Drinks.com Launches Marketplace for High Quality & Affordable Premium Wine
Founded in 2013, DRINKS operates in the $72B U.S. wine market. The company is focused on increasing disrupting the beverage alcohol market through their DTC brand, Wine Insiders, as well as through their B2B arm, which powers ship-to-home wine programs for national retailers such as Kroger, Thrive Market and Boxed.
The U.S. is the largest market for wine globally and e-commerce accounts for less than 1%, leaving a huge untapped market opportunity. The challenge, however, is Prohibition-era regulations which vary state-by-state, and even county-by-county, making it difficult for retailers to meaningfully offer online sales. DRINKS’ proprietary WaaS platform brings wine into the digital age and enables its retail partners to quickly “plug-in” to a fully operational sourcing, fulfillment, and compliant distribution network to offer customers home delivery for wine.
Additionally, DRINKS helps alleviate the “wall of wine” feeling — there are over 300,000 brands available at any time — through its patented PAIR engine technology that brings the personalization of adtech to physical products. By understanding consumer behaviors and purchasing trends, as well as the attributes that make up the physical appearance of a wine bottle, PAIR is able to guide the design process for wine brands looking to reach specific customer segments. Additionally, PAIR utilizes historical consumer behavior data to create hyper-personalized e-storefronts, or digital “shelves,” displaying the most relevant wines at the forefront — helping consumers find wines they’re most likely to enjoy. In this way, DRINKS instills consumer confidence by serving up recommendations based on individual preferences.
Until recently, many consumers were unaware that home wine delivery is an easy, affordable, and legal option for them. Now, with shelter-in-place orders, and a larger number of consumers experimenting with at-home entertainment, droves of shoppers are embracing the convenience, curation, and value that online wine offers.
In fact, Wine Insiders is experiencing a huge surge:
- Orders running 2.5 – 3x more than the typical volume per day (for this time of year) since March 25. It’s like Black Friday sales every day.
- Since March 1st, 69% of orders are from repeat customers. Stocking up is real!
- And of course, wine continues to be universally enjoyed. While the Baby Boomers are still the largest ordering generation and have ordered at +100% their normal seasonal order volume, the more digital-savvy Millennials (+190%) and Gen-X (+160%) are well outpacing the older generations.
During this surge, DRINKS wanted to find a way to give back. They joined forces with Frontline Wine to donate 100 cases of wine per week to frontline healthcare workers, as a way to express gratitude for their bravery and service. Doctors, nurses, and EMTs in New York and San Francisco are already receiving these weekly deliveries. DRINKS is rapidly scaling its DTC and retail partnerships, and currently hiring a Full-Stack Software Engineer and Sr. Demand & Supply Planner. Both are full-time positions and based in Los Angeles.
Guest: Josiah Gordon, CMO, Co-founder at Drinks.com
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