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Spangler Candy's CDN Improves Performance and Saves Costs with v7 platform
Founded in 1906 in Ohio, Spanger Candy Company is one of the largest lollipop producers in the world and the only major candy cane producer in the United States. You may recognize them as the parent company of some of your favorite candies, including Dum Dums®, Circus Peanuts, Sweethearts® Candies, Necco Wafers®, Bit-O-Honey®, Canada® Mints, Saf-T-Pops®, and, of course, Spangler® Candy Canes.
Spangler Candy distributes its products nationally through grocery, drug, mass market, club stores, dollar stores, convenience stores, and candy wholesalers. It also has an online store at https://www.spanglercandy.com/ for purchasing its products for businesses, organizations, parties, and other events.
The flagship brand, Dum Dums®, has a brand site at www.dumdumpops.com.
With the world becoming increasingly digital and instant gratification being the norm, website speed has emerged as a crucial factor in determining user satisfaction, engagement, and business success. The e-commerce business unit for Spangler continues to grow rapidly, and is an important tool to reach its business customers.
Today, the candy retailer delights its consumers with a lightning-fast, engaging Magento e-commerce store powered by Edgio’s global edge network and Performance and Security solutions.
“We knew Edgio was a new modern technology with a clean intuitive interface, and we were able to save money on top of that.”
Jim Knight, Spangler’s Director of E-Commerce
Spangler Candy's Challenge
Before switching to Edgio, Spangler Candy faced numerous challenges with web performance including slow page load speeds of nearly three seconds and the site’s inability to pass Google’s Core Web Vitals (CWV). It’s well known that slow-loading sites can lead to frustration and cart abandonment, ultimately negatively impacting a company’s bottom line. In fact, just 100 milliseconds of improved site speed can spike e-commerce sessions by 5.2%, conversion rates by 8.4%, and average order value (AOV) by 9.2%.
Behind the scenes, Spangler Candy also battled with complex systems and tools, and high costs with its previous provider. The combination of these challenges ultimately prompted Spangler Candy to seek an alternative solution.
Spangler Candy's Solution
Spangler Candy fully migrated to Edgio’s edge-enabled Content Delivery Network (CDN) and became one of the first to launch its e-commerce site on Edgio’s new v7 Applications platform. The results? SpanglerCandy.com now passes CWV, seeing nearly a 60% improvement in page speeds.
Not only has Spangler Candy witnessed web performance improvements, but their site is now fully Powered by Edgio’s Security solutions with built-in DDoS protection and our dual-WAF technology.
“In today’s world, you have to pay attention to website security. It is an important and never-ending task, so you need the right partner” add Jim Knight.
Additionally, Spangler Candy can spin up environments and manage controls with ease. “The Edgio platform is easy to use for both developers and administrators, and we plan to add additional brand sites in the future” said Scott Hiser, Owner & President for Velocity Technologies, who works directly with Spangler Candy on nearly all IT functions.
Finally, to make this story extra sweet, Spangler Candy has seen significant cost savings (nearly 30 %) by switching to Edgio. “The transition has been smooth, and we look forward to our partnership in the future” added Scott Hiser.
Spangler Candy’s decision to switch to Edgio is a testament to our platform’s ability to deliver lightning-fast, engaging e-commerce experiences that are backed by robust security solutions and are easy to use. By partnering with Edgio, Spangler Candy has been able to provide its customers with a seamless online shopping experience that is both fast and secure, while the company itself was also able to witness significant cost savings and a boost to its bottom line.
To learn more about Spangler Candy, visit their site here. If you’re looking to secure and improve your website experience while saving costs, schedule time to talk to an Edgio expert.
