Scalable Design System for over 10 Ahold Delhaize brands
Ahold Delhaize, a prominent Dutch retail group known for brands like Delhaize, Albert Heijn, Alfa Beta, and Mega Image, faced a significant challenge a few years ago: a major technical migration of its e-commerce platforms. The goal was to increase efficiency, foster agility, and drive innovation. Craftzing was tasked with ensuring a consistent and user-friendly digital experience for millions of Ahold Delhaize customers worldwide.
The challenge
Creating unity within diversity for millions of users
With over ten brands under its umbrella, Ahold Delhaize sought to streamline and enhance the digital experience across its e-commerce platforms. The solution was a white-label design system that could unify the various sub-brands while maintaining their unique identities.
This allowed customers to enjoy a consistent and improved brand experience, while Ahold Delhaize’s design and development teams could accelerate the creation of new products and features. The system has proven to be a critical driver of digital growth and innovation for Ahold Delhaize across Europe.
Our white label design system allowed customers to enjoy a consistent and improved brand experience, while Ahold Delhaize’s design and development teams could accelerate the creation of new products and features.
Our approach
From foundation to validation: a phased design process
Craftzing started by developing the foundational design tokens for each brand. We then established a governance structure to ensure alignment across multiple countries.
Our next step was mapping the information architecture and plotting customer journeys. We critically examined existing pages and modules, redesigning them where necessary. Wireframes and interactive prototypes were developed for each phase of the customer journey, which were validated with both Ahold Delhaize stakeholders and end users. User testing allowed us to refine the experience across all touchpoints, from product tiles to recipe pages.
To ensure seamless implementation, we worked closely with the development team, using Storybook for component previews and conducting thorough tests in the UAT environment. We also supported Ahold Delhaize in transitioning from Sketch to Figma and integrating Figma efficiently into their workflows.
Services offered
- Design System Governance
- Information architecture
- Service Design
- UX Design
- Prototyping
- Development
The outcome
A flexible design system driving digital growth
The new Ahold Delhaize Design System (ADDS) delivers a consistent digital experience that strengthens brand identity across platforms and regions. It enables Ahold Delhaize’s design and development teams to work more quickly and efficiently, accelerating the deployment of new components and features. This approach has contributed to a 40% increase in online growth for Ahold Delhaize between 2020 and 2024.
