We Built This City – The Souvenir Shop That Made Order Fulfilment Part of Their Routine & Regained Their Evenings

They often say that the exception proves the rule and whether or not you agree with that saying, it’s always an interesting concept to delve into. When it comes to retail in modern times, it’s generally accepted that most new businesses would first build up their online store before attempting to branch out to a physical location. This is for a number of reasons, from the seemingly perennial fear of the high street’s demise to the financial saving of not manning a shopfront, but generally, it’s the route that presents fewer risks.

Perhaps unsurprisingly for a blog that started with a phrase about exceptions, we’re going to look at an outlier. We Built This City, a truly unique souvenir shop in Central London, who opened their physical store in November 2014 and didn’t actually get their online store up and running for a further two years, essentially walking down a well-trod path backwards.

Being home to one of the most acclaimed creative communities in the world – we thought it was high time that souvenirs reflected the true creativity of the capital.

Despite this being a little unconventional, the shop is still thriving in its incredible location on Carnaby Street 5 years later, and their online store is attracting more and more attention with each passing day. So how did they do it?

In this case study, we will look at their unique story, trace their business roots and analyse how they were able to create a sustainable online store despite coming to it much later in their journey than most shops do.

Revolutionising London Souvenirs

“We started off as a pop-up, there was no business plan, no business bank account. It all happened over the space of 3 weeks, almost overnight in business terms. We got a location in Carnaby Street and we’ve been here ever since.”
Adam Shoemark – Shop Manager at We Built This City

Even though Adam makes it sound almost anecdotal, there’s been a lot of work to turn their erstwhile pop-up shop into a Carnaby Street staple. They knew they had a great location and wanted to bring some truly unique products to the high volume of customers that are always moving through the area. We Built This City represents the “artistic community of London” and makes their work accessible for a mass audience, while also providing gifts that “represent a trip that meant something to you.”

These values are crucial to their brand and ensuring they’re clearly visible throughout their store is something which Adam and his team take incredibly seriously. From the artist-designed shopfront to the chevron-plastered till, it’s clear that a lot of thought, love and passion have gone into the shop. Which is probably why an online store wasn’t exactly the top of their priority list.

“We liked the idea of people buying online but we still love the idea of a souvenir being something tangible, a meaningful something that you take away with you. The Carnaby Store will always be our home and primary focus, but we knew we wanted to have an online store, it was just a matter of waiting until we had enough resource to do things properly.”
Adam Shoemark – Store Manager at We Built This City

So with that ambition in mind, they set out to build their online store. But rather than do it quickly and outsource every possible task, they wanted to know what they were getting themselves into. To do this, Adam decided to handle online orders himself, everything from packing to sending.

Try Before You Buy

A sensible attitude in many walks of life, Adam wanted to know what DIY order fulfilment actually entailed. So he did exactly that.

“I felt like I needed to understand what we’d come up against in terms of the online store. So I needed to work out what it was going to take to do all the packing and fulfilment ourselves. And in order to do that, I decided to do it all myself. We just wanted to see what it took, how many man hours, what goes wrong, what goes right, and what was involved. And because we’d never done anything like that before, we didn’t want to hand it over without understanding it.”
Adam Shoemark – Store Manager at We Built This City

With the online store in full swing and orders starting to pour in, Adam rolled up his sleeves and set to work. At this point, We Built This City had built (no pun intended) up an exceptional reputation and they were acutely aware of needing to maintain this with any online orders they dispatched. Not only for their own peace of mind but also as an ambassador to the artist’s work they showcase. Because of that, in the early days they really “overthought the packaging”.

“At first, we were obsessed with continuing the ideas, look and feel of the in-store experience when we received an online order. We did this because we thought, and still think, that a large percentage of our online orders are from people who have been into our Carnaby Street store. We wanted to keep the magic alive!”
Adam Shoemark – Store Manager at We Built This City

And even though this is a lovely curated touch, it also demands a lot more time. Each order was being emblazoned with branded tape, had a handwritten note on cardboard tucked inside and was hand-wrapped by a member of staff. And even though this was something which ensured ultimate brand representation, Adam slowly came to the realisation that “our bespoke black & white branded tape isn’t entirely necessary for every single customer”.

Peak Season – The Final Straw

After fulfilling orders on their own for more than a year, it was the experience of Christmas that really convinced Adam that there was surely something else out there to help ease the burden and free up some much-needed time. In non-peak times, it was just about manageable but when it got to the busier months, Adam conceded that “they were definitely receiving orders faster than they could physically pack them”. And that’s just focusing on the issue of time, but space was also becoming a concern.

We Built This City have a downstairs multi-functional area which can be used as an extension of the shopfront, exhibition space or simply as storage, and when it came to busier times, they really needed that space. But alas, with their previous method of packing themselves and running to the post office for every order that came in, they didn’t have that luxury.

So when the dust settled, with Christmas in 2018 slowly approaching, they began to think about whether they could do anything differently.

“We did one Christmas using drop and go at the post office, it made things easier but it still wasn’t really making sense. So then, with our second Christmas online, we were thinking of how to do it differently. Because it’s not just twice as busy, it’s ten times as busy”
Adam Shoemark – Store Manager at We Built This City

From there, We Built This City discovered Weengs and set out on the next leg of their online journey.

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work

Weengs provide a unique type of order fulfilment that’s different to more traditional methods. Rather than sending off your stock to an external warehouse somewhere outside of London, they come to you, ensuring that you have complete control over all of your stock and can run your website with complete accuracy. They also professionally pack each item, find the best courier for each product and pick up any orders directly from your store whenever you request it.

“The idea of marrying fulfilment, packaging & dispatch, we were suddenly like – this makes so much sense. Embarrassing as it may sound, doing the packaging ourselves, and actually not just the packaging but the taping up of our products was taking hours”.
Adam Shoemark – Store Manager at We Built This City

Adam’s previous issues with space were no more as daily collections meant that items that had been sold were cleared at the same time each day. And concerning the time he regained, the biggest benefit he could think of was just how seamlessly it had become part of the routine.

“The best way to convey what Weengs has changed for us in terms of time is that order fulfilment has become part of our day. It’s no longer extracurricular or something we have to do outside of shop opening hours. It’s just part of our day to day, which I think is something a lot of shop owners will say is vitally important. Using someone for fulfilment in-store is an unnecessary strain on  staff resource when team members could be working on the shop floor – especially at such a crucial time of year.”
Adam Shoemark – Store Manager at We Built This City

An Added Bonus

We Built This City are a unique store in many ways, from their products and vibrant style to their unerring dedication to customer satisfaction, but they are also unique in how they use Weengs. As well as using the collect, pack & ship service for online orders, they often keep the service in the back pocket for any customers in-store who are unsure on carrying the item away with them there and then. Which, when you consider they are a souvenir store, can be quite often.

“If a customer is erring in store and we can tell they’re not sure. We can offer to ship it to their home directly and use the Weengs dashboard to take their shipping details. All of a sudden it becomes not just a tool we use to fulfil our online orders – but a handy sales tool on the shop floor too. It’s helpful when customers are looking to buy the awkward-sized stuff, fragile stuff, or when they just don’t fancy carrying a big cardboard tube around the city for the day!”
Adam Shoemark – Store Manager at We Built This City

So, even though Christmas proved to be just as busy as their previous four, their increased online orders didn’t cause We Built This City too much of an added stress. And instead, it saved them both time and effort and in Adam’s words – “effectively gained them time back, it was a win-win.”

We Built This City used Weengs to

• Regain vital space in-store
• Free up staff members for other jobs
• Win back their evenings
• Make order fulfilment part of their daily routine