/00/Case study / 2023 · Plant subscription, DTC

Fernway
Co.

A paper-textured storefront that loads in 800ms on 3G.

// role
Brand system
Design system
Storefront engineering
Subscription ops
// stack
AstroShopify HydrogenStripeSanity
// duration
5 months
// team
3 GreenCoders
Fernway Storefront
Plants mailed monthly
LTV lift
+38%
LCP
0.8s
Lighthouse
98
/01/Summary

Fernway wanted a storefront that felt like a letter from a greenhouse — but had to ship faster than anything on Shopify.

0.8s
LCP (3G)
98
lighthouse
+38%
LTV lift
−42%
bounce
/02/
Challenge

The incumbent Shopify theme was a 4.2MB page weight, sub-60 Lighthouse, and the subscription flow lost 42% of checkouts at step 3. Brand felt like every other plant DTC.

/03/
Approach

We rebuilt the storefront on Astro with Hydrogen for product data, a paper-textured design system in code + Figma, and a three-step subscription flow with inline address autocomplete. Imagery was shot with the founders on a single rainy weekend.

/04/
Outcome

800ms LCP on 3G. Lighthouse 98. Subscription completion +31%. Customer LTV up 38% at 12-month mark. Zero bounce increase despite tripling the photo budget.

/05/ Across devices

Same system. Every surface.

Product · Monstera
From $42 · monthly
rating
4.9
shipped
8,112
Subscription
Step 2 of 3 · Address
complete
66%
time
47s
/06/Process

Four seasons, in order.

/01/ Seed

Two weeks with the founders and six customers. Rewrote the brand voice in a shared Notion.

/02/ Sprout

Type-first prototype — all browns and creams — tested with 8 recurring customers.

/03/ Canopy

Storefront shipped in 8 weeks. Subscription flow rebuilt from scratch in week 6.

/04/ Harvest

Launched to waitlist first. A/B tested five CTA variants. Kept the calmest one.

/07/Details

Moments that earn a pause.

Shop Grid
42 plants this season
in stock
36
restock
6
Fernway Storefront
Plants mailed monthly
LTV lift
+38%
LCP
0.8s
/08/Full composition

One system, three frames.

greencode://work/product-·-monstera
Product · Monstera
From $42 · monthly
rating
4.9
shipped
8,112
Product · Monstera
From $42 · monthly
rating
4.9
shipped
8,112
Product · Monstera
From $42 · monthly
rating
4.9
shipped
8,112
/09/ In their words
"They shot our plants in a garage, built our site in an attic, and doubled our revenue in a year. They also made us laugh on every call."
Rosa Marin · Co-founder, Fernway Co.