Wine direct shipping software service companies ShipCompliant, Inertia Beverage and Onlineorderdesk.com have released new products to help wineries easily keep compliant in direct to consumer and direct to trade sales channels.
ShipCompliant's Wholesale Compliance Solution
In response to their customers' demand, ShipCompliant developed and released a one-stop shop Wholesale Compliance solution that allows wineries to consolidate and manage all their wholesale, compliance and direct shipping needs in one location in a user-friendly in-house system that consolidates exhaustive amounts of details into a comprehensive database.
The first phase of the solution, Distributor Reporting, was launched in December 2008 and the complete solution will be announced at ShipCompliant's Direct Shipping Seminar & Users Conference taking place June 11 at the Napa Valley Marriott Hotel and Spa in Napa, California. Customers will have the option of purchasing just the Distribution Reporting solution or the full package, which includes brand, label and product registration, compliance checks and price posting.
The Distributor Reporting feature has been put to test by 10 beta users, including small and large wineries and two compliance consultants. With Distributor Reporting, wineries can manage all their distributor relationships by state and territory level and receive automated alerts when a relationship must be renewed. ShipCompliant automatically feeds data into state-required distributor reports for the winery to download, print, sign and send with the click of a button.
The Product Registration keeps track of winery brand and label product registrations with ShipCompliant's integration with TTB's online COLA database, automatically pulling product and label registration detail and high resolution images.
ShipCompliant automatically recognizes price changes and prompts the user to post updates and required posting renewals with the Price Posting feature. This feature also allows wineries to download ready-to-send price posting forms for both winery and distributor posting states.
Finally, the Compliance Checks feature allows wineries to check all invoices for compliance, verifying that each product is properly registered, permits are up-to-date and that invoice prices are consistent with the prices that have been previously posted in price posting states.
ShipCompliant's Wholesale Compliance web-based solution is available anytime, from any computer. Wineries and importers can create multiple user accounts so that senior management, the compliance team and the sales team in the field have access to the same up-to-date information. For more information on this product, go to the ShipCompliant's Direct Shipping Seminar & Users Conference on June 11. For more information on ShipCompliant and its other services, visit www.shipcompliant.com.
Inertia Opens Direct to Trade Channel for Small Producers with Wine REvolution Software
Inertia Beverage developed and recently launched WineREvolution (www.winerevolution.com), a marketplace program which employs Inertia's direct to trade model to unite wine suppliers with trade buyers. The web-based solution allows restaurants and retailers to purchase hard-to-find wines not commonly distributed via traditional wine wholesalers. According to Ted Jansen, president and CEO of Inertia, the WineREvolution program intends to bring innovation in U.S. wine distribution as a complement to the existing three-tier system.
Inertia has made over 60 brands and hundreds of wines available for purchase at www.winerevolution.com. Retailers and restaurants in 12 U.S. states (Arizona, California, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida, Illinois, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont, Washington and Wyoming) can register at the website, browse the portfolio for quick access to information (such as new releases, state availability or product details) and make their purchase.
The Inertia platform works with the unique requirements of each state. Wines are purchased direct from the source, with orders routed electronically through the traditional 3-tier distribution system as required. Consolidation of inventory at a central location allows for cost effective distribution of orders containing multiple brands. The sales transaction takes place with a credit card and users receive the wine in three to seven business days.
Inertia provides solutions for the creation and expansion of online wine marketplaces. Leveraging its proprietary, web-based technologies, Inertia gives wineries, retailers and wholesalers the tools to efficiently distribute their products within the expanding direct to consumer and direct to trade wine markets. For more information, visit www.inertiabev.com.
Online Wine Ordering System Launches in British Columbia
Onlineorderdesk.com announced in April the launch of a streamlined wine ordering system to help restaurants, wine stores and other establishments.
The system is now live in British Columbia, where there are 180 wineries, and plans call for launching in Ontario as well as in Washington state, company founder Kevin Blucke said.
The site offers an interactive electronic forum for wineries to catalogue wines and for buyers to order them directly from the winery. The wine ordering process, said the company, has been simplified to provide licensed liquor buyers with comprehensive and up-to-the-minute information on all types of wine inventory. The goal is to increase efficiency, revenue and information for customers while offering a competitive advantage to wineries, agents and buyers.
Blucke said he realized there was a need for the site when he was the president of a winery in BC, because customers were frustrated with placing domestic wine orders and needed to place orders individually and via the telephone. He set out to create a single point where local wineries can list their wines for sale directly to licensees.
Blucke said many in the industry don't recognize the losses resulting on local wineries because of licensed liquor buyers purchasing through government liquor stores. Local wineries are able to sell and ship directly to licensees but each has unique ordering processes, often involving additional time and stress to the buyer. Blucke said the net savings to the winery of using a direct sales system rather than going through the province averages $5 per bottle.
"What makes onlineorderdesk.com so exciting is that there is no added cost to order from our site. Wineries pay a modest, flat fee for us to host their pages, which display their information and their products, making them immediately and easily accessible to every licensee in the province to order," Blucke said. "This in turn creates a popular portal for wine buyers who can make informed buying decisions with ease." wbm
