Striking a Balance Between a Content Platform and an e‑commerce Store: The Success Story of the Monnaie de Paris

As we saw earlier, the Monnaie de Paris has a very extensive range of content on its website, including history, ticket sales, and the online store. One of DATASOLUTION’s challenges was to work with and manage this content so that the e-commerce section wouldn’t dominate the site.

So, how can you create a truly institutional-level brand experience that drives conversions while reaching six target audiences at once?

Our Approach

#1: A content management platform

As mentioned earlier, content is an integral part of the Monnaie de Paris’s DNA and is a key focus of this project.

#2: An SEO-friendly platform

The Monnaie de Paris has expressed a desire to significantly increase the share of non-branded traffic driven by search engine optimization, with the goal of ranking first for certain keywords such as “currency” and “medals.”

The Monnaie de Paris aims to develop a search engine optimization strategy based on four pillars: semantics (keywords), structure (site architecture), technical aspects (performance), and brand awareness (backlinking).
We made sure to place special emphasis on the integration of SEO and UX, exercising particular care during the scoping phase and after the new site went live to maintain SEO quality, particularly with regard to:

• Basic optimizations (title meta tag, meta description, etc.)
• Image Optimization
• Setting up the various tags
• Configuring Faceted Navigation
• Verifying URL Structure and Optimization
• The presence of a clear breadcrumb trail
• Pagination Management
• Optimizing the Home Page
• Verifying the Quality of Responsive Design
• High-quality code

#3: A high-quality mobile-first experience

With the goal of providing a flawless mobile customer journey by offering the most seamless experience, whether through a responsive design or a PWA.

#4: Omnichannel

Digital channels should serve as a catalyst for guiding customers from the e-commerce site to the physical store (Web-to-Store strategy).

The new platform is designed to serve as today’s e-commerce foundation and to support tomorrow’s omnichannel ambitions. In the most integrated way possible, the new platform must be able to contextualize the digital experience and cover the following customer journeys:

• In-store pickup (click & collect)
• Displaying the availability of online products in-store
• Displaying orders placed online and in-store in the customer account

“We relied entirely on the power of Adobe Commerce’s multi-inventory management (MSI) to manage inventory spread across our warehouse and stores in real time,” says Aurélien GOUTAL, our Adobe Commerce Technical Director

#5: Loyalty

This implementation required changes to several interfaces and certain prerequisites, such as:

• Unified Customer Data
• A technical solution that manages the mechanics of the loyalty program, either as part of a marketing tool or within the CRM system
• An update to the current website to implement the benefits of the loyalty program (points, referrals, exclusive sales, etc.)

Customers can now enjoy similar benefits across all sales channels (in-store, mail order, and online) based on their membership level.

UsingAdobe Commerce ‘s native features and community modules to meet the customer’s needs.

#6: Personalizing the Customer Experience

Offer personalized experiences (selection of products, content, promotions, etc.) based on the target audiences identified by the platform. Redesign of the search engine.

#7: … and product customization

Add engravings. Preview the result in real time.

The biggest challenge of this project lies in the diversity of the target audiences for the new digital platform. With six distinct audiences, we honored the client’s wishes and offered users the highest level of personalization.

A tremendous amount of thought and effort on the part of our UX/UI experts made the Monnaie de Paris’s new digital platform the resounding success it is today.

In addition, we appreciated the genuine collaboration between our teams and our client’s teams: many departments participated in the project and provided their feedback as it progressed. This allowed us to clearly define the wireframe and ensured everyone was satisfied with the new platform.

From a more technical standpoint, the biggest challenges in asset management involved updating the Akeneo PIM to the latest version—namely, the transition to Serenity SaaS.

Results Achieved

The redesign has been a real success, with positive user feedback, an overall increase in conversion rates, a platform that runs smoothly even during major traffic spikes caused by collection launches, no service interruptions, and a decrease in customer service inquiries.

The new La Monnaie de Paris website seamlessly combines content and personalization to turn e-commerce into a true business accelerator. Adobe Commerce enables the site to offer personalized, omnichannel experiences for each target audience. This emotional and cultural approach highlights the institution’s expertise.

• For a similar product, over the same period: With the Fort Boyard collection, launched in 2020, which sees traffic spikes with each episode (Monnaie de Paris is the official partner), there was a 6% increase in sales over the same period (July/August 2021 vs. 2022).
• A 23% decrease in customer service inquiries (4,809 in 2021 from April > June compared to 3,680 inquiries in 2022 from April > June)
• Better service quality, when comparing 2021—which saw service interruptions and significant slowdowns during peak times (such as on “Fort Boyard” nights)— compared to 2022 since March, when no slowdowns or service interruptions have been observed despite the same peak loads.
• An increase in visits to the e-commerce section (+20%) and longer visit durations. A strong increase of +21.58% in pages per session.
• Positive reviews with a rating that continues to rise on Verified Reviews
• A decrease in the bounce rate: –9.50%
• Conversion rate trends: +19.56% and +28.97% for mobile
• Changes in average cart value: +30.19% and +36.82% on mobile