Active Club Solutions, Inc. Introduces New Implementation Specialist

Pleasanton, CA – Active Club Solutions, Inc. is a leading provider of DTC solutions (Mobile Winery POS, club software, ecommerce, website design) since 2003, and is pleased to welcome Susan Ostroski to the team, in a new role for the company, as Implementation Specialist.

As Implementation Specialist for Active, Susan will perform a broad range of software implantation, data management, and migration projects pertaining to the new client’s winery or distillery. She will be identifying requirements and business processes to developing a mapping implementation plan for success of the new Active client onboarding. Essentially, Susan’s talent is to help map out what the new clients “were” doing at their winery or distillery to what they “will be” doing on the new system. 

“I love to travel, be creative, take pictures, ride my bike and spend time with my dogs!  Professionally speaking, I love to find an artistic solution for any problems or challenges that may arise. With many years in the technical side of things in various industries I have spent much of my career in software implantation and data migration management. To me helping with the transition from the old to the new is satisfying when you can help take a company from one software system to another with minimal bumps in the road, says Ostroski.”

Susan Ostroski joins Active Club Solutions after many years working a variety of roles in the semi-conductor, medical, SEO company and wine industries. Throughout her career Susan has taken her skill sets through various industries but more recently within the wine business; first as tasting room employee, to then become the tasting room manager. Susan has a unique understanding and experience when it comes to the winery or distillery tasting room transitioning to a new sales software system.

She has earned an associate degree in Art from Las Positas College, but her strength lies in her continuing education in computer information systems.  Susan’s experience focuses on analysis, research, business reporting, data monitoring, model mapping, data formulation for migration and much more. When you become a client with Active your winery or distillery now has the implementation specialist to help guide your business systems transition, so the migration goes as smoothly as possible.

“Susan brings the kind of combined wine industry and IT experience to Active’s Support Team that sets apart our already best in class support from our competitors.”  Dan Nechemias, VP of Sales and Marketing Active Club Solutions

About Active Club Solutions:

Active Club Solutions, Inc. is a leading provider of DTC solutions (Mobile Winery POS, club software, ecommerce, website design). Our mission is to provide a single and comprehensive sales platform for firms selling direct to the consumer. Active Club Solutions has been providing DTC sales technology solutions to wineries, distilleries, and wine stores that seek to elevate sales and maximize service. Today the company has an entire suite of sales tools all in one single database. Active Club Solutions’ commitment to developing and continually improving its sales software and service has made us a leading and well-respected provider of direct sales software with a commitment to quality and customer success.

For more information, visit www.activeclubsolutions.com.

Contact: Dan Nechemias
Dan Nechemias, Vice President of Sales and Marketing
Dan@activeclubsolutions.com
(925) 248-4190 (ext. 56) or (877) 441-CLUB (ext. 56)

Now your winery or distillery can offer reward programs to your top customers, friends and family, frequent visitors, and loyal club members. October 1, 2018 Active has formally launched the offering to all clients!

When you become a client with Active your POS customer management system now includes the ability to use Loyalty Cards and Gift Cards; to keep your customers returning more frequently purchasing more of your delectable “grape or grain passion.” This helps you maintain records of your customers purchases and showers extra perks to the 20% of your fans that buy 80% of your collectible craft beverages!

So how do “points” work? Once the set-up has occurred in your private Active database tables Merchant, Inventory, Rules and POS Configuration, purchases are tracked.  For every purchase made by the customer points are added to their loyalty account. The points awarded are based on the selling price of the order which excludes taxes, shipping and handling, and tips. Loyalty points are added on an order created on the POS, Club, Cart or Manager. A credit reverses the points on a loyalty account. Loyalty points can be redeemed on the POS, Cart, and Manager. With loyalty cards these are personalized with name and account and are tied specifically to their personal account at your winery or distillery.

