About Us
Who Are We
We are SHOP21, a supplier of creative technology products that help graphics professionals realise their creative vision and achieve their design objectives. We are a long established business run by a caring and dedicated team. Your business means everything to us and we dance a little Jig whenever we get an order :)
Where Are We
Our office is based just off City Road, just north of Old St roundabout, also known as Silicon Roundabout, in the heart of London’s digital and creative sector, and also just north of the financial centre, the City Of London. Please note that we don’t hold any physical stock at that address since that’s our administrative office.
What’s Our Story
SHOP21 was established in 1999 and was one of the earliest independent online stores set up in the UK and the EU. Initially selling creative technology products to professionals specialising in the Graphics, Digital Audio and Video sectors, as their workflows became increasingly reliant on ever faster and higher capacity digital infrastructure.
Later, when we first launched online (our website took its first order in 2002) as the digital media created by such professionals was being consumed across an ever increasing number of devices we started selling these products too, such as the iPod, and related accessories.
Now the digital products we sell are pretty much exclusively used in the context of colour, such as Spectrophotometers and colour calibration tools for varied optical applications.
Who Are Our Customers
Our database of happy customers reached 10,000 by 2008 and the business was valued at £2million. Many of our customers come from across the entire spectrum of the creative and media sectors, such as Graphics, Design, TV, Film and Music, as well as many from the various Manufacturing industries. Our customers include BAE, the BBC, The Beatles and the British Government, and that’s just from the B’s :). With so many customers from the creative sectors, it made sense to start supplying more traditional creative tools and resources too, such as the physical colour guides manufactured by the likes of Pantone and RAL. Today we focus very strongly on these traditional analogue products, in addition to the innovative digital products we have always been known for.
Members of the scientific community, from corporate laboratories to University science departments, also started relying on us for some of their specialist IT for their research requirements and we added a range of scientific products such as Digital Microscopes, used for many different applications. Our customer's for these ranged from Police forensic teams (the Proscope featured heavily on the TV detective series called CSI) to Money pressing Mints (printers of cash) to check the integrity of their printing presses.
Why Choose Us
Purchase from SHOP21 in complete confidence that your order will be professionally handled and securely transacted since you're buying from one of the longest established independent online stores in the UK and the EU. We have a proven track record for exceeding our customers expectations. The UK Governments old ministry for business, the D.T.I., left us this happy testimonial
"Just a short e-mail to say thank you for processing my order with such professionalism and more importantly speed of delivery. I will no doubt bear you in mind with regards to future purchases. Thanks" R.S, Ministerial Parliamentary Support, Department of Trade and Industry, United Kingdom Government.
In the very rare circumstances that things do go wrong, such as a customer ordering the wrong item by accident, then we have a very reasonable returns policy (summarised below). Our website, checkout systems and payment processing conform to the highest security standards and best practices.
We are a UK based business that pays all our TAX and VAT and National Insurance.
Returns Information
We want our customers to be delighted by their entire purchase experience with SHOP21, and all the products we sell are well-established brands whose products are always of the highest quality. As a result, we literally have a next to zero return rate, only one returned item in the last two years :). Any returns are usually just accidental orders. If you have ordered an item accidentally then we will accept the item back for a refund so long as you let us know in reasonable time (14 working days), can return it 'as new', and follow the returns instructions we will advise as part of the returns process. View our full Returns information here.
Corporate, Trade, Public Sector and Educational Purchasing
Don't forget that since we are one of the longest established online stores in the EU and UK, we are very well placed to leverage our position in this market to help corporate and educational purchasers achieve their purchasing objectives. If you are a corporate, trade, public sector or educational purchaser then please get in contact with us to discuss volume discounts and trade credit accounts.
European Union (EU) Purchasing
If you are a European Union based business with a valid VAT registration number then you can purchase from us at the ECG intra-community delivery VAT rate of zero per cent (0%). To qualify for this 0% rate customers must be:
1) Based in an EU country.
2) Be VAT registered in an EU country.
3) The delivery address must be to an EU country.
International Purchasing
We have been servicing customers around the Globe for over 15 years now and can securely and efficiently fulfil orders to pretty much anywhere including BFPO. If you are an international customer you can purchase from SHOP21 excluding the VAT charge of 20%. Contact us with your requirements to discuss this further.
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