On 18th November 2014, Mapa das Ideias opened the Maritime Museum's Shop & Bookshop, the first time that the Maritime Cultural Commission/Maritime Museum had put out a public tender for its external management (until then, it had been managed directly by the museum, with no specialised human resources for coordination, collection development or customer service - rotating teams).

It was up to Mapa to (re)create a physical and an online shop representing the Maritime Museum, the Planetarium and the D. Fernando II and Glória Frigate (where we also created a point of sale).

The shop management entailed:

- recruiting and selecting staff with sales skills, a knowledge of foreign languages, knowledge of history, an understanding of the museum's mission and its communication and experience of the objects in the shop (storytelling);

- learning about shop management and, in particular, cultural shops;

- development of a business model (consignments, firm purchases, stock management, innovation and diversification of the offer, customer service model);

- a survey of the museum's suppliers and content (which collections to work with);

- development of exclusive merchandising and relatable merchandising;

- set up of a bookshop specialised in the themes covered by the museum: we are the only point of sale for CCM and Navy Academy editions and we have built a bookshop specialised in Naval themes (war navy, pleasure navy, merchant navy, etc.), History (general and of Portugal), Discoveries, Cartography, Politics and Strategy, Travel, Colonial Studies, Monographs, Astronomy, Rare Editions, as well as a wide range of books in English and French, and children's books.

- set up of a website strictly related to the themes of the 3 cultural centres (Museum, Frigate and Planetarium) - launched in 2018, it wasn't until 2020, during lockdown, that we managed to reach 1,000 products on the site, and that sales began to have some expression;

Communication

- set up of an annual catalogue for Institutional Clients;

- creation of the Client Card and a database of individuals, companies, tour operators and institutions (our clients include the Ministries of Defence, Foreign Affairs, the Economy and various structures linked to the Armed Forces);

- creating a newsletter (via Parrot Sender);

- creation of adverts for the magazines: Revista de Marinha and Revista Bordo Livre.

Shop structure:

It is designed for different audiences, knowing that the profile of visitors is mainly tourist groups over 60 and schools, but that the Navy and Institutionals also represent a strong customer base for the shop;

Distributed in themed islands, ranging from the bookshop to premium articles, nautical instruments, jewellery, watches and porcelain from renowned Portuguese brands, educational articles for children and young people, stationery, gourmet products, gifts, exclusive textiles (scarves and ties, t-shirts and totebags), among others.

We are always on the lookout for new authors, limited editions (screen prints, watches, books) and merchandising to accompany ephemeris such as: 700 years of the Navy, 500 years of the Magellanic Circumnavigation, 100 years of the Air Crossing, 400 years of the Marines, 200 years of Brazilian Independence, the Vikings exhibition, among others).

We monitor and are always present at the launches of Navy editions, and whenever the Museum requests it.

Find out the Maritime Museum Shop & Bookshop https://www.lojadomuseudemarinha.pt/pt/?SID=1ujm3v9cttj7vp0cj2dn43od52

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