Gift Cards work a couple of ways. Set up happens in the tables noted as Merchant, Inventory and POS configuration. Then in Active Manager the card numbers are generated as a batch in Gift Card interface. Export to CSV file first, then send the file to the printer. Issued cards can be completed on the POS or via mail. Essentially the procedures for gift cards vary from loyalty cards as there is no customer data attached to the gift cards. The cards are like cash. You can make a batch of generic cards then scan and hand out directly at the POS.

Another method is to create personalized cards by customer and distribute by mail or hand out at POS. Even a combination of the two above choices can be done, such as, generic for non-members and personalized for members. Lastly, different cards for different clubs can be created such as Gold, Silver, Bronze denoting levels of club too. Even, and this may seem strange, using any existing card with a bar scanner code such as cereal box top, driver’s license, library card or such can be used as well.

For more specifics on Active and how it can give your business a boost in efficiencies and an uptick on your bottom line (ROI), contact Thomas@activecubsolutions.com.

About Active Club Solutions:

Active Club Solutions, Inc. is a trusted leading provider of DTC sales technology solutions (Mobile Winery POS, club software, ecommerce, website design). Our mission is to provide a single and comprehensive sales platform for firms selling direct to the consumer. Active Club Solutions has been providing DTC sales technology solutions to wineries, distilleries, and wine stores that seek to elevate sales and maximize service. Today the company has an entire suite of sales tools all in one single database. Active Club Solutions’ commitment to developing and continually improving its sales software and service has made us a leading and well-respected provider of direct sales software with a commitment to quality and customer success.

For more information, visit www.activeclubsolutions.com. To Request a Demo email Thomas@activeclubsolutions.com or call 1-877-441-2582 x. 52.

Recently a potential client emailed the sales team to ask how Active could produce technology services for this medium sized winery based on their basic needs including their multiple location retail tasting rooms. The prospective client summarized the needs as the following:

• Need of a wine club system than can manage the whole operation from membership selection until billing/invoicing/collection
• All data pushed/pulled from an existing ERP to avoid data duplication
• Billing/Invoicing/Collection Automation
• Real time connection with API to existing ERP
• Get advanced reporting (for marketing purposes to craft smart segmented offers)
• UX (front-end) to be customized to current website
• Use through app
• Flexibility to self-manage complete services (add more services, hold, cancel, change data like credit card, address, etc.)

The response was sweet and simple from the sales team stating the relevant points that make prospects turn into clients. In simple terms Active is a relational database used to manage the customer, transaction, and inventory data primarily for alcohol beverage sales.

• Active will automate recurring transactions, whether they are clubs or allocation lists, in batches to automate credit card charges for members or list participants by charging the cards on file through gateway providers such as EVO Payments or OpenEdge.

• Active has an iPad POS for retail transactions that uses web services to speak to your live private master database. Active brought on board a seasoned UX Web Designer to offer Active clients impeccable web design focusing on customer or user experience tied in with branding elements.

• Active also offers an eCommerce solution for your online or web sales transactions, which also speaks to the live private database. This element is easily inserted into your existing website via iFrames.

• Active excels in its own email marketing design tools for the sharpest of campaigns. Email design features, list parsing, and email tracking eliminate the need for a 3^rd party email systems. This marketing email feature streamlines your marketing communication presence. For example, the club manager can send credit card decline notices to those members whose card is declined without leaving the database to use another application to send the notices; and even tracks opens, clicks, etc. noting which device the recipients used while reading the email.  With Active there is no need to pay the fee for Vertical Response, Constant Contact, Mail Chimp or any other 3^rd party email marketer any longer.

• Active offers an advanced inventory management system across multiple inventory locations which tracks and manages finished goods inventory even with returns, swaps or wholesale inventory issues.

• Lastly, Active integrates with Quickbooks desktop versions to push customer and sales transaction data for better financial management. There is no Accounts Payable or Accounts Receivable function as Active is sales software, not financial management software. However Active allows an open API or webservices capability if your team has IT resources to write the integration to your ERP system.

