Diageo × Johnnie Walker Princes Street – International POS & Fulfilment System

Johnnie Walker Princes Street is one of Diageo’s flagship brand homes, welcoming thousands of visitors each month for immersive whisky tours. A key moment in the customer journey happens at the end of the experience: the gift shop. Visitors often discover bottles they love but hesitate to buy due to luggage limits, airline restrictions, or international customs.

The goal was simple but powerful: remove friction at the point of purchase and allow guests to buy any product in-store and have it shipped directly to their home anywhere in the world.

The Challenge

• Visitors from the US, Europe, and beyond were unable or unwilling to carry bottles home.

• High-intent buyers were walking away at the final step.

• Staff needed a seamless, in-store system that felt native to the retail experience.

• The solution had to support international shipping, multiple destinations, and a luxury brand standard.

The Solution

I helped design and manage the creation of a bespoke Shopify POS system for the Johnnie Walker Princes Street gift store.

The system enables staff to:

• Process purchases in-store using Shopify POS

• Capture the customer’s delivery address at the till

• Offer international shipping to selected countries (including the US and across Europe)

• Fulfil orders via Diageo’s logistics partner for global delivery

From the customer’s perspective, the experience feels effortless:

1. Complete the tour

2. Discover a product in the gift store

3. Purchase via the in-store POS

4. Go home empty-handed, with whisky arriving at their door days later

This transformed the gift shop from a physical retail endpoint into a global e-commerce gateway.

Our Role

• Oversaw the end-to-end POS system setup in Shopify

• Designed the operational flow between in-store staff, Shopify, and fulfilment

• Ensured international shipping logic and customer data capture worked seamlessly

• Coordinated between stakeholders to align retail experience, logistics, and technology

• Tested and refined the in-store workflow for real-world retail use

Results

The system unlocked a completely new revenue stream: international post-tour purchases.

• Over $300,000 in revenue generated in the first 2 months purely from in-store international shipping

• Hundreds of orders fulfilled to customers across the US and Europe

• Average order values far above standard e-commerce benchmarks

• Staff empowered to convert high-intent visitors without friction

• Zero reliance on customers carrying products themselves

What was once a missed opportunity became one of the most valuable moments in the visitor journey.

Impact

This project proved that physical brand experiences and digital commerce do not have to be separate worlds. By integrating Shopify POS with international fulfilment, Diageo turned a single gift shop into a global sales channel.

The model is now scalable across other Diageo brand homes and experiences worldwide each location becoming a gateway to global customers, long after the tour ends.