home focus by hickeys

High-performance transformation in home goods

a few problems

Home Focus at Hickeys, a staple in Ireland’s home furnishing scene, revolutionised their online presence with Monsoon Consulting.

The upgrade to Magento 2 and integration of the Hyvä theme boosted load speeds and SEO, while new eCommerce features like Click & Collect were introduced.

This digital transformation not only refreshed Home Focus’s digital platform but also significantly enhanced the online shopping experience, setting a new standard in the home furnishings industry.

Creating a new digital flagship for Ireland’s leading home furnishing brand, Monsoon Consulting are excited to be part of the launch of the new Home Focus at Hickeys website powered by Magento, Storyblok and Hyvä.

Legendary Irish brand Home Focus by Hickeys, a staple in Ireland’s retail landscape since 1940 with 13 stores throughout Ireland has just launched its brand new website and digital flagship.

Home Focus which offer a wide range of fabrics, ready-made curtains, curtain poles, blinds, bedding, haberdashery & craft supplies and are now embarking on their next journey into eCommerce with their new, powerful and immersive eCommerce site. 

The new site needed to provide the following: 

Platform Modernisation

Including cutting-edge features, intelligent product categorisation, and attribute filtering

IMPROVED PERFORMANCE

Enriching the customer experience

MULTI-CHANNEL INTEGRATION

Introducing Click & Collect and Reserve features

OUR SOLUTIONS

Monsoon Consulting has been working with the team at Hickeys on a wide range of project services including; updating the design, UX and UI, redeveloping and upgrading the application software from Magento 1 to the latest version of Magento 2.

Moreover, we have incorporated the new, innovative Hyvä Frontend Theme for Home Focus to transform the power of Magento and generate fast page load speeds and SEO benefits.

In addition, the new site provides key new eCommerce and multi-channel features including:

  • Click & Collect
  • Reserve Online & Pay in Store
  • Reserve In-Store

Also of note, is Monsoon’s continued partnership and implementation of StoryBlok for Home Focus. Our team at Monsoon created a unique and immersive “Shop the Look ” feature utilising the powerful content management solution offered by Storyblok, merging and bringing together all the unique content and imagery from the brand with the specific product information from an eCommerce perspective.

Our team is very proud of the work we have achieved with Hickeys & Home Focus, taking this iconic Irish brand on the next chapter of their eCommerce journey.

Our team continues to push the boat out with innovative solutions working alongside our key eCommerce partners Hyvä and Storyblok, as well as Magento.

We are very excited to work with Home Focus and support them on their journey ahead.

Alastair Brodie

Commercial Director, Monsoon Consulting

FEATURES

Monsoon Consulting has improved the speed of the site with the following cutting edge solutions and innovative approach from our design & development team:

  • Implementation of Hyvä theme. This has reduced the amount of CSS & JavaScript needed for the site.
  • Lazyloading and optimising all imagery on the site.
  • CDN and the performance optimisations with Cloudflare.
  • Optimised Loading of 3rd party scripts.
  • New and improved homepage design.
  • Improved UX for the site header, catalogue and checkout.
  • Integrated with Storyblok headless CMS for easy-to-manage content of landing pages.
  • Storyblok has the only real Visual Editor available for CMS to give instant feedback on changes (For more on Monsoon’s partnership with Storyblok please see our recent blog post)
  • Developed several compatibility modules including for the blog.
  • Huge SEO improvement due to amazing new Page Speed Scores.
  • Multi-store, multi-theme utilising the Luma to Hyvä re-theming approach.

OTHER SUCCESS STORIES

ENABLE IRELAND

225% Increase in Users

  • Integrated Donation Functionality
  • Localised Service Centre Directory
  • Centralised Resource Hub
  • Inclusive, Rich, Multimedia Content

DÚN LAOGHAIRE-RATHDOWN COUNTY COUNCIL

Over 2 million unique website views

  • A responsive and easy-to-navigate public service website
  • In-depth discovery process
  • Information Architecture
  • Content Management

HOME FOCUS BY HICKEYS

Customised 'Shop the Look' Feature

  • Powerful and immersive eCommerce site
  • Platform modernisation
  • Improved performance
  • Multi-channel integration

ENABLE IRELAND

225% Increase in Users

  • Integrated Donation Functionality
  • Localised Service Centre Directory
  • Centralised Resource Hub
  • Inclusive, Rich, Multimedia Content

DÚN LAOGHAIRE-RATHDOWN COUNTY COUNCIL

Over 2 million unique website views

  • A responsive and easy-to-navigate public service website
  • In-depth discovery process
  • Information Architecture
  • Content Management

HOMEFOCUS

Customised 'Shop the Look' Feature

  • Powerful and immersive eCommerce site
  • Platform modernisation
  • Improved performance
  • Multi-channel integration

Ready to transform your site?

Get in touch today!

EMPOWERING     INNOVATIVE     HUMBLE     SOLUTION-ORIENTED     EFFICIENT    HONEST     ARTISTIC     RESPONSIBLE     INNOVATIVE     CUSTOMER-CENTRIC     AWARD-WINNING   

EMPOWERING     INNOVATIVE     HUMBLE     SOLUTION-ORIENTED     EFFICIENT    HONEST     ARTISTIC     RESPONSIBLE     INNOVATIVE     CUSTOMER-CENTRIC     AWARD-WINNING