Currently Active’s system is set to run on US currency and tax code so Active will not work effectively outside of the US at this time despite all the requests from other wine regions in the world. Active is all-in-one mobile app solution for all the sales channels in alcohol beverage production that commercially touches the customer.

Finally, Active differentiates itself from the other POS sales technology providers by developing innovations, as trusted partner listening to the client’s needs, and answers support calls with a live person. Active is built on reliability, integrity and service. Active’s daily mantra is to help you sell your grape or grain passion better! For more specifics on Active and how it can give your business a boost in efficiencies and revenues, contact Thomas@activecubsolutions.com.

About Active Club Solutions:

Active Club Solutions, Inc. is a leading provider of DTC sales technology solutions (Mobile Winery POS, club software, ecommerce, website design). Our mission is to provide a single and comprehensive sales platform for firms selling direct to the consumer. Active Club Solutions has been providing DTC sales technology solutions to wineries, distilleries, and wine stores that seek to elevate sales and maximize service. Today the company has an entire suite of sales tools all in one single database. Active Club Solutions’ commitment to developing and continually improving its sales software and service has made us a leading and well-respected provider of direct sales software with a commitment to quality and customer success.

For more information, visit www.activeclubsolutions.com. To Request a Demo email Thomas@activeclubsolutions.com.

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No matter the business size, whether winery or distillery, businesses that succeed with their CRM Strategy, do a couple of things very smartly. First, they recognize the right CRM software implemented will perform exactly for their needs. Second, they explore more possibilities to scale and grow their business with the use of data technology. It’s simply working smarter, not harder for economic gains once the business decision is made.

When it comes to ways to increase sales using CRM, implementation of the right CRM software platform is the first of the actionable steps you need to take. If you are still using a notepad or an excel spreadsheet to track your customers, you are working in the “dark ages” with little or no efficiency.

“CRM applications increase revenue of up to 41% per sales person.” Source: Benchmark Studies, according to Search CRM

With a well-managed client database, automated communications, forecast accuracy and a comprehensive overview of sales stats, including dynamic reporting features, business goals can be defined and met with near certainty. CRM software technologies have become an invaluable management tool that not only simplifies or streamlines your business but also boosts your sales and productivity.

But that’s not all. In a way, by discussing how to grow your sales, we will underline what features you should be looking for while selecting a CRM software system for your organization, to increase sales using CRM software technology. While reading this article, if you find your CRM software not being able to do all this for you, it’s the time for you to switch and go for a better equipped, all in one, mobile, CRM software system. Let’s examine the items for consideration and all the ways to increase your sales using a CRM.

Know Your Customer

When you know your customer (likes and dislikes, frequency, $$$) you are better able to target them with an offer they are likely to buy. According to Marketing Metrics it’s far easier to (about 50% easier) sell to existing customers than to brand new prospects.

Reward Your Loyal Customers

Giving your return customers and loyal club customers perks (whether points, dollars, or bottles) works in your favor in the long run. Bain & Co. states that a 5% increase in customer retention can increase a company’s profitability by 75%! Referral business closes and concerts more than 70% of the time according to Jonathan F. of Canada Goose Thompson Jacket.

Segment Your Customer Base

Using the Pareto Principle here, 80% of your revenue comes from the top 20% of your customers. You need to identify your top 20% in your current pool of consumers, so you can better target market them to maximize revenues for your bottom line. If you are not segmenting your list, you are essentially just throwing a dart at the board hoping it hits!

Renew Your Dead Opportunities

Never give up on your prospects. Your mantra should be “until they buy or die”, according to Pipedrive CRM.

Be in Constant Touch with Your Present Clients Beyond Work

It takes 9 new customer interactions to become somewhat loyal. If it takes that long why lose them? Stay in touch with them, especially on celebratory occasions such as birthday, anniversary with spouse and as a customer and more. This special attention will help you stand out from the crowd of other wineries or distilleries.

