London Tea, founded in 1896, is managed by the third and fourth generations of the Bisang family. Switzerland’s largest tea shop is located at Am Spalenberg, in the heart of Basel’s old town. The teas imported from around the world are packaged and stored in the tea factory in Münchenstein to ensure the best tea quality and optimum freshness. In its online shop, launched in 1995, London Tea sells tea specialities – loose or in bags – from Japan, China and the Indian subcontinent, as well as accessories and delicacies from Basel. The products are supplied to private and business customers (restaurants, hotels and retailers) throughout Switzerland and neighbouring countries.

London Tea’s online shop provided essential support for the traditional company during the pandemic in 2020. Since then, the number of online orders has increased steadily. However, the old online shop was no longer up-to-date and the backend was complex, which meant it was costly to manage. For example, the barcode labels had to be created manually, then copied into the shop system. And it wasn’t possible to offer end customers a link for practical track and trace either.

The online shop was completely redesigned based on the Shopify platform and launched in August 2021. Swiss Post’s Digital Commerce API plug-in was integrated into the solution. The benefit here is that the labels are now generated automatically and directly from the Shopify backend. What’s more, the barcode number is used to automatically create the parcel tracking link and send it to the customers. Customers now know where their orders are at all times. And for London Tea, the entire internal logistics process has been greatly simplified.

Thanks to Swiss Post’s Digital Commerce API plug-ins, our customers can track their consignments and, what’s more, our logistics processes are now much simpler.

Fabrice Bisang, London Tea Company LTD