e have completed the initial stage of implementing headless technology for Castorama Poland - a leader in the home& improvement industry. This is the first project of this type carried out in Poland for a client from this category. Thanks to the implementation we managed to speed up the page loading time to 1.8 seconds.
Headless for the industry leader
Castorama.pl is one of the largest online shops in Poland, handling very high traffic (even 7 million sessions per month, April 2019). For this reason, the customer needed a solution that, despite such a load in the store, will ensure the appropriate speed of loading the site and meet the expectations of modern consumers. To solve our client's problem, we offered him the headless model.
E-commerce is a competitive field. Our goal has always been to provide the best experience for the customer so that he can get to the products and make purchases as quickly as possible. Due to the high traffic in the shop and the complicated architecture of the service, we have carefully watched and analyzed the possibilities of implementing the Vue.js framework. Finally, we decided on headless, which in the near future will be a standard for the biggest e-commerce players" - Tomasz Stefanowski, Service WWW Development Manager, Castorama Poland.
What is headless?
Headless splits the frontend (the part that is presented to the user) and backend (the technology behind the presentation layer that makes everything work) of the sales platform into separate elements. In other words, what we see when we enter the site (visual layer) is independent from the e-commerce platform, i.e. from order management systems, payment or product information management (e.g. Magento in the case of Castorama).
- 1,8 sek - page loading time (GTMetrix)
- 97 pkt - 97 out of 100 points in the speed test (Google Page Speed Insights)
More convenient online shopping
Headless primarily improves the loading time of the service, allowing you to create a more efficient online store. The user gets the results much faster, e.g. when the search filters in particular product categories are changed (formerly, the page was reloading each time, extending the waiting time). Increasing the speed of shop operation automatically translates into increased customer satisfaction and the number of purchases, i.e. gives an increase in conversion.
In addition, headless makes it easy to make updates and changes without affecting the backend. It allows more experimentation and better personalization (UX). We can perform A/B tests, better customize content to the user and expand the functionality of the site without involving the backend.
We're currently working on further developing headless technology on the shop floor. Soon Castorama.pl will be able to provide its customers with even better shopping experience"-Borys Skraba CEO Strix
Speed up the page
The project for Castorama.pl is the first implementation of this solution in the DIY & Home Improvement industry in Poland. Thanks to the implementation the speed of loading the shop's website has increased significantly. Currently the page loading according to GTMetrix is 1.8 seconds (data for October 2019). We have also managed to reduce the page weight and the number of queries to the database. The page loading speed has also gained 97 out of 100 points in test conditions (Google Page Speed Insights).