Open Enrollment: Less Pressure, More Precision - How Wayfair Targeted Education Where it Mattered Most

Overview

Open Enrollment is the most demanding moment of the year for HR and benefits teams. For Wayfair, one of the world’s largest online retailers for home goods, with nearly 15,000 employees across the U.S., the challenge wasn’t preparation. It was precision.

Wayfair partnered with Artemis Health to understand how employee health behaviors, utilization patterns, and benefit engagement varied across locations, and how those differences should shape their Open Enrollment strategy. What they uncovered challenged a common assumption and reshaped how they deployed their benefits resources.

The Discovery

Wayfair analyzed benefits data by office location to understand where education gaps and engagement opportunities truly existed. Rather than relying on anecdotal feedback or headcount alone, they looked directly at utilization patterns across their workforce.

Key findings included:

• Significant variation in ER and urgent care utilization by jobsite
• Uneven rates of primary care visits and annual physicals
• Differences in place of service for care
• Wide variation in telemedicine utilization
• Concentrated fertility claims prevalence in specific locations
• Higher out-of-pocket costs at certain jobsites

One insight stood out: larger offices didn’t necessarily correlate with higher costs, utilization, or unmet needs.

“We’re not going in blind; we’re going in with data. When we talk to people, we sound like we know them. We’re educated, and we know what you need from your benefits.”
— Emily Munroe, Benefits Manager, Wayfair

The Domino Effect

Had Wayfair followed a traditional Open Enrollment playbook (i.e., sending Benefits Specialists only to their largest locations) they would have missed the offices where education could make the biggest difference.

This wasn’t just an operational inefficiency. It had real consequences:

• Members in high-utilization locations were more likely to use costly sites of care

• Employees with higher out-of-pocket exposure risked confusion or dissatisfaction

• Fertility benefits were under-communicated where interest and need were highest

Without data-backed targeting, even well-designed benefits risk falling flat.

The Action Plan

Armed with a location-level view of utilization and engagement, Wayfair redesigned how they approached Open Enrollment education.

Targeted interventions included:

Rather than treating Open Enrollment as a one-size-fits-all event, Wayfair used Artemis to deploy the right message, to the right people, in the right place.

The Outcome

With access to reliable, multi-source benefits data, Wayfair shifted from broad coverage to targeted impact. Their benefits team could:

• Allocate specialist time more effectively

• Personalize education by location and need

• Improve relevance and resonance of Open Enrollment conversations

Demographic and utilization data also helped identify where fertility program enrollment would be most impactful, ensuring benefits investments aligned with real employee demand.

The Takeaway

As important as precision medicine is in effective care, precision benefits clears the path. The domino effect begins with employees who are educated and empowered to utilize their benefits. Wayfair gained not only visibility, but direction to set themselves up for a successful open enrollment season.