Pooky Lights was started 11 years ago by Rohan Blacker, who also founded Sofa.com. He saw a gap in the market for high-quality yet affordable lighting. He knew he could offer something better than the typical high street, but at a fraction of the cost of a Chelsea boutique.

What makes us special is our mix-and-match system. We have the world’s largest lampshade collection, own our manufacturing facilities and offer around a million combinations of shades and bases, helping every customer find the right style for their home.

We’ve grown from 1,000 orders in our first year to 360,000 customers, processing around 1,000 orders a day across the UK and US. We now have three Pooky showrooms and are represented in 20 Visual Comfort showrooms.

Right at the start, we were manually printing labels, taping them to boxes and dropping them off at a collection point. We knew that wasn’t scalable, so we introduced Shiptheory early in Pooky’s journey to create a more seamless process.

We’ve always tried to adopt the next level of technology before we need it, rather than waiting until we’re drowning in manual processes. Shiptheory made it simple to build automation rules and connect our ERP, WMS and couriers.

We rarely need support, but when we do, the Shiptheory team understands how our account is set up and what makes our operation different. Even when an issue originates with another supplier and causes problems further down the line, Shiptheory often steps in to help us find a solution, usually that same day or within the week. Honestly, every software company should aim to offer that level of support.

When we launched in the US two and a half years ago, we created separate Shopify, Brightpearl and Shiptheory accounts. Despite the added complexity of shipping across a much larger region, recreating our UK shipping rules for FedEx was straightforward, and Shiptheory adapted its integration for FedEx’s US operations.

The US business reached $10 million in turnover within 18 months, something that we achieved after eight years in the UK. As order volumes grew from 100 to 10,000, Shiptheory continued processing shipments without requiring any additional technical work, the only difference being FedEx needing to send larger trucks each month.

Brightpearl is our central source of truth for stock, while Peoplevox records our physical warehouse inventory and feeds it back into Brightpearl. We use webhooks rather than batch updates, so stock changes are reflected across every system within three seconds. This real-time visibility prevents overselling and means that when Shiptheory creates a label, the order is ready to leave the warehouse.

b.solutions is a trusted partner that connects Brightpearl and Peoplevox. As our US operation grew to match the UK, they helped us implement Peoplevox and replicate our established setup. Together, Shopify, Brightpearl, Peoplevox and Shiptheory keep stock, orders and shipping connected across both markets.

We’re pushing further across the US. Right now, we’re fairly concentrated in the Northeast Corridor, so there’s a huge amount of the country, especially the South, still to reach. Europe is on the horizon longer term, but the near-term focus is still the UK, bringing in customers who might see Pooky as a more aspirational purchase.

Beyond that, it’s really just growth, growth, growth, scaling the way we have for the last decade.