The Wine Collective looks to personalise online wine shopping

Dean Blake

19th Mar 2019

Online wine store Cracka Wines and The Wine Society have rebranded as The Wine Collective.

The new online marketplace, which launched on Monday, seeks to offer a more tailored and personalised experience for customers by integrating the 70-year history and lessons learned through The Wine Society, as well as the online capabilities of Cracka Wines.

“Putting these two assets together really brings together some of the best sides of the market; an old and established service-based business, and a technology-focused offering,” The Wine Collective chief executive Lloyd Heinrich told IRN.

“What we wanted to do was to extract the synergies of putting the businesses together, but secondly to really just give digital customers a much better experience buying wine.”

The Wine Society merged with Cracka Wines in late 2017, after posting almost $2 million in losses over a nearly two-year period.

Heinrich noted that The Wine Collective plans to personalise the website individually down to the user based on their tastes, buying habits and what they have viewed previously to make intelligent wine recommendations.

“I think that [personalisation] will be a real benefit to consumers. That level of service is something we really want to leverage,” Heinrich said.

The Wine Collective hopes that this focus on personalised, convenient service will enable it to grow its share of consumer wallet.

“We know our customers shop both with us, but also with other wine retailers, and we believe that by offering a really easy and seamless buying experience [we can grow],” Heinrich said.

“[Customers] want personalised service, and they want it delivered really quick.”

The Wine Collective has an advantage here, since it owns its warehouse and is run by people who love wine.

“We don’t have our wine mixed up in a warehouse that also has iPhones, TVs and whitegoods in it. We have a warehouse that just has wine in it,” Heinrich said.

“Our guys really know how to handle wine.”