Monnaie de Paris: The Other Side of the Coin!

What is the Monnaie de Paris?

Founded in 864, La Monnaie de Paris is the oldest French institution and one of the oldest companies in the world; it mints legal tender under a monopoly for French euros, as well as for other foreign currencies in a competitive international environment. In addition to its core sovereign monetary mission in the service of the state, La Monnaie de Paris is the guardian of a tradition of excellence in the arts and crafts. The company possesses unique expertise in the creation of metal products such as collectible coins, medals, decorations, and artistic bronze sculptures…

The Monnaie de Paris has endured through the centuries by adapting to the changes of its time. From hammer-striking to state-of-the-art lasers, the institution has successfully developed new manufacturing techniques. Internationally, it is recognized as one of the top five mints in the world in terms of quality and ranks among the most dynamic mints in terms of technological innovation.

The Monnaie de Paris is also a vibrant hub dedicated to the arts and crafts. Closed to the general public since its founding in 1775, the 11 CONTI site opened to the public in late 2017. The institution now offers a new comprehensive experience, including a museum tour that explores the world of artistic crafts, and a completely redesigned online store featuring creations by its artisans and a wide range of merchandise.

By its very nature, currency—as a medium of exchange—has always been a powerful force for building connections. In addition to its role as a medium of exchange, it also serves as a tool for passing on traditions, commemorating events, and celebrating achievements. We recall the mini-medal, released that very evening, celebrating the French team’s victory at the 2018 World Cup. Or in 2019, following the tragic fire at Notre-Dame de Paris, the institution drew upon its rich collections to offer a range of products for sale, with a significant portion of the proceeds donated to the Fondation du Patrimoine to support the reconstruction effort. In 2020, a “MERCI” mini-medal was issued to thank all the nation’s first responders who fought during the health crisis, with the proceeds donated to the Fondation de France. In February 2022, the Monnaie de Paris launched a new mini-medal in solidarity with the Ukrainian people, who are courageously fighting to defend their freedom; all proceeds will be donated to the Red Cross to support those affected by the conflict.

As you can see, the Monnaie de Paris is much more than just a monetary institution; it is a true leader dedicated to serving the public good.

A Closer Look at the Project

The project to redesign the Monnaie de Paris website is fully aligned with the company’s overall strategy.

The previous website, which went live in July 2015, used the Drupal Commerce content management system (CMS).

The Monnaie de Paris was looking for a trusted partner who could advise and support it throughout the deployment of a new platform—one capable of ensuring business continuity but, above all, of accelerating its digital transformation for its customers by strengthening the connection with the store.

This platform migration enables a better user experience across multiple channels and turns those channels into real drivers of foot traffic to physical stores through optimized omnichannel journeys. This major transformation should also serve as an opportunity to improve the operational efficiency of internal teams by providing them with a user-friendly, effective tool, while streamlining and standardizing the processes and tools used.

The website redesign project is fully aligned with the Monnaie de Paris’s growth strategy, one of the key pillars of which is to put customers at the center of its efforts.

The power of the Adobe Commerce platform is harnessed to drive business growth. As we carry out this project, we already have our sights set on the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Indeed, the minting programs dedicated to this event are always very important for the mints of the host countries.

Project Objectives

The Monnaie de Paris set us a major challenge: to build a brand-new digital platform with a user-centric approach that would create a new omnichannel user experience while improving operational efficiency for employees.

Challenge Accepted for DATASOLUTION!

We’ll explain right away how we rose to the challenge!

Our teams faced a major challenge! Serving the various personas effectively means designing an experience—or experiences—that demonstrate empathy toward their expectations, which can sometimes be very different, or even contradictory.

The objectives of the redesign project were to:

• Optimizing Ergonomics and User Experience (UX/UI)
• To promote understanding of the various aspects of the Monnaie de Paris (products, cultural venue and institution, expertise)
• Create a commerce platform that offers an omnichannel experience
• Improving the Mobile Experience
• Develop processes to better meet B2B needs
• Provide a better shopping experience and foster customer loyalty
• Optimizing Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Modernize technical aspects such as the CMS and the search engine

4×4: Challenges and Issues

A few tensions…

Since 864, the Monnaie de Paris has served various nations and cultures by capturing moments in time and minting them over the years. A true witness to history and guardian of memory, its collection is now accessible to everyone through the Monnaie de Paris eBoutique.

In the digital realm, we had to establish overall consistency—a way to build bridges between the various user journeys—the true connection that links each audience to the Monnaie de Paris.

