With the busiest season of the year underway for wineries, we're pleased to release our inaugural WineDirect Impact Report. Within the report, we take a moment to reflect on the challenges and triumphs of 2020 — and look ahead to a bright future.
2020 has been a tumultuous year to say the least, as we deal with Covid-19, economic uncertainty, civil unrest and record-breaking wildfires. In this environment we are reminded that who we are as a company is as important as what we are and the services we provide. We take pride in our commitment to our team, our community and our customers, and we are grateful to have shareholders who stand by our mission.
We are more than just software and logistics. This is our fourth consecutive year supporting wildfire relief, from California to Australia. For five years we’ve supported Worldreader, a charitable organization committed to solving the problem of illiteracy. Since 2018 we’ve supported Black Vines, celebrating 10 years of elevating Black-owned wineries – a number of whom are our customers. We offset 100% of the carbon emissions from our fulfillment customers’ DTC packages, and in 2021, will offer foam-free packaging with a new, environmentally-friendly solution.
Our team reflects this commitment at all levels of the organization. We invest in our employees. This means compensating them fairly, providing meaningful benefits and a clean, safe work environment. We foster dignity and respect and a path for advancement for those who work hard and are committed to our mission. It has been gratifying to see the growth and development of many team members over the years.
This year’s sea change underscores the need for wineries to focus on ecommerce. Online sales have skyrocketed and many of our ecommerce and fulfillment clients have seen unprecedented growth. With these changing tides, we’re enabling wineries to scale in a way no other DTC partner can. Since April, average order value has increased 29% over the same period last year. Along with providing our own DTC services, we connect wineries with new sales opportunities through online marketplace partnerships.
This year we’ve expanded our workforce to 250+ people including experienced developers and engineers, client success professionals, operations experts and seasoned DTC innovators. We provide our staff with the tools they need to be successful, and over the next two years, will open new fulfillment facilities in Napa Valley and the Central Coast.
We are committed to bringing wineries a best-in-class ecommerce solution and are thrilled to share the details of our product roadmap with you. Our continued platform and infrastructure upgrades – made possible with significant investment in people and resources – are designed to better align our services to meet our clients’ needs.
Our customers are valued partners, and without you we cannot succeed. We rely on your input and support, and it is your needs that fuel our development and growth. From offering robust shipping incentives and absorbing peak season surcharges for our fulfillment clients, to supporting our ecommerce customers with the largest and most well-established success and development teams in the industry, we are committed to doing everything we can to empower you. We truly appreciate your business.
It is these values and principles that guide us, and our goal remains the same: help wineries continue to grow and prosper. We are the Winery’s Champion.
Joseph Waechter
President and CEO