Connect Your Website to CRM Basic

“35 – 50% of sales go to vendor that responds first when speaking of lead management. In advanced mode, 57% of marketers acquire new customers from blogging,” State of Inbound Marketing, Hubspot March 2012

Generate Fresh Leads on Automation

Place lead capturing forms discussed above on your site at most potential places. Additionally, track your site visitors. Offer something useful to the visitors (discount on product or shipping) for them whom you are targeting. Gather their email Ids in your CRM. Set your email marketing campaigns.

Reduce Data Duplication

Data duplication is a major problem in business, as it reduces your efficiency, generates mistakes, and wastes your productive time. Share the leads or opportunity data with your team. This way no one must send data to any department, so there is no data duplication at all.  This saves your sales reps to replicate the information to higher authorities. Saves lead execution time and improves performance.

Use CRM Software to the See BIG Picture

Make use of the reports and analysis section of your CRM Software. Allow sales analysis access to your sales managers as well. Build a strategy for managers to track your pipelines. Divide your sales opportunity pipeline into number of definable stages.   

Automate Your Business Process

Automation on the best strategy that works in your industry will give you a definite edge over your competition, when you can appoint a CRM Software for this why leave it anyway. “Companies that automate lead management see a 10% or greater increase in revenue in 6-9 months.” Source: Gartner Research

Bottom line is that use of a CRM empowers your winery or distillery to induce your customers to return. Your actual sales increase as a result. A CRM allows you to up-sell and cross promote your products and events. Finally, a CRM system allows you to initiate referral schemes and track the results even rewarding the staff or customers who help you grow your business!

About Active Club Solutions:

Active Club Solutions, Inc. is a leading provider of DTC sales technology solutions (Mobile Winery POS, club software, ecommerce). Our mission is to provide a single and comprehensive sales platform for firms selling direct to the consumer. Active Club Solutions has been providing DTC sales technology solutions to wineries, distilleries, and wine stores that seek to elevate sales and maximize service. Today the company has an entire suite of sales tools all in one single database. Active Club Solutions’ commitment to developing and continually improving its sales software and service has made us a leading and well-respected provider of direct sales software with a commitment to quality and customer success.

For more information, visit www.activeclubsolutions.com.

Your database software has the potential to improve the efficiency of your (winery) sales team and can impact your bottom line according to the blog www.maximizer.com/categories/business-technology. With a well-managed database system, automated communications, forecast accuracy and a comprehensive overview of sales stats, including dynamic reporting features, business goals can be defined and met with near certainty. Database software technologies have become an invaluable management tool, that not only simplifies or streamlines your winery business, but also boosts your sales and productivity.

In “Top IT Priorities for Wineries Revealed” by the Wine Business Monthly Annual Technology Survey in the August 2018 issue, three major points stood out after reading. Paraphrasing from page 84 the items to ponder include:

• Improving the mobile experience on winery websites is a top priority

• Better integration of company systems seems important to wineries of all sizes

• Wineries tend to use third parties to store credit card information and have been slow to accept EMV and other payment forms

Basically, if you are still using a binder, notepad, or an excel spreadsheet to track your business information you are working in the “dark ages” with little, or, no efficiency. Certainly, spreadsheets are a great tool for number crunching. However, if you have lots of data whether it be customers, inventory or employees your winery would benefit from a more efficient data management tool. Seemingly wineries are notorious for being behind in technologies leaving a disconnect in service perception. The more tech savvy customer wants to pay with a chip card or Apple Pay, Venmo, or PayPal and all you have at your winery is an old-fashioned credit card machine. Time for an upgrade stat!

The wineries of all sizes who took the survey did answer that they do need to better integrate all the company systems. Let’s review the top five reasons your winery needs a super all in one database system.

Centralized Systems

Your chances of success at your winery greatly improve when you can manage all your critical data centrally, safely and securely with access whenever you need it, from wherever you might be traveling or otherwise occupied (golf course). Your staff increases as your business life stage or the season changes but keeping track of the growing amount of data with an increasing business flow makes it even more critical to ensure your data is safe and accessible. Logically all your business information in one location is what makes the most sense.

Better Management of HR Resources

When you have a growing staff, managing employee records electronically also can save time and money. Most any HR tasks can be automated to speed up the process of payroll, benefits, hours, and staff leave. Efficiency in this department can allow more time to focus on other business issues for forward movement. With smaller wineries, ownership does most things wearing many hats, so relying on automation is integral to time management success ensuring smooth business operations.

Inventory Tracking Efficiencies

Managing inventory can be challenging for even the most detail oriented individual and winery. Multiple tasting rooms, multi-storage facilities, club swaps, returns and more can feel like you are doing a balancing act on a circus high wire. Even if you track your inventory manually mistakes can be made in typos, miscounting, lost notes or spreadsheets. Utilizing an inventory tracking database in tandem with an electronic scanner can help avoid those risks and improve P&L figures.

Manage Customer Data & Developing Relationships

If you rely on customers or, as we call the channel in the wine business, “Direct to Consumer”, you really need to have all your data in one place. At the heart of your growth plans should be a relationship building model with a database system including invaluable features. A powerful system is strong enough to store, process everything from customer profile, transaction history whether Ecom, retail or club, length of membership and more. A true all in one system even allows segmented marketing campaigns executed and sourced directly from the unique client database where all the winery’s data is housed. No more need to use outside products such as Mail Chimp, Constant Contact, Vertical Response or Socket Labs to send emails that can’t even be tracked when sending your winery newsletters to your fans.

Dashboard Reporting

Dashboard reporting is just another way to describe analyze and assess your stats. Your data extracted from your business database will give you anything you need to know with the right custom report or query. Analytics and data give you information on how to make the new choices or next business decision. You can track the life cycle value of all your club members or your big spenders. You can determine what is the average sales order value per day, week, month or any financial period you designate. You can predict how fast your club(s) are growing to then forecast your need for varietal wine inventory for the club shipments in 2019 for example. You can review your inventory reports and even move inventory between multiple locations if that is part of your winery model. You can even calculate or forecast sales performance of your sales team. There is so much more you can extract from the data you already have collected.

Bottom line is that use of a complete (all-in-one) database empowers your winery to induce your customers to return. Your actual sales increase as a result. A complete database allows you the ability to up-sell and cross promote your products and events. Finally, an integrated database system allows you to initiate referral schemes and track the results even rewarding the staff or customers who help you grow your business!

About Active Club Solutions:

Active Club Solutions, Inc. is a leading provider of DTC sales technology solutions (Mobile Winery POS, club software, ecommerce). Our mission is to provide a single and comprehensive sales platform for firms selling direct to the consumer. Active Club Solutions has been providing DTC sales technology solutions to wineries, distilleries, and wine stores that seek to elevate sales and maximize service. Today the company has an entire suite of sales tools all in one single database. Active Club Solutions’ commitment to developing and continually improving its sales software and service has made us a leading and well-respected provider of direct sales software with a commitment to quality and customer success.

For more information, visit www.activeclubsolutions.com. To Request a Demo email Thomas@activeclubsolutions.com.

No matter the business size, whether winery or distillery, businesses that succeed with their CRM Strategy, do a couple of things very smartly. First, they recognize the right CRM software implemented will perform exactly for their needs. Second, they explore more possibilities to scale and grow their business with the use of data technology. It’s simply working smarter, not harder for economic gains once the business decision is made.

When it comes to ways to increase sales using CRM, implementation of the right CRM software platform is the first of the actionable steps you need to take. If you are still using a notepad or an excel spreadsheet to track your customers, you are working in the “dark ages” with little or no efficiency. “CRM applications increase revenue of up to 41% per sales person.” Source: Benchmark Studies, according to Search CRM

With a well-managed client database, automated communications, forecast accuracy and a comprehensive overview of sales stats, including dynamic reporting features, business goals can be defined and met with near certainty. CRM software technologies have become an invaluable management tool that not only simplifies or streamlines your business but also boosts your sales and productivity.