More broadly, the redesign of the digital platform requires resolving certain tensions, including:

• Offer programs with a greater focus on “inspiration”
• Turn the platform into a cultural space that is open to a wider audience
• Submit specific functional and technical requirements to the Monnaie de Paris
• Offer tailored learning paths and content for expert numismatists

To do this, the DATASOLUTION teams had to:

#1: Be able to accelerate and adapt digital products quickly and consistently to exceed target audiences’ expectations.
Agility and integration are the watchwords.

#2: Adopt an empathetic and user-centric in order to align customer needs and resources with the various business challenges facing the Monnaie de Paris. The platform must offer clear user flows and numerous usability tests to improve the user experience.
User research was conducted through interviews with various target audiences, as well as user testing on wireframes and mockups throughout the project. These efforts continued after the site’s launch, with a comprehensive “hypercare” phase.

Agility only makes sense if it serves the customers.

#3: Demonstrating Greater Consistency
A cultural venue, a public service, an online store, a ticket office: the Monnaie de Paris’s digital platform caters to a wide range of audiences with content and services that vary greatly. The challenge was to achieve overall consistency. To do this, we implemented a unified interface for very different audiences—a true link that connects the brand’s various worlds.

#4: Build a structured e-commerce platform using native features and custom developments.
The Monnaie de Paris wanted a technology platform based on off-the-shelf solutions that offered tailored functional services. The process of identifying the right tool is crucial here.

Our experts used off-the-shelf features rather than custom development, opted for Atomic Design and a Design System to maintain a consistent interface, and developed specific modules such as those for engraving and customizing medals, multi-VAT bundles, and mapping the locations of tourist medals…

More than just a website redesign, we implemented an approach based on the challenges of digital transformation—both internally and externally, with our clients.

Our decision to use Adobe Commerce was based on the solution’s rich feature set, which allows us to manage content, create customer journeys by segment, and optimize those journeys through data collection and analysis.

Thanks to this solution, the Monnaie de Paris now has tools entirely dedicated to content optimization—such as a new content management system and a search engine—along with business tools to optimize SEO and sales management processes. The Monnaie de Paris regularly expands its product offerings, resulting in traffic spikes that can increase 100-fold when new collections are released or during events. A robust, reliable, scalable, and secure platform was needed to meet these demands while ensuring the security of all transactions.

… And these challenges have been effectively managed by our teams:

#1: Very Different Audiences and Needs

The goal here is to create inspirational and emotional journeys around the content.
To address each target audience, we’ve created distinct themes, each characterized by specific color schemes that are consistent throughout the site. To help different user profiles find their way around the site quickly, we’ve included a persona-based navigation menu at the top of the page.

#2: Striking the Right Balance Between the E-Commerce, Cultural, and Institutional Sectors

The Monnaie de Paris has opted for a streamlined navigation structure, creating three entry points for its three main areas: e-commerce, cultural, and institutional. This allows visitors to quickly grasp the institution’s three main activities.
In designing the homepage, we opted for a visual triptych so that each division within the Monnaie de Paris could have a dedicated space to showcase its work and so that the various areas would always be represented.

#3: The technical sophistication of the products sold and the diversity of themes (Harry Potter, the Olympics, Natures de France, etc.)

How can we engage with coin collectors during the COVID-19 pandemic to understand their buying habits, frustrations, and expectations regarding the Monnaie de Paris’s new website?
Our agency has gained a foothold in the leading coin and medal collectors’ forums! This invaluable feedback from the field has enabled us to actively contribute ideas to the Monnaie de Paris regarding the features to be implemented and the design of user flows.

#4: The variety of distribution channels and customer/user touchpoints

The new platform’s user experience was designed with an omnichannel approach, prioritizing the mobile experience. We used the Adobe Commerce platform as the technical foundation connecting user devices, ticketing, the ERP, the CRM, the store information system, and product data management via the Akeneo PIM.

Technical Solutions Implemented

Adobe Commerce Cloud Managed Services with Magento 2

• Atomic Design and Design Systems for a Consistent User Interface
• Development of specific modules (medal engraving and customization, multi-VAT bundles, etc.)
• Page Builder
• Staging & Preview
• Product recommendations powered by Adobe Sensei
• High-Performance Search Engine: ElasticSearch Technology
• Manifest PWA
• Google Shopping
• Verified Reviews
• Kameleoon (A/B Testing)
• Oney
• PayPal
• Ingenico Payments
• Dolist Customer Management
• Akeneo PIM Product Management

Project management using the Agile methodology. With project progress structured around sprints and close collaboration with our client, this approach allows us to learn and adapt as we move through each phase. This results in a more efficient use of resources and a project delivered that closely meets the client’s expectations.