Mint of Poland starts online gold sale with Magento

Unique challenge

Starting from the assortment challenge where price of gold changes very quickly and depends on the world markets (the price of gold is determined on the basis of the exchange price of gold and the dollar exchange rate from the interbank market), through limited availability of sold goods (one gold bar is displayed for sale in many sales channels), and ending with a large number of dedicated sales channels; brick and mortal stores, partner stores, online stores dedicated to specific customer groups, procurement systems dedicated to specific entities and generally available stores.

An idea for the internet sale

Generally speaking, from the market’s need. The Mint of Poland had a website that presented information about products but did not offer the sales functions. At the same time, customers’ interest in buying gold via the internet increased. Because gold and other precious metals are not a typical assortment, the internet as a channel was very interesting. Customers needed a reliable supplier, and the Mint perfectly matched this role. The company only needed a solution to ensure efficient service of the company’s online distribution channels.

inwestycje.mennica.com.pl

The first and key system that has been implemented for the Mint of Poland was a store with the investment products of the Mint (investments.mennica.com.pl) in which customers can buy gold, silver, diamonds. The store is available to all internet users.

The main goal regarding the store is to achieve the greatest possible automation of the operation. Due to the specificity of the product, which is investment gold, which can be treated as a currency, the only electronic payment method is a transfer to the account of the Mint of Poland.

For each order placed, a unique (individual) bank account number of the seller is generated, to which the payment should be made. For the purposes of determining the order validity period, a calendar mechanism was implemented in which additional days off or additional business days can be specified. Thanks to the fact that the store has a connection with a bank servicing the Polish Mint, each paid order is immediately forwarded to completion. It provides a mechanism connecting the Magento shop system with the SAP Mint system.

In the event of incorrect payments (incorrect amount or incorrect invoice number), a notification is automatically sent to the store. Such a method of operation allows for the maximum automation of the store operation, without the need to pay additional fees for intermediaries performing payment services. Taking into account the investment nature of the products sold, the mechanism of digital signature for each message sent from the shop system to its customers was additionally implemented.

Integration of Magento and TYPO3 CMS

Requirements for the publication of content have forced the need to integrate the shop system with a CMS system that offers extensive publications functions, based on the Typo3 software.

The integration provides information about the logged-in user, his group (access level) and allows the use of content blocks within both systems Magento and TYPO3. From the level of the cms system, any products and product lists are displayed, while from the store level it is possible to display content elements provided by the cms system, in this way, for example, gold price charts are displayed.

Dedicated e-commerce systems for banks customers

Due to the huge interest in investment gold and the expansion of the company’s profile, there was a need to implement platforms dedicated to financial institutions. Thus, bank customers can buy gold bars made by the Mint from dedicated online bank stores. Each of them has been integrated with the payment system used in a given Bank.

In this way, following stores have been created:

• BOŚ Bank, in which you can pay for the ordered products using BOŚ Bank’s quick transfers.
• Dedicated investment store for BZWBK Bank customers, for which the fast transfers of BZWBK Przelew24 payment method has been prepared
• Dedicated investment store for PKO Bank customers and Inteligo users