But that’s not all. In a way, by discussing how to grow your sales, we will underline what features you should be looking for while selecting a CRM software system for your organization, to increase sales using CRM software technology. While reading this article, if you find your CRM software not being able to do all this for you, it’s the time for you to switch and go for a better equipped, all in one, mobile, CRM software system. Let’s examine the items for consideration and all the ways to increase your sales using a CRM.

Know Your Customer

When you know your customer (likes and dislikes, frequency, $$$) you are better able to target them with an offer they are likely to buy. According to Marketing Metrics it’s far easier to (about 50% easier) sell to existing customers than to brand new prospects.

Reward Your Loyal Customers

Giving your return customers and loyal club customers perks (whether points, dollars, or bottles) works in your favor in the long run. Bain & Co. states that a 5% increase in customer retention can increase a company’s profitability by 75%! Referral business closes and concerts more than 70% of the time according to Jonathan F. of Canada Goose Thompson Jacket.

Segment Your Customer Base

Using the Pareto Principle here, 80% of your revenue comes from the top 20% of your customers. You need to identify your top 20% in your current pool of consumers, so you can better target market them to maximize revenues for your bottom line. If you are not segmenting your list, you are essentially just throwing a dart at the board hoping it hits!

Renew Your Dead Opportunities

Never give up on your prospects. Your mantra should be “until they buy or die”, according to Pipedrive CRM.

Be in Constant Touch with Your Present Clients Beyond Work

It takes 9 new customer interactions to become somewhat loyal. If it takes that long why lose them? Stay in touch with them, especially on celebratory occasions such as birthday, anniversary with spouse and as a customer and more. This special attention will help you stand out from the crowd of other wineries or distilleries.

Connect Your Website to CRM Basic (first) then Advanced

“35 – 50% of sales go to vendor that responds first when speaking of lead management. In advanced mode, 57% of marketers acquire new customers from blogging,” State of Inbound Marketing, Hubspot March 2012

Generate Fresh Leads on Automation

Place lead capturing forms discussed above on your site at most potential places. Additionally, track your site visitors. Offer something useful to the visitors (discount on product or shipping) for them whom you are targeting. Gather their email Ids in your CRM. Set your email marketing campaigns.

Reduce Data Duplication

Data duplication is a major problem in business, as it reduces your efficiency, generates mistakes, and wastes your productive time. Share the leads or opportunity data with your team. This way no one must send data to any department, so there is no data duplication at all.  This saves your sales reps to replicate the information to higher authorities. Saves lead execution time and improves performance.

Use CRM Software to the See BIG Picture

Make use of the reports and analysis section of your CRM Software. Allow sales analysis access to your sales managers as well. Build a strategy for managers to track your pipelines. Divide your sales opportunity pipeline into number of definable stages.

Automate Your Business Process

Automation on the best strategy that works in your industry will give you a definite edge over your competition, when you can appoint a CRM Software for this why leave it anyway. “Companies that automate lead management see a 10% or greater increase in revenue in 6-9 months.” Source: Gartner Research

Bottom line is that use of a CRM empowers your winery or distillery to induce your customers to return. Your actual sales increase as a result. A CRM allows you to up-sell and cross promote your products and events. Finally, a CRM system allows you to initiate referral schemes and track the results even rewarding the staff or customers who help you grow your business!

About Active Club Solutions:

Active Club Solutions, Inc. is a leading provider of DTC sales technology solutions (Mobile Winery POS, club software, ecommerce). Our mission is to provide a single and comprehensive sales platform for firms selling direct to the consumer. Active Club Solutions has been providing DTC sales technology solutions to wineries, distilleries, and wine stores that seek to elevate sales and maximize service. Today the company has an entire suite of sales tools all in one single database. Active Club Solutions’ commitment to developing and continually improving its sales software and service has made us a leading and well-respected provider of direct sales software with a commitment to quality and customer success.

For more information, visit www.activeclubsolutions.com.

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Active Club Solutions, Inc. Offers New In-House Web Designer

Pleasanton, CA – Active Club Solutions, Inc. is a leading provider of DTC solutions (Mobile Winery POS, wine club software, ecommerce) since 2003, and is pleased to welcome Molly Gregg to the team, in a new role for the company, as In-House Web Designer.

As Web Designer for ACS, Gregg will perform a broad range of web and website projects, programming duties in a dynamic, entrepreneurial environment. Gregg’s service will be to offer current and future Active clients the ability to hire Active’s in-house web design developer; whether it be an entire website redesign or, a simple modification to ensure a smooth transition when onboarding with Active’s Ecommerce platform.

“I love what I do for a living! With many years in the web industry, my job is to take my client’s ideas and turn them into stunning digital representations of their vision. Whether it’s creating website or software designs, presentations, researching and developing UX, wire-framing, prototyping, iconography, a combinations of all of these or some other digital creation yet to be determined, I bring a passion and focus down to the last detail of all I do,” says Gregg.

Molly joins Active Club Solutions after many years working a variety of roles in the technology world. Her resume entries include web developer for the American Symphony, web designer for Kendall Jackson managing over 40 branded websites within their portfolio, then spending nearly a decade as senior web designer with a large bio-tech firm. Recently starting her own web design business Molly is “happiest where design meets beauty and functionality” according to her LinkedIn profile! A graduate of San Francisco State University Gregg received her Master’s in Instructional Technologies with an emphasis on user interaction. This program mainly focuses on instructional skills such as web design, graphics animation and video. Molly strengthens Active by adding web design to Active’s menu of services. Not just basic web design but breathtaking web design is now an option with Active.

“Molly Gregg brings unparalleled creativity and design skills to Active’s team.  We could not be more excited to provide our clients an opportunity to enhance their online presence with Molly’s experience and commitment to innovation.”  Dan Nechemias, VP of Sales and Marketing Active Club Solutions

About Active Club Solutions:

Active Club Solutions, Inc. is a leading provider of DTC solutions (Mobile Winery POS, club software, ecommerce). Our mission is to provide a single and comprehensive sales platform for firms selling direct to the consumer. Active Club Solutions has been providing DTC sales technology solutions to wineries, distilleries, and wine stores that seek to elevate sales and maximize service. Today the company has an entire suite of sales tools all in one single database. Active Club Solutions’ commitment to developing and continually improving its sales software and service has made us a leading and well-respected provider of direct sales software with a commitment to quality and customer success.

For more information, visit www.activeclubsolutions.com.

You have planned your strategy, forecasted your budget, and implemented best practices for your tasting room staff. Faithfully every month you prepare your reports and gage progress against P&L to present to the upper management or ownership. You review data analytic reports throughout the month and notice a trend. Your visitor traffic has declined, yet as a secondary result your per person spend is up. You praise your staff for their effort as they are spending more time with each customer making the total sale higher than ever. Even with the per person spend increase, because the decline in traffic to your tasting room, you note gross sales are down on merchandise, wine sales and club sign-ups. Six months have already passed and now you need to react in some fashion to the lighter customer flow, so you can make up the difference in your numbers and keep your bosses happy. What is a tasting room manager to do?

If you have an all-in-one data base or a savvy data management system you can search your records to find ad hoc solutions that can help you mitigate the downward trends in revenue you are noticing. You have time to react and time to take a different tact that will ultimately help you to make the most of the next six months; to capitalize on meeting your numbers despite the lower visitor count in the tasting room. If you are a larger winery or distillery you can call in your marketing department to fill the gaps with new marketing programs. When you are a smaller scale winery or distillery and you already wear many hