Case Study: How HiCareer Helped Häxan Build Their E-commerce Department

When we think of Häxan, it’s easy to think about the silver and metal polishes that became a household staple in Sweden in the 1900s. It was the Gothenburg Factory “Tomtens Tekniska Fabrik” that launched the unique formula, sprung from natural ingredients, in 1913. Over the decades, Tomtens Tekniska Fabrik was sold many times, and many of the products disappeared from the market. But Häxan stood strong. In 2020, the driven entrepreneurs who were behind the success of Happy Socks decided to buy Häxan and revive the brand.

“It was during the pandemic and people were starting to be at home more. Sustainability was on everybody’s mind and we could see how people took better care of their homes and belongings,” says Lovisa Tingman, Co-founder.

The trio kept a lot of Häxan’s heritage, such as the naming and story that had fairy-tale-like names, and the concept of natural, non-toxic products. With that, they launched a new assortment that suits a home in the 2020s. The products also got a design that would look good in a bathroom, standing out from the ordinary neon designs of cleaning products.

“Our focus was on quality and non-poisonous products, as we don’t want to expose children and pets to harmful substances,” says Lovisa.

From Retail to E-commerce

When it was time to take the brand from retail to e-commerce, Häxan contacted HiCareer.

“It was only us founders and one more person working in the company at the time, and we needed a head of e-commerce who could lead that development. We knew that HiCareer really understood e-commerce, so it felt safe to let them help us. They know what experiences, characteristics, and competencies a person should have to not only lead the development of the e-commerce but also work in an entrepreneurial company,” says Lovisa.

The First Hirings and Process to Get It Right

HiCareer made its first recruitment in 2022. At that time, Lena Skiba was recruited as Head of E-commerce and became part of the founding team, joining at a very early stage. Lena was very entrepreneurial and had many innovative, smart ideas, fitting perfectly with the stage Häxan was in, where e-commerce was just in the beginning.

HiCareer was involved throughout the entire process, from finding candidates to signing. Interestingly, HiCareer had another relevant candidate in the same process who did not get that job but eventually ended up as Head of E-commerce at another company run by the same owners. When Lena was about to go on parental leave in December 2023, Häxan came up with the idea of recruiting another person to the team, as they had grown significantly and felt it was time to expand the team. HiCareer was then tasked with finding someone with more expertise in Performance Marketing & Growth, who could build the framework and how-to for scaling the performance budget. HiCareer found Lisa, who was a fantastic match both in terms of personality and experience.

The Key: To Understand the Company

“Häxan has an awesome team and I personally love to work with founders that have a lot of past experience that know who they are. The challenge here was of course to find “crazy people” that fit in this extremely early stage, that have a broad knowledge and are open-minded to do what it takes to grow a company from an early stage,” says Fredrik Johansson, founder at HiCareer.

“I’m very grateful for how flexible HiCareer is and how much help we got. I’ve worked with recruiters before where I wrote an ad, sent it to the recruiter, and they answered with ten candidates, and then we never spoke again. But HiCareer took their time to understand our company and us founders, and with a verbal briefing, they wrote the ad and posted it. They did the screening, and when we had some good candidates, they showed great engagement and followed through the entire process to signing,” says Lovisa.

“We are really happy with the work HiCareer have done for us, the overall pace in the process and the understanding of our needs have been invaluable. Would highly recommend them to everyone in the process of hiring!”