Case Study

The V&A Museum: Unifying a World-Class Visitor Experience

How 247 Commerce engineered a single, seamless digital transaction platform to unite disparate revenue streams, from shop merchandise to exhibition tickets.

400%

Growth in Online Ticketing (2015-2020)

£4-5m

Handled Annually Across Departments

Unified Single Basket for All Services

The Situation

The V&A Museum, a world-leading institution, generates revenue from multiple sources: ticket sales, memberships, merchandise, donations, and print-on-demand services. However, the teams responsible for these streams ran their own siloed systems. This forced online visitors into a fractured journey, requiring separate transactions for different services, like the shop and ticketing.

The Challenge

The V&A's primary goal was to simplify the user journey by enabling a single, seamless transaction with one basket at checkout. This required a complex integration to pull data from all existing systems into one cohesive view.

Bespoke features requested:

Custom ticketing interface for staff
Marketing API for on-page donation campaigns
Support for self-service digital kiosks
Member-only booking with membership details
Navision integration for Parcelforce delivery labels
Bespoke reporting suite for donations

The Solution

247 Commerce architected a comprehensive solution centered on our proprietary CloudHub middleware and the robust Magento platform.

Platform Migration

Migrated the V&A from Amazon Webstore to the Magento 1.9 Community platform, applying new branding for a fully responsive experience.

CloudHub Middleware Integration

Deployed our proprietary CloudHub middleware to support the complex integration of multiple disparate systems via APIs.

Single Basket Unification

Integrated Magento with the Galaxy (ticketing), Navision (warehouse), and King & McGaw (print-on-demand) systems.

Self-Service Kiosks

Extended the platform to support on-site digital ticketing kiosks with WorldPay for contactless and chip & pin payments.

Bespoke Staff & Member Tooling

Built custom interfaces for marketing, ticketing, and member services to empower staff and enhance the user experience.

The Results

247 Commerce successfully delivered a cohesive digital proposition to the heart of the V&A's visitor experience. The new platform dramatically exceeded expectations, with online ticketing volumes growing from **100k in 2015 to over 400k in 2020**.

Powered by CloudHub, the platform now handles **£4-5 million annually** across multiple departments, providing a stylish and seamless experience for patrons and a polished, feature-rich interface for staff.