A split second can make the difference between a successful or failed transaction on an e-commerce platform. To stay on the positive side of this spectrum, it is important to have insight into both current and ideal performance. As Head of Product at PLUS Retail, Arvid Nieuwsma is responsible for the digital channels. Under his leadership, the e-commerce platform ensures that customers can do their shopping online in a user-friendly way.
PLUS’s e-commerce platform, which welcomes around 25 million visitors annually, plays a major role in the supermarket chain’s strategy. With more than 500 physical stores throughout the Netherlands, it is important for PLUS to increase its market share and strategically deploy their e-commerce.
“Our core business is facilitating online orders and customer orientation on products. This allows customers to prepare for their visit to our stores.’’
Since launching the first Plus Supermarket webshop in 2015, the online market has grown significantly and the number of digital users continues to increase. For this reason, Arvid is actively engaged in further optimizing the digital channels and the supermarket chain launched a new e-commerce platform in February 2024. Arvid states: “A customer is valuable when shopping in the store, but also when shopping online in addition. These are often the most loyal and profitable customers for the company.” So the focus for him and his team is on the digital aspect and how to optimize the digital user experience on both the app and website of the platform.
Market standards and consumer expectations
Retailers must comply with the Google Core Web Vitals. This has now become the market standard when it comes to Web page loading speed. One of PLUS’s goals was to meet these market standards and to further optimize performance from there. The reason for the collaboration with MeasureWorks was therefore to gain insight into the performance bottlenecks, so that Arvid and his team could set targeted priorities on their development roadmap.
MeasureWorks supported PLUS in gaining insight into the current performance and provides advice on areas for improvement for the platform. In the years before the launch of the new e-commerce platform, MeasureWorks had also been closely involved with PLUS, so it was no surprise that the collaboration continued. “We have always had MeasureWorks as an advisor in the field of web and app performance in recent years,” says Arvid. He continues: “And now on the new platform, we have also engaged them again as consultants.”
“Measureworks’ Get Fast, Stay Fast concept ensures that we are short on time, proactively monitoring and optimizing so that our platform always meets market standards and customer expectations.”
The ability to respond quickly to market needs and ensure high customer satisfaction are key to PLUS’s competitiveness. Arvid explains: “Within retail, it is of course very important to perform at least as well as other large supermarket chains. When there is no delivery with us, consumers can easily find the same products at competitors.”
Arvid noted that several years ago there were problems with load times on both web pages and in the app. At that time, the web shop lacked a dashboard that could show how content was performing and what the page load times were. So PLUS asked MeasureWorks, “How much faster does PLUS need to be to optimize the user experience and thereby maximize transactions, retention rate and sales?”
MeasureWorks’ Get-Fast Stay-Fast approach
MeasureWorks was engaged to monitor and optimize the performance of the new platform. With Real User Monitoring, PLUS gained valuable insights and identified bottlenecks in the user experience. Real User Monitoring helped PLUS gain valuable insights and identify bottlenecks in the user experience. “Real User Monitoring measures the main funnels of our customers, the platform, which devices our customers use and what this does to the performance of the platform,” explains Arvid.
In addition to Real User Monitoring, PLUS also works with Synthetic Monitoring of the e-commerce platform and Measureworks has been doing load tests at key points in the year for years. During these load tests, MeasureWorks simulates high web traffic to see how the platform responds to this during expected peak moments, such as Easter and Christmas. This way, optimizations can be implemented well in advance.
In addition to Performance Testing and Performance Monitoring, there is a Performance Product Owner from MeasureWorks who provides feedback on the impact of new releases every two weeks.
“MeasureWorks has been our trusted performance monitoring partner for years. Their Get-Fast Stay-Fast approach ensures timely evaluation and proactive monitoring before a release occurs. Their expertise helps my team set the right priorities.”
Optimization insights through MeasureWorks
With the help of MeasureWorks, PLUS has gained valuable insights. The performance of their e-commerce platform is constantly being optimized, but has already achieved great results to date. An uptime of 99.6% compared to 96% on the old platform is a great example. That’s no reason for Arvid to sit still, however. For example, during a major Euroweek campaign, it was found that the offers page temporarily had a loading time of nine seconds. Arvid indicates: “By using MeasureWorks, we can quickly gain insight into these types of bottlenecks, which allows us to anticipate in time, make the right decisions and determine which priorities to pick up first.”
“Measureworks helps us by identifying weaknesses in our web and app performance. With their advice, my team can get to work making improvements.”
The collaboration with MeasureWorks continues to play an important role at PLUS. In the future, the focus will be on further optimizing the most visited pages in order to permanently increase customer satisfaction. The experience and tools offered by MeasureWorks will play an important role in the further optimization of the e-commerce platform. “We can rely on MeasureWorks to always be there for us. That is one of the reasons why we have had MeasureWorks as a consultant since 2017,” says Arvid.
“Working with MeasureWorks is transparent, open and honest. Their flexible approach and willingness to work together have helped us maintain the performance of our digital channels.”
Make sure your website, app or online platform is performing optimally using MeasureWorks. Discover how real-user and synthetic monitoring provide valuable insights, uncover bottlenecks and optimize the user experience. With MeasureWorks as your strategic partner, you can proactively address market needs, ensure customer satisfaction and achieve more conversion. Improve digital channels and increase your revenue by quickly identifying and resolving performance issues.
Curious about our Get-Fast-Stay-Fast approach? Contact MeasureWorks and discover the benefits for yourself.
