Swiss Post is banking on IntelliShop AG

Austrian Post has a comfortable market position. As a leading logistics and postal service provider with an extensive network of branches, it promotes letters and packages, offers banking and communications services. The growing popularity of the Internet is also responsible for high sales, the company deserves nevertheless on every online ordered and sent by mail dispatched package with


European call for tenders


And also the Austrian Post itself is marching into the digital age with great steps: in the future, all services, which are offered in the branches, are to be made available online also


Wide range for collectors


The digital strategy consists of four pillars, which are to be gradually integrated into the online offer. A column is made up of online tools such as the shipment tracking, the tariff calculator or the branch finder. Another is the online services: after a unique identification, the customer can, for example, store forwarding orders. Online products such as parcel stamps and personalized stamps form the third pillar. All offers will ultimately be made available through the fourth column, the online store.


Individual Stamps and Receiving Boxes


Already in 1999, the company established its own online shop, whose main trading group was the philatelists. The technology of the shop could no longer meet the requirements of a modern system in the long term. However, since the online shop was to play the central role in the new digital strategy of Austrian Post, the search for a new provider was taking place.


Harmonized warehousing


In the summer of 2011, therefore, a large number of shop systems were scrutinized within the framework of a Europe-wide invitation to tender, and ultimately a decision was made for the e-commerce platform of the Karlsruher manufacturer IntelliShop AG


"We wanted an e-commerce solution that we can continue to develop at any time," says Tobias Skala, Head of Onlineshop & eCommerce Solutions at Österreichische Post AG, "because of their future-oriented technology, the scalability and their stability for this platform." Is compatible with our posteigen CMS system - all these prerequisites fulfilled IntelliShop


One of the biggest challenges with the implementation of the new online shop was the number of existing systems in the background and the number of interfaces that had to be connected. "Our goal was to leave the technology in the background and to make the navigation as easy as possible for the customer, so that he can find the desired product with just a few clicks, so a product filter, for example, was introduced "Explains Tobias Skala.


In addition, special attention was paid to the integration of the post-integrated single-sign-on system, a solution for the authentication of the customer. For all Austrian Post online services, it distinguishes between registered and identified users. The latter are those who have already been able to clearly identify themselves as a particular customer by means of personal data such as photo ID or other personal documents.


How to use social media correctly


A registered customer is known as a user but has not yet identified as a specific person. If a customer attempts to log into the shop, the system checks the identity and provides different payment options to the respective groups.


At the end of February 2012 it was time: The heart of the digital strategy, the new Onlineshop, was opened. The largest product group are the stamps with about 5,000 items. In the coming months, however, the range will be systematically expanded. In addition to the products from the stores, such as paper, writing materials and shipping items, entertainment products such as film DVDs or music CDs are also to be offered.


It is planned to include our own SAP system in the course of the expansion of the range, which we did in the first step, "says Tobias Skala." Since the focus is still on philately, The merchandise management system with which the philatelic department works.


Via an interface, it delivers sales and / or sales information and stock to the shop. On this basis, Österreichische Post will send stockpiles to the philatelists if a certain minimum stock level has been reached in the shop. This is a special service for the collectors since the shop also contains articles which can not be bought any more.


"The background is that our philatelists want to inform themselves historically about, for example, stamps from the 50s and 60s. We present in the shop under the heading" Archive "every brand which the Austrian Post has published since 1947" Adds Tobias Skala.


In the course of the redesign of the online offer, further applications were also implemented. With the service My brand for example personal stamps can be created. Whether for private events such as weddings or for corporate jubilees, the customer is guided by the application of their own image motif to payment in the shop through the application.


The pressure of the brands is assumed by the Austrian State Printing Company, which also sends the finished sheets to the customer. Another service in the shop is the e-postcard, which allows the creation of electronic postcards with personal motifs similar to the individual stamp.


A challenge, which the responsible persons still work, are the editors for these two services. Both of them work exclusively on a flash basis. The changeover to HTML5 is therefore planned for 2013 so that users of mobile devices without flash support can benefit from it.


A completely new product, which is available through the online shop, is the mail receipt box. This makes it possible, especially in multi-family houses, to store parcel transfers if the recipient is not at home at the time of delivery. The recipient receives a delivery notification marked with an RFID chip in the mailbox. By means of this notification, the box can be opened and the package removed. It is no longer necessary to deposit deposits with the neighbors or the corridor to the next post office for parcel collection.


The services offered online are still running as separate applications with their respective separate check-out process. This is due to the various technical solutions on which the offers are based. A customer who wants to use multiple services has yet to go through separate processing processes.


By the end of next year, we want to make sure that we are able to combine the different commodity baskets, "says Tobias Skala." We have already developed the concept. The check-out process provided by the IntelliShop e-commerce platform will serve as the basis. The customer can then use all the services offered online, but only takes a payment.