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Valves Online

Valves Online: Large multisite B2B transformation for the UK's leading online valves supplier

Removing technical debt and improving the codebase, we rebuilt the company's entire online presence, encompassing no less than thirteen websites, for huge speed gains and a transformed user experience.

Launching its first eCommerce store way back in 2003, Valves Online has always been at the forefront of its industry – offering a huge range of built-to-last valves, actuation and process control solutions to customers around the world.

Fast forward to more recent years and the company has grown massively to create no less than thirteen websites each targeted at specific industries – making the purchasing of valves, controls, ancillaries and packaged systems easier than ever, for every industry type.

This innovative and forward thinking approach brings huge benefits – but the whole installation was being held back by a number of inherent issues affecting both users and internal teams, including poor code and lots of technical debt resulting in a frustrating front-end and back-end experience.

Our task? Strip everything back, improve the codebase, and transform the overall experience for both customers and internal teams. It all adds up to a new online presence that’s well and truly fit to open the valve for eCommerce growth. 

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A new Hyvä multisite build transforming the experience throughout

Rebuilding on Hyvä, the leading Magento front-end, for clean code, unparalleled performance and a first-rate user experience.

Leaner and meaner in every sense

Our team worked tirelessly to strip everything back, remove technical debt and improve the codebase. The result is a faster multisite that's much easier to manage and delivers a comprehensively transformed user experience.

Technical debt can become a huge problem over time, with poor code, duplication and messy dependancies bringing unnecessary complexity to proceedings. Left uncontrolled, it can significantly hamper both speed and agility, resulting in a site that’s challenging to maintain, breaks more easily, and is generally frustrating to use.

Valves Online was a classic example of this; a complex multisite with a poor quality codebase that was impeding performance and resulting in long deployment times with increased server load. As well as being frustrating to manage, site speed was slow and failed Core Web Vitals, providing a poor overall user experience and having a negative impact on organic search. 

Recognising that this needed to change, the company approached Aware, who have vast experience of large-scale Magento transformation projects and were the obvious partner to tackle this complex rebuild.

Creating the site on Hyvä, the leading front-end for Magento, our team worked tirelessly to slim everything back and improve the codebase while adding all the most important content into a page builder, empowering internal teams to set work and take control of marketing.

As a result of doing things the ‘right’ way, the deployment times have gone from 10 minutes to just 6 minutes, with significantly reduced server load. This means work can be completed much faster and with more stability.

One of the key focus areas was front-end speed. Building the new site on Hyvä, which is made for performance right out of the box, was the best possible start. Stripping out anything not needed and cleaning up the code allowed us to significantly boost page loading times, improving the experience and helping the site pass Core Web Vitals. It’s a better experience all round. 

Technical expertise translates into great results:

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increase in page speed

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Reduction in requests

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faster deployment times

A better way to order valves online

Our new Hyvä build makes it quick and easy for customers to browse the company’s huge range, view detailed specifications on any item, and get a custom quotation.

Not sure exactly what you’re looking for? Head straight to the Product Finder, which makes it easier than ever to locate the right item. Begin by choosing a valve type and then pick from a range of additional options to navigate through the range.

Customers can also use the smart search function, which displays matching products and categories straight from the search box in real-time. Users can quickly narrow down their search results using a variety of filters.

Click onto an item and get instant access to detailed product information and specifications, including technical attributes and downloadable datasheets along with comprehensive images.

Ready to buy? Add it to your basket. Or, choose ‘Add to Quote’ before viewing and submitting your final quotation. This is a very useful feature for B2B buyers, allowing the generation of a quick quote for evaluation.

Adobe Commerce (Magento), Hyvä and Aware

For lightning fast Magento performance, it has be Hyvä.

Hyvä is the leading front-end for Magento, delivering superior performance, developer flexibility, and an ultra-fast time to market.

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Page Builder

The new Page Builder allows internal teams to take control of content updates.

Valves Online’s old website had a page builder – but it was frustrating and time-consuming to use, actually making life more difficult rather than easier!

As part of the new site, we rebuilt all the important content into a brand new point-and-click builder, meaning staff can easily update content on the fly. 

Designed to be easy to use and requiring no technical expertise, users can quickly and easily run through content updates in minutes – with changes instantly viewable in real-time, providing them with a better future roadmap for marketing and setting work. Creating and editing content has never been easier.

This, combined with the much faster deployment times, means the site is much easier to manage and maintain – for both developers and marketers.

Let the performance begin

In the world of eCommerce, every second quite literally counts, with even tiny delays in page speed having a huge impact on conversions, SEO and user experience.

Thankfully, Hyvä delivers unrivalled speed never before seen on a Magento build, scoring 100 in Google PageSpeed and passing Core Web Vitals out of the box.

How is this possible? It’s all down to Hyvä’s lightweight code and reduced complexity. The fact that it does this while delivering advanced features and supreme flexibility means it’s easy to see why we love it so much. Aware is a leading Hyvä Partner Agency, working with it day in, day out to craft brilliant builds like this one.

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Ready to start working with a leading UK-based eCommerce growth agency?

Knowing your objectives and core business visions will allow us to create a plan with the right actions and solutions to offer you the best eCommerce platform.

See if your business can achieve these results?

We’d love to chat with you about how partnering with Aware could help you grow your eCommerce business! Fill in the form below and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can – usually within 1 business day.