Punkt.de has implemented a store extension for the organizational website of the international children's aid organization nph deutschland e. V., which enables donors to finance individual aid supplies. Because it was important to the team to support the children's aid organization and its work, they donated part of their development time. The result is impressive across the board - and won the TYPO3 Community Award in 2016.

The initial situation

It is becoming increasingly difficult for charities to mobilize donors. This is because they have become more critical: They want absolute transparency about what their money is being used for - and whether it is actually getting there. This is one of the reasons why people now prefer to donate specifically for smaller aid supplies rather than for larger aid projects. nph deutschland e.V. responded to this development by launching the "MyGoodShop" donation store with another agency, which enabled donors to finance individual aid supplies such as food or medicines. However, this web store was separate from the organization's website with its extensive information on the children's aid organization's projects, which often caused confusion among donors. Accordingly, the aim of the collaboration with punkt.de was to create a new webshop integrated into the organization's website in order to standardize the appearance and technology on the one hand and to bring donation products and donation projects closer together on the other. At the same time, the new webshop needed to be easy to maintain and make the donation process as simple as possible for users.

The challenge

Since the organizational website of nph deutschland e. V. uses the CMS TYPO3, the web store had to be integrated into this system so that store content is displayed on the page, links are possible, content only has to be maintained in one system and the store can be operated on a separate server if necessary - if the traffic in the store becomes too high. Because the functionality of a CMS differs considerably from that of a store system, it was necessary to find the right technical framework to combine a content-based form of communication such as that found on an organizational website with the transaction-based mechanisms of a web store.

At the same time, the web store required by nph deutschland e. V. was very different from "conventional" web stores: for example, no product variations such as size or color and no delivery address were required, but filters according to areas of application, background information on each product and donation certificates. "Donating is different from shopping," says Detlef von Houwald, online fundraiser at nph deutschland e. V. "Our web store should therefore not be about getting users to buy lots of expensive products, but about giving them a good feeling. This in turn naturally had consequences for the structure and functionality of the store".

Design made by made in (from Frankfurt)

The payment function is realized via an interface to PAYONE

The solution

Before the project was realized, punkt.de created a wireframe together with nph deutschland e. V. and the partner agency made in, which was responsible for the design of the web store, in order to collect ideas and check their technical feasibility. "The whole process was incredibly well thought out and structured," reports von Houwald. "We then got down to the actual work with the finished wireframe." Together with nph, punkt.de opted for the Aimeos store system to implement the web store. The system controls the purchasing process from product selection to the shopping cart and payment. There is also a seamless integration into the TYPO3 backend, which enables the editors to manage the store in the familiar TYPO3 backend. Another advantage: individual elements of the store can be integrated using plugins via the familiar TYPO3 backend. Nevertheless, many special adaptations were necessary to meet the needs of a donation store. Features such as sliders, teaser texts and the use of voucher codes were implemented.

The payment functionality was expanded during the project with an interface to the payment service provider PAYONE. The certified company(https://www.payone.com/DE-de/pci-dss) offers various payment methods and ensures that customers' payment data is stored securely at PAYONE.

The input effort for editors is also reduced thanks to semi-automated processes: products are easy to maintain because predefined categories and attributes only need to be selected and do not have to be created again and again. The same applies to FAQ entries. In addition, recommendations for other products from the same category are automatically displayed for each product, unless the editor wants certain products to be displayed, in which case they can specify which ones. If a donor has financed a product, the donation certificate is also generated and sent automatically. The duplication of donations by partners of nph deutschland e. V. also works automatically for some aid goods and the display of the donation progress for limited products - all it takes is a small tick. Another plus: the store statistics are displayed directly in the backend.