HOMYCASA is a Portuguese furniture and home decor retailer with around 4,000 product references, from sofas to mattresses to lighting. Founded from scratch nearly a decade ago, the business built its strategy around ecommerce from day one, driven by a clear conviction: furniture shopping would increasingly move online, even for products that customers traditionally want to see and touch before making a purchase.
That vision proved right. But as the business evolved, its technology platform struggled to keep pace with its ambitions.
After eight years on PrestaShop, HOMYCASA moved to VTEX early this year, then switched to Shopify within months, working with its long-standing partner Skrey to bring all 4,000 references onto the new platform.
- Sales grew 20% in the first month on Shopify, compared with the previous month.
- Conversion rate rose 16% over that same first month.
The technical cutover to the new platform took under an hour, with almost no disruption to trading.
The migration gave HOMYCASA more than a new ecommerce platform. It created a stronger technological foundation for a more agile, scalable and customer-centric digital experience.
The challenge: a replatform that increased operational risk
"We had high expectations and needed more to reach our ambition, so we decided to migrate our website again, a second time in the same year," says Michael Gameiro, founder and CEO of HOMYCASA. Two replatforms in one year meant time and effort spent on technology instead of the business. For a catalogue of 4,000 product references that depends on high-quality photography, rich product content and page speed to make up for a product shoppers cannot touch, that was time the business could not spare.
"What we needed was for our teams to be 100% focused on marketing and on showcasing our products," Michael says, "not on fixing a bug or a technical issue that is not our core business."
The solution: a fast, low-risk move to Shopify
HOMYCASA turned to Skrey, the Shopify partner it already worked with on ERP integration for its previous sites. That existing relationship became an important advantage. "The fact that we already knew the company we were going to work with, that we speak the same language, that they knew the market," Michael says, "I think that helped a lot." The two teams met in person throughout the project, visiting each other's offices and HOMYCASA's physical stores to align before build work began.
In three months, we signed the contract with Shopify and launched the site. That is a timeframe we consider almost a record.
With the platform in place, HOMYCASA's content team brought its full catalogue, close to 4,000 references, onto Shopify within three months, building product listings that would normally take far longer on a less mature platform. Shopify Flow now runs the business's day-to-day automations, Sidekick supports staff in the back office, and automated email flows recover abandoned carts. The Shop app gives shoppers order tracking and visibility, and HOMYCASA's project team reports a 60% increase in AI-assisted product search since launch.
For HOMYCASA, the result was more than a faster, more efficient website. It created a technology environment that reduced the burden on internal teams and gave the business a stronger foundation for its next stage of growth.
The result: faster sales, clearer stock, no disruption
HOMYCASA expected a slow few months after cutover, the usual cost of starting fresh without historical data on a new platform. Instead, the transition delivered immediate commercial momentum.
Sales grew 20% in the first month compared with the previous month, while conversion rose 16% over the same period. The business felt almost no negative impact from the migration, only a positive one.
The transition happened in under an hour. We shut down the old site, put up the new one, and hardly felt a thing.
Managing that catalogue across multiple stores and warehouses wasn't simple, as some locations have different opening hours and some products are sold before they're back in stock. Skrey connected Cegid, HOMYCASA's ERP, to Shopify, so customers can now see stock availability across the company's stores and warehouses before placing an order. That gives shoppers more confidence at the point of purchase and cuts the number of basic availability questions customer service has to handle.
For Michael, this connection between technology and customer experience is directly linked to growth: better stock visibility can remove friction from the buying journey and support conversion.
With the replatform successfully behind it, HOMYCASA is turning to its next stretch goal: peak season, including Black Friday and the end-of-year promotional period. "We believe a brand earns more visibility through the impact of its website," Michael says. "The first thing a consumer does is visit the page and see who these people are, and whether it is a trustworthy company."
The new platform gives HOMYCASA the foundation to do more than keep its online operation running. It gives the business the speed, visibility and flexibility to turn its digital storefront into a stronger engine for growth.