Faster, more efficient web shops for Mediahuis

client

Mediahuis

Website

www.mediahuis.be/en/

scope

Optimize website performance

User-friendly front-end

Additional product categories website

tools

Hyvä

Magento

Mediahuis: a leading independent media group

Mediahuis is a prominent European media group with operations across the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, Ireland, and Belgium. It encompasses over 30 independent news brands, all dedicated to delivering high-quality journalism.

Need from Mediahuis

Mediahuis first partnered with PHPro several years ago when we implemented Magento 2 for them. During this project, we developed multiple web shops for four different newspapers:

Recently, Mediahuis approached us with new projects on their roadmap, including:

Enhancing website speed and performance
Adding new product categories to the webshop, such as travel and cycling products
Developing a new homepage that allows even non-technical employees to easily add content
Optimizing overall user experience (UX) guidelines

How did we execute this project?

To bring this project to fruition, we began with a thorough analysis phase, after which we recommended Hyvä as the new front-end solution. This choice was driven by two main factors: addressing the website's performance issues and benefiting from Hyvä's visually appealing, user-friendly front-end features.

Optimized website performance

Hyvä is renowned for its ability to create fast, efficient web shops. We evaluated the performance of the web shop both before and after implementation, and the results are outstanding:

Overall Performance: The website's speed and responsiveness improved from 79% to 99%.
Code Structure: The organization and quality of the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code increased from 60% to 92%.
Largest Contentful Paint: The load time for the largest image or content block reduced from 2.2 seconds to 418 milliseconds.
Total Blocking Time: To enhance interactivity, we decreased the Total Blocking Time from 226 milliseconds to 114 milliseconds.
Cumulative Layout Shift: This metric, which measures unexpected shifts in page elements during loading, was reduced from 0.06 to 0.

Mediahuis technische realisaties schema 2

Additionally, the enhanced performance led to a significant increase in organic traffic for the website:

Nieuwsblad: +27%
De Standaard: +14%
Het Belang van Limburg: +8%
Gazet van Antwerpen: +18%

Ready-made front-end components

Another key advantage of choosing Hyvä is its seamless integration with "fallback themes". A fallback theme allows you to update parts of your website incrementally rather than all at once. If a new style is not available for a particular page, the web platform automatically reverts to the previous design theme, enabling gradual changes to the website.

With the Hyvä theme, we introduced a set of ready-made custom components for use in web shop banners. These components empower non-technical employees to customize banners independently, making it easy for them to highlight new features or products without needing a developer's assistance.

New product categories for the webshop

We introduced two new product categories to Mediahuis' webshops: Travel and Bicycles.

Travel: Employees can now create and manage travel packages directly on the website, without any coding skills required.
Bicycles: We integrated comprehensive filters and specifications, enabling employees to list bikes and related supplies easily on the webshop, with no technical expertise needed.

In need of a quality web shop?

We’re proud of the rapid turnaround for this project: from initial discussions to go-live in just six months. If you need a high-quality web shop delivered quickly, our experts are here to help. With our extensive knowledge and experience, we can ensure your project is executed smoothly and successfully. Contact us to get started.