Neuhaus
Bringing Personalized Praline Selection Online
Neuhaus is a well-known Belgian praline maker and has a history dating back nearly 170 years. With over 750 points of sale worldwide, Neuhaus serves customers who value high quality, craftmanship, and unique experiences.
The story of Neuhaus
While Neuhaus physical stores remain a cornerstone of their brand, online sales have grown significantly in recent years, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Recognizing this shift, Neuhaus insourced their webshop in 2017 to improve their online presence, services and find innovative ways to engage their customers. To stay ahead in the evolving retail market, Neuhaus wanted to merge their in-store premium experience with the convenience of online shopping, creating a personalized digital journey for their customers.
The goal
Neuhaus approached our team with a clear vision: to bring the traditional praline picking at the comptoir in-store to the webshop. That’s where the “Fill Your Own Box” virtual experience came to life. The goal was to give Neuhaus customers the possibility to personalize their box of pralines on the website, mirroring the freedom and excitement of choosing pralines from the counter in a physical store. This required a solution that was intuitive, visually engaging, and technically flawless offering the same premium experience Neuhaus is known for and designed for future growth.
Our approach
We knew this project was about more than functionality: it was about keeping Neuhaus’ tradition and craftmanship alive while offering a modern online experience. Here’s how we brought the “Fill Your Own Box” (FYOB) concept to life:
1. Building the foundation from scratch
We designed and developed the entire “FYOB-feature from scratch, ensuring a smooth and engaging user experience. Customers can select between two box sizes – medium (16 chocolates) or large (36 chocolates) – to suit their needs. They can easily select pralines using a variety of filters, such as chocolate type, allergens, fillings, and even praline names via a search bar. Today, customers can choose from 38 kinds of pralines, supplemented .
2. Solving the “puzzle” of box filling
One of the most complex challenges was designing a system that could accurately determine how many pralines could fit into a box, considering their varying sizes and shapes.
3. Ensuring flexibility and scalability
We made sure the system was designed to be dynamic, allowing Neuhaus to easily add new box sizes or chocolates without requiring extensive development work. This flexibility gives Neuhaus full control to adapt their offerings and respond to evolving customer preferences.
4. Optimizing for mobile users
With many customers shopping on mobile devices, we developed a seamless mobile experience. The FYOB feature is fully optimized for mobile devices, ensuring easy navigation and a user-friendly interface.
5. Performance and reliability
We focused on delivering a fast and reliable experience. Optimal caching and robust infrastructure were implemented to minimize loading times and ensure a smooth and uninterrupted shopping journey.
Oliver Leurs
Working on the ‘Fill Your Own Box’ project with Neuhaus has been an exciting and rewarding experience. Bringing this concept to life was a great challenge, and I’m proud of the result we achieved together. Looking forward to continuing this journey together and evolving even further!
What the Future Holds
The FYOB feature is currently available in Neuhaus webshop in Dutch, English, French, and German, delivering to 20 European countries. Whether it’s optimizing the existing features or exploring new ways to improve their customer experience, we ensure that Neuhaus’ digital presence consistently reflects the premium value of their products.
Why partner with FORWARD?
Choosing the right technology partner is just as important as choosing the right tool. At FORWARD, we bring extensive Salesforce expertise to every project, backed by years of experience working across industries like retail, manufacturing, and hospitality.
Our approach is collaborative—we work as one team with our customers, focusing on shared goals and delivering solutions that truly make an impact.
Reach out and let’s get together!
