the forefront. Storytelling that includes static and moving images presents the products, designers and design processes. This puts the products into context and not only confirms the customer’s decision to buy an expensive piece of art, but also conveys the story of the brand.

Fritz Hansen

Building Blocks

The platform was built around the needs of several target audiences. There is the focus on the end user, but at the same time professionals should be able to use it to download digital assets like images, 3D models and objects. These professionals are often working within larger industries as designers or architects and require very specific information, whereas end-users are more driven by engaging product imagery.

The digital design is heavily rooted in the physical experience of the materials, the shapes and the colours. It conveys craftsmanship and quality. Valtech’s intent was to maximize user experience while still achieving the brand’s ultimate objective (conversion). Using Sitecore, Ucommerce, Altapay and AX (PIM), we were able to utilize all of their existing content to create a luxurious online experience with a smooth checkout flow.

As the team was relatively small, Fritz Hansen worked onsite as a co-creator in the Valtech Copenhagen office. In that way, the design, UX, marketing, PO and PM were right next to each other all the time. The smaller the group, the more intense the collaboration, and the more easily bottlenecks are solved.

Fritz Hansen

No Need For Compromise

Drawing inspiration from Fritz Hansen’s physical stores, the website design is centered around beautiful products brought to life through large screen-tiles and detailed pictures and product information. The site aims to present the furniture in a way that will inspire customers to purchase online or visit Fritz Hansen stores.

Fritz Hansen has taken the first big step in their digital journey and global expansion strategy, without compromising their iconic luxury design. The new platform ensures that Fritz Hansen’s customers get the same uncompromising experience, whether they are entering their stores in the digital or the physical world.

The concept that we embraced and unfolded was ‘Get closer’. To the product. To the material. To a certain colour palette. To the designer. To selecting an item. With customers that research online, but in majority purchase offline, the closest by we could get them was through big images, big videos. It was just a matter of unlocking the wealth of content Fritz Hansen already had, through both their website as well as their social platforms.
Magnus Ørum-Hansen, Valtech Creative Director

Product-Centric Design

The focus of the content-first strategy quickly came to be on product pages. These pages convey both the product in all its different variations, but are also a promotional platform for the designers and a source for professionals such as interior designers. The information is comprehensive yet visually conveyed in alignment with Danish design aesthetics.

Iconic Connection

Through this digital medium, before buying or visiting a physical showroom, buyers begin to form a bond with the work of art they are considering. Site visitors get to experience the product in a context that is immersive and part of the designer’s and brand’s story. It’s sales and branding at the same time.