De Fonseca
Launched and ran the entire digital operation for De Fonseca in Russia — from a multilingual e-commerce site to payments, logistics, and marketing. One-person digital department.
Industry
E-commerce
Role
One-person digital department
Scope
Multilingual website, payments, logistics, marketing
Timeline
3.5 years
Launched and ran the entire digital operation for De Fonseca in Russia — from a multilingual e-commerce site to payments, logistics, and marketing. One-person digital department.
The challenge
De Fonseca is Italy's No.1 home slipper brand (6M+ pairs/year). They had an outdated Italian website — desktop only, no mobile, two languages. The Russian subsidiary needed its own online sales channel, but nothing existed: no site, no payments, no delivery, no marketing.
What I did
Proposed and built a single international website instead of a separate Russian site. Three languages, one domain, built on Magento (to match the Italian infrastructure). Found and selected the dev agency, designed the full UX/UI, coordinated development.
Solved the hard infrastructure problems. Russian user data had to stay on Russian servers (legal requirement), while the international site ran on a single domain. Two separate Magento instances, no data crossover. Integrated a delivery service, connected an online cash register with a physical fiscal device (required by Russian tax authority), then later integrated with Russia's product tracking system ("Honest Mark") for mandatory labeling codes.
Ran all digital marketing from scratch. Built social media presence, produced seasonal photoshoots used globally (website, POS, catalogs, ads). Started influencer campaigns — sent free product to bloggers, which drove brand recognition and organic search traffic.
Expanded to marketplaces (Ozon, Wildberries) — product listings, descriptions, cards.
Context
De Fonseca Russia had ~10 people. I was the only person responsible for digital — design, site, marketing, operations. Coordinated directly with Italian HQ: CEO, marketing director, SEO manager. Visited Italy twice for alignment.
Results
Built e-commerce from nothing to a running business over 3.5 years. Branded search traffic grew significantly through influencer marketing and content strategy. The site and infrastructure I built served as the foundation for the brand's digital presence in the Russian market.
Testimonials
Anton played a key role in helping us get the project off the ground. His work on the MVP made it easier for us to explain the idea to both users and investors.
Anton has a deep understanding of the needs of target customers and successfully turns business goals into final product.
Anton quickly and efficiently achieves his goals thanks to his responsibility, focus on results, deep understanding of user needs.
Anton is a clear expert who has a vast knowledge of UX and demonstrates a deep understanding of users.
Anton dramatically improved our UX, added both functional and appealing features that became a huge part of digital strategy and help us grow our customer base.
Anton quickly understood the product and turned a complex technical offering into a clear and compelling visual story.