Most online shops show you a grid of products and hope for the best. Whaleworx is a Chicago shop of one-of-one art, oddities and painted toy soldiers, so a grid was never going to be enough. Every piece is one of a kind. When it’s gone, it’s gone. The site had to feel like a place worth wandering into, and it still had to check out like the stores people already know.
We built it with e-commerce in mind from the first sketch. Here is what that took. Under the hood it runs on WooCommerce with Square connected for payments, hosted on a fast, locked-down Linux server that we manage.
A Shop That Feels Like a Place
Whaleworx’s tagline is “Weird things for good folks,” and its logo comes from an old whale sign. We took the whale literally. The whole shop sits at the bottom of the Chicago River: a live, animated hero, a night skyline above the waterline, light moving across the riverbed. Every lot is shown on that same backdrop, so a framed print, a mid-century ball clock, a gold sabre-tooth skull and a regiment of painted toy soldiers all look like they belong in one collection.
Motion is used with restraint. The painted soldiers play short films when you hover over them, and everything holds still for visitors who prefer reduced motion.
Real Pieces, Shot One at a Time
The shop launched with placeholder lots. It now holds 75 real pieces found around Chicago and the suburbs: framed prints and paintings, a ceramic dog-head vase, a ball wall clock, a gold sabre-tooth skull, a wading bird with googly eyes and the painted soldiers. Each one has a main photo and a few detail shots taken on a phone.
We flatten paintings so they hang square, cut objects out of their backgrounds and set them on the riverbed. The original photos stay in each lot’s gallery, so shoppers can still see the real thing up close.
Prices are still being set, so each piece shows Price on request with an Ask about this piece button. It opens the assistant with the question already typed in, which turns a missing price into a conversation instead of a dead end.
Checkout Nobody Has to Learn
A distinctive store can’t make buying harder. Whaleworx uses a cart and checkout built to feel familiar: a clear Add to Cart and Buy Now, a cart panel that slides in so shoppers never lose their place, and a sticky buy bar on phones.
Payments run through the Square gateway. Card details go into Square’s secure payment form instead of being stored on the shop’s own server. Shoppers can also choose free local pickup at the Whaleworx loading dock in Chicago’s South Loop.
An AI Assistant That Knows the Shop
Tap Ask Whaleworx in the corner and a shopper can ask about a piece, how pickup works or what the shop is about. The assistant is our Xblu AI Website Assistant, trained on an approved knowledge profile written for this store. It describes lots using only what is on the item page, quotes only the prices listed there, and sends anything it can’t answer to the shop instead of guessing.
That is the same guardrail we recommend for every store. A shopper who gets a straight answer at 11 PM is far less likely to click away.
Next Up: Consignment
Whaleworx is opening a consignment desk so other people can sell through the shop. A seller adds photos, the form suggests a title and description from the first picture, and the seller sets an asking price. The shop keeps 15–20% when the piece sells, with nothing charged up front.
Each submission lands in the shop’s admin as a draft to review, and the form never asks for banking details. Until the desk opens, the home page announces it as coming soon.
What It Means for Your Store
- Personality sells. A store with a point of view gets remembered. A template gets compared on price.
- Familiar checkout wins. Be as distinctive as you like above the cart, and keep the buying steps boring and trusted.
- Real inventory needs a photo pipeline. One-of-one stores live on photography. Phone shots can become a consistent catalog without reshooting a thing.
- Answers beat abandoned carts. An assistant trained on your own catalog and policies answers questions while your team is busy or asleep.
See It Work
Visit Whaleworx, tap Ask Whaleworx and ask about a lot. Then see how we work with stores like yours on the Retail & E-Commerce page.
