E-commerce · Product Design
SAMIC: From Catalog to a Digital Sales Channel
Design and implementation of an owned e-commerce experience that turned a static website into a sales, content, and commercial operations channel.
From a static website to an owned sales and operations channel.
SAMIC sold wooden flooring and designer furniture from a physical store in Montevideo. The project transformed its digital presence into an e-commerce experience that could present the catalog, support purchasing, and sustain commercial campaigns.
- Business and customer needs
- Architecture and purchase flows
- E-commerce implementation
- Continuous operation and iteration
My job title at the time was Web and Graphic Designer. Viewed through a Product Design lens, the work included understanding the commercial problem, researching references, defining the information architecture and flows, implementing the solution, testing it with people close to the operation, and iterating it over six years.
This is a historical case. It focuses on the decisions and evidence that can still be supported today.
The problem was not simply selling online. It was bringing the company closer to customers who lived far from the store.
SAMIC had grown from its timber roots into wooden flooring and furniture. Its digital experience had not kept pace with that business change. The static website provided information, but customers could not browse the catalog or move through a purchase independently.
The opportunity was to create an owned channel that complemented the physical store and brought products, campaigns, and inquiries into one system.
A broad offer spread across a static website, direct inquiries, and external platforms.
The store’s location, the size of the catalog, and the reliance on manual inquiries created friction for customers and for the people maintaining each campaign.
For the business, every campaign required coordinating assets, prices, and replies across several channels. For customers, comparing options and understanding how to buy required too much assistance. The challenge was to design a simple experience without separating the interface from the operation that had to keep it current.
Designing the product and making it work in everyday operations.
- Needs assessment with customers and company staff.
- Benchmarking and competitor review focused on online sales.
- Information architecture, categories, navigation, and purchase flows.
- Wireframes and definition of key pages.
- Implementation in WordPress and WooCommerce, including HTML and CSS adjustments.
- Usability testing with internal and external users.
- Product content, campaigns, email marketing, and ongoing maintenance.
- Collaboration with Dario Rattner on creative direction and communication.
Interface decisions came from real commercial constraints.
Conversations with customers and staff showed that the catalog needed to be easier to browse and maintain. Benchmarking helped define familiar patterns for categories, product pages, promotions, and checkout. I then worked through flows and wireframes to reduce steps and organize the information before moving into visual design.
Implementation was not a closed handoff. Every campaign, inquiry, and operational issue provided signals to refine navigation, content, and components.
A responsive e-commerce experience with catalog, promotions, and purchasing in one journey.
The solution included product categories, individual product pages, a wishlist, contact forms, discounts, incentives, and checkout.
WordPress and WooCommerce allowed the site to support catalog turnover and commercial campaigns without rebuilding the structure for every update. The product’s value did not sit in one screen. It came from connecting discovery, consideration, inquiry, and purchase.
Website, marketplace, social media, and email as parts of one commercial experience.
The owned channel worked alongside Mercado Libre, Instagram, Facebook, and email campaigns. I designed assets and content to maintain consistency across those touchpoints. Social media work was developed with the Creative Director, so the outcome is presented as collaborative work rather than individual authorship.
A digital channel with a real role in SAMIC’s sales and operations.
The e-commerce experience made purchasing easier, extended the company’s reach beyond the physical store, and organized part of the commercial operation around a shared catalog. It also reduced reliance on external platforms for transactions where direct sales were more convenient for the company.
What can be stated today, and what cannot.
The channel, its functional scope, and my contribution are documented through the website, design assets, and surviving professional records. The approximate 30% increase appears in resumes written in the years following the project, but the original analytics or commercial report is no longer available. It is therefore presented as a historical estimate, not an audited metric.
I also do not claim results achieved after 2021. Following my departure, other contributors continued to professionalize the codebase and organic search work.
Designing a channel also means designing the operation that sustains it.
Retrospective
The interface was only one part of the product.
SAMIC was the project where I understood most clearly that a good experience depends on how products are entered, prices are updated, inquiries are answered, and campaigns connect to purchasing.
If I approached it today, I would establish baseline metrics from the start, instrument events across the funnel, and document every experiment more precisely. That lack of traceability does not invalidate the work, but it shaped a lesson that is now part of my practice as a Product Designer.