For PostNL, a Magento Upgrade Delivered a Unified Commerce Experience
The Dutch postal operator’s new eCommerce website cut costs by 40% and boosted sales 33%.
One store, two types of user.
With over 66,000 employees and operations in five European countries, PostNL is not only the official Dutch postal operator, but a leading player in European B2C and B2B logistics. PostNL offers a range of digital services sold through their eCommerce website, and physical items including stamps, gifts, and stationery. But in 2015, they were operating several disparate transactional websites. They were not responsive, they lacked an overarching brand-style, and it was hard to integrate the stores with other platforms and systems. In 2016 PostNL upgraded to Magento Commerce 1, creating a unified commerce experience that boosted online sales by 33 percent and Average Order Value by 150 percent.
Next, PostNL decided to put their entire business to business offering, including their stamp store and stamp collector’s club on the central platform. They wanted to offer their products to private and business customers on all relevant channels, not just inside the PostNL store, but on external platforms too. In 2017, they decided to upgrade to Magento Commerce 2, with a brave new blueprint for a unified commerce experience to serve the needs of B2C and B2B customers.
Our Magento Commerce 2 webshop is fully responsive and creates a unified and harmonious shopping experience for all our buyers.
Sander Lukaart
Product Owner, PostNL
eCommerce transactions everywhere
In moving their webstore from Magento Commerce 1 to Magento Commerce 2, PostNL transformed their entire business process in an agile way. Together with their solution partner, YouWe, PostNL used an IT-driven approach to build a future-proof, integrated online platform. First, they built a real-time integration between Magento and their SAP ERP Central Component, enabling their eCommerce business to integrate with the complete back office, authentication systems, and four fulfillment warehouses. Now the entire PostNL infrastructure was in one place and tailored for high-traffic and thousands of daily orders.
The centralized PostNL eCommerce website processes 1 million visitors per year, and thanks to Magento Commerce 2, it’s now one single website and transactional environment, connected to their ERP in real time. With the B2B capabilities they gained when they upgraded to Magento Commerce 2, PostNL can now serve their business customers and consumers from a single site.
The Magento Commerce 2 unique API functionality enables easy transactions, even when visitors are outside the platform. You can now buy PostNL products and services from an external app, thanks to widgets that add products to the PostNL cart. This enables PostNL to take orders from both owned and non-owned channels, trusting Magento to take care of the logistics and other complexities.
“The Magento ecosystem is an important part of the realization of our goals. With Magento and YouWe we had the best of both worlds,” said Sander Lukaart, Product Owner, PostNL. “A platform which develops rapidly thanks to the Magento community and a partner with excellent knowledge of both B2B and B2C processes. Everything came together with a truly beautiful result. PostNL is really proud.”
An eCommerce platform for the future
From the first strategy meeting to the moment the site went live, the PostNL upgrade to Magento Commerce 2 took six months. The new webstore is fully responsive, making it easier for customers to make purchases on their mobile devices. And with one transactional environment for the entire eCommerce operation, PostNL had created an amazing, unified brand experience that caters to all clients, including business users and consumers, on all channels, inside and outside of the PostNL.nl site.
The webstore currently serves the needs of one million monthly visitors and processes more than 250,000 orders each year. In a shrinking postal market, PostNL is outperforming their own turnover forecasts and enjoying an increase in online transactions. With one eye on the future of eCommerce, PostNL is currently preparing to create a PWA site with Magento, to take their eCommerce platform to the next level.
We are now able to offer our B2B and B2C clients relevant products on our postnl.nl website and on related external sites, through one central transactional environment.
Sander Lukaart
Product Owner, PostNL
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Originally published at https://magento.com.
