How bonprix creates office space that actually gets used

The essentials

bonprix, a fashion retailer in the Otto Group with more than 1,000 employees on its Hamburg campus, redesigned its office space for hybrid work after the pandemic and found that good design alone does not bring anyone into the office. With Seatti, employees book their desks directly in Microsoft Teams and see in advance who will be on site, and bonprix uses the usage data to reshape space around actual demand. Between September 2025 and August 2026, the number of planned office days almost doubled compared with the year before.

New space alone does not fill an office

bonprix already worked flexibly before the pandemic, but the broad shift to home office left much of the space on its Hamburg campus unused. The goal was neither a return to fixed desks nor mandatory attendance, but a campus people use voluntarily and gladly, while staying efficient. First pilot areas with lounges, moss walls and flexible wall elements quickly showed that besides design, equipment, organisation and transparency about who is on site make the difference.

“It was clear to us: coming into the office has to be worth it. The place has to be inviting, but it also has to work.”

– Frank Dombrowski, New Office Project Manager at bonprix

Three hurdles between redesign and use

bonprix ran into three hurdles after the redesign that kept the new space from being taken up.

Why do newly designed office spaces stay empty?

The pilot areas at bonprix were used far less than planned, despite a large investment in design. Spaces that looked appealing were often impractical in daily use, for example because screens, power sockets or acoustic retreats were missing.

Why does hybrid collaboration need transparency about who is in?

At bonprix nobody reliably knew who was in the office and when, and that is exactly what made spontaneous collaboration hard. Anyone who does not know whether their team is on site will usually stay at home.

When should IT be involved in an office redesign?

At bonprix, IT and technical teams were initially brought into space planning too late, so technical requirements only surfaced once the areas were in use. A redesign for hybrid work needs IT at the table from the start.

“Design over function is a fallacy. Only once everything works does the design come into its own.”

– Frank Dombrowski, New Office Project Manager at bonprix

Simple, user centred and transparent

bonprix chose Seatti because it is easy to use, built around the people who use it, and creates transparency about presence and space usage.

How does desk sharing work without an extra app?

At bonprix, employees book their desk in a few seconds directly in Microsoft Teams, on desktop or on their smartphone. Desk booking therefore runs in an application that is open every day anyway, and that was a key reason for the fast acceptance.

How do you plan shared office days without mandatory attendance?

The Meetup Dashboard shows bonprix employees in advance which colleagues will be on site on which day. Project based and cross departmental teams benefit most, because they can plan their shared office days deliberately without anyone being required to come in.

How do you find out which office spaces are really used?

Seatti gives bonprix usage data on desks, zones and areas and shows which spaces are taken up and which are not. These space usage analyses are the basis for every further planning decision on the campus.

Rolled out where people already work

The rollout of Seatti at bonprix was quick because employees sign in with their existing Microsoft account and do not have to learn a new interface. The integration with Microsoft Teams and Entra ID kept the effort for IT low and made Seatti part of everyday work from day one.

Space that follows actual use

At bonprix, Seatti is now a fixed part of everyday office life, and that shows in three places.

Higher space utilisation through simple booking

Since Seatti was introduced, the space on the bonprix campus is used more, because booking happens without friction directly in Microsoft Teams. Anyone who wants to come in finds a suitable desk in seconds, and the redesigned areas are used instead of standing empty.

Satisfied employees through transparent office planning

Employees at bonprix now plan their office days more transparently, because they can see in advance who will be on site. That makes the trip to the office predictable and worthwhile.

Space decisions based on real usage data

Based on usage data from Seatti and at the request of employees, bonprix completely redesigned an area originally planned as a quiet zone. Space decisions no longer rest on assumptions, but on what actually happens in the office.

Lessons from the redesign

Frank Dombrowski sums up the bonprix experience in four lessons that apply to any company combining hybrid work with an office redesign.

Function before design

Attractive rooms are not enough, only functionally equipped workspaces get used regularly.

A core team from day one

When facility, future work, IT and procurement plan together, the result holds up both technically and organisationally.

Collect feedback deliberately

Specific questions to frequent users and team leads lead to improvements that can actually be implemented, instead of a long wish list.

Use digital tools with purpose

The right technology makes booking easier, makes presence visible and delivers the data to optimise space for the long term.

“A technician is not always a nerd, but often the only one who knows what will actually work later.”

– Frank Dombrowski, New Office Project Manager at bonprix