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Online Store | Wine Shipping & Fulfillment

4 Ways WineDirect is Curing the Summer Shipping Blues

By  WineDirect Team
June 25, 2020

Consumers everywhere are turning to ecommerce to fulfill their needs, from toilet paper to wine. To keep loyal customers with you for the long haul and please new ones, it’s more important than ever to give them a seamless, fast delivery experience this summer and beyond.

Rising temperatures of the season are likely no new challenge as your winery strives to preserve the integrity of your wines. Every bottle your customers uncork this summer should be in pristine condition ⁠— exactly as it was when it left your winery. That’s why it’s essential to have a trustworthy fulfillment partner who will take the same level of care as you do with your wines.

Summer shipping is that much more simple when you have access to added transfer frequency, same-day shipping cutoffs and optimal delivery speed. If there are bonus cost incentives to help you drive sales through the summer, even better. Here are some of the ways WineDirect is enabling flawless summer delivery for our winery clients this season.

Flexible temperature control options

When it comes to temperature-controlled routes, familiarize yourself with where exactly your wine is traveling and how it’s cared for at each juncture of its journey. Does each destination hub have the ability to add Coolpacks before shipments go out for delivery? Do they offer temperature-controlled storage? Are there multiple route options, based on your wine’s final destination? Is Saturday delivery available? How about hold-at-location services?

There are a number of nuances to consider when evaluating temperature-controlled shipping services. If you’re a WineDirect client, you can lean on your dedicated account manager as a trusted resource to help you understand your options.

Is your winery located in Oregon? Learn more about WineDirect fulfillment in the Willamette Valley.

Innovative, time-saving tools

Shipping is probably just one of many hats you wear at your winery. The finer details are often tedious and repetitive: manual data entry can become cumbersome, as can order status inquiries from eager customers. But if you have accurate tracking data easily available, and innovative technology that cuts down on data entry, you can save a great deal of extra legwork.

With WineDirect’s improved tracking data for temperature-controlled shipments, not only will you have fewer order inquiries to manage, your customers can better plan for deliveries. Managing weather holds is also time-consuming. Our bulk order updater allows you to easily identify all orders on hold, and update multiple orders at once with just a few clicks.

Optimal transfer frequency, shipping cutoffs and speed

From the moment a customer places their order to the day they receive it, how much time should pass? Today’s consumers often expect delivery in just a few days, and the perishable nature of wine introduces some challenges. WineDirect offers you increased transfer frequency, a shorter lead time and faster delivery.

Transfer frequency

How many days per week do shipments depart your fulfillment center during the summer? If outbound service is only offered once per week for all shipments, that means you may see 6 days added to the lifetime of an order if you just missed the order cutoff. WineDirect offers temperature-controlled routes with service twice per week.

Same-day shipping cutoff

Once an order is rung in, consider how much time passes before that wine leaves your fulfillment house. A top club member might call at noon on a Thursday hoping to have wine delivered early the next week. Is your fulfillment partner able to meet that demand using ground shipping? WineDirect is capable of same-day shipping cutoffs twice per week.

Delivery speed

Do you know when the first delivery attempt is made for your summer orders shipped via ground? The answer can range greatly from one fulfillment provider to the next. Some services might even take longer than two weeks. With WineDirect, west coast summer shipments are delivered within 1-3 days. For cross country orders, ground shipments can be delivered as soon as 5 days after an order is placed.

Seasonal incentives to drive summer sales

Even with an array of efficient ground shipping options at your fingertips, you might want to offer customers even faster delivery. That's why WineDirect is extending 25% off all overnight express services along with $5 off all Coolpacks, regularly priced at $8, from July - September.*

Consumers everywhere are fully embracing ecommerce to buy wine and are forming new purchasing habits at a crucial moment. Now is the right time for these kinds of shipping incentives, which give you the opportunity to design email and telesales campaigns that keep customers happy from afar this season — while maintaining the health of your business.

Learn how one Oregon winery is achieving ecommerce sales they never thought possible.

Here are some ideas for how you can take advantage of this special pricing:

  • Offer members a bonus summer shipment
  • Bundle a themed 6-pack
  • Launch a magnum promotion — Coolpacks are available for magnums, too
  • Target mailing list members across the country, who you may not normally ship to during warm summer months

At WineDirect, we are happy to make this investment as our clients plan summer strategies for 2020. Now it’s up to you to decide how to market your seasonal offers — this is a year to get creative. As always, we’re here to help you keep the ecommerce momentum going.

Learn more

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If your winery is in California or Oregon and you're looking for a fulfillment partner to help you deliver flawlessly through summer and beyond, our team would love to talk to you. Speak to our team.

*Some restrictions apply.

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