Case study

Kitchen Warehouse

How Australia's #1 online kitchenware retailer thrived during COVID-19's unprecedented traffic surge and achieved 150% revenue growth with Peakhour's performance solutions.

Kitchen Warehouse
70% Improvement in Load Times
150% Increase in Revenue Year on Year
85% Of All Traffic Served from Cache

Technical review

What changed in production

Each study is structured around the operating problem, the Peakhour control path, and the measurable outcome.

Challenge

The Challenge

  • Aging e-commerce platform hosted in Seattle causing 10-second page load times across Australia
  • Previous CDN solution (Cloudflare) only reduced load times to 7 seconds - still unacceptable for Australian users
  • Facing unprecedented COVID-19 traffic surge with monthly page views reaching 4-4.5 million
  • Orders increased by 150% year-on-year during pandemic, straining existing infrastructure
  • Business continuity threatened by poor performance during critical growth period

Solution

Peakhour's Solution

  • Comprehensive website analysis identifying caching and optimisation opportunities
  • Revamped mini cart and account menu functions to utilise Ajax and cookies for better cacheability
  • Integrated Unboxed third-party search function onto KitchenWarehouse.com.au domain for massive SEO gains
  • Made almost all website content outside checkout cacheable by Peakhour service
  • Enhanced cybersecurity blocking hacking attempts, bots, and DDoS attacks with greater visibility

Results

The Results

  • 70% improvement in page load times, reducing from 10 seconds to 3 seconds or less
  • 150% increase in revenue year-on-year during COVID-19 pandemic surge
  • Over 85% of website hits served from cache, reducing server load by nearly 90%
  • Removed over 1.5TB of traffic from infrastructure, allowing IT team to focus on other projects
  • Successfully handled unprecedented traffic without needing e-commerce platform migration

Customer quote

"We have been amazed and delighted with both the service provided and results delivered by Peakhour, and would recommend them to anyone running an online business."
Luke Matthews

Luke Matthews

GM IT Operations & E-Commerce, Kitchenwarehouse.com.au

Peakhour controls used

Solution stack

The controls below are the relevant parts of the Peakhour request path for this customer outcome.

PERFORMANCE MODULE

Advanced Caching

Intelligent full-page caching with custom Ajax integration for mini cart and account functions, achieving 85% cache hit rates.

Explore control

SECURITY MODULE

Bot Management

Advanced bot detection preventing malicious scraping of pricing data and protecting against platform slowdowns.

Explore control

SECURITY MODULE

DDoS Protection

Enterprise-grade DDoS mitigation protecting against volumetric attacks and ensuring business continuity during traffic surges.

Explore control

PERFORMANCE MODULE

Web Performance Optimisation

Comprehensive website acceleration including search function integration, caching optimisation, and traffic reduction strategies.

Explore control

Review your own edge security and performance path

Bring the current CDN, WAF, bot, API, cache, and logging setup. Peakhour will map where the platform can simplify the path.

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