“The customer experience must be consistent and predictable.”
— Edwin van der Graaf, Software Engineer at bol.com
Since 2010, we’ve been working with bol.com to deliver fast and stable digital experiences. Today, bol.com ranks not only at the top of the Twinkle100, but also leads our performance benchmark year after year. In this blog, our performance engineers speak with bol.com, one of the most prominent online retailers in the Netherlands. What is the business impact of performance? And how do you embed performance into the way you work?
Growing together in performance
The collaboration started small. In 2010, bol.com selected MeasureWorks as its partner after a selection process that included various demos and benchmark comparisons. From day one, the user experience was the main focus. Through real user monitoring, we provided insight into click behavior, load times, and differences between desktop and mobile sessions.
In 2013, we carried out an extensive performance benchmark, combining synthetic and real user monitoring data to deliver a complete view of platform performance. What followed was a multi-year collaboration focused on optimizing performance — resulting in trust, scale, and continuous improvement.
Guiding customers through the store — quickly and smoothly
Bol.com is the go-to store for millions of customers in the Netherlands and Belgium. As both a platform and retailer, its IT landscape must be robust and reliable. That landscape consists of many microservices — and is only as strong as the weakest link. “If one system is slow, it creates a ripple effect across the entire landscape. That hurts the customer experience,” says Edwin van der Graaf, Software Engineer.
That focus on performance is no coincidence: bol.com continuously tests and monitors. From real user monitoring to in-depth A/B experiments — everything is aimed at improving performance by the millisecond.
“We want to understand the impact of every change. Customers notice immediately when something gets slower — and they appreciate it when we make things better,” says Lars de Bruijn, Product Tech Lead Shop.
Site Reliability Engineering as a foundation
At bol.com, performance is structurally embedded in the organization through Site Reliability Engineering (SRE). By working with clear Service Level Objectives (SLOs), such as a maximum page load time for browsing, business and IT make informed decisions together. These SLOs are the standard for releases, experiments, and optimizations.
“Objectives allow us to make deliberate choices about releases and improvements.”
— Lars de Bruijn, Product Tech Lead Shop at bol.com
The next step: bol.com takes the reins
As of March 2025, bol.com has officially taken over the observability reins. MeasureWorks supported the SRE team for many years — with benchmarks, training, tooling, performance audits, and continuous monitoring. Now, bol.com has decided to manage the performance stack independently — a step we couldn’t be prouder of.
What started with a selection process and a demo evolved into a fully-fledged collaboration. Through deep insights, hands-on guidance, and knowledge sharing, bol.com has embedded performance into its DNA. Now that they’re running it themselves, we’re confident: this retailer will keep moving fast.
“Our customers genuinely appreciate it when we invest in strong site performance.”
— Edwin van der Graaf, bol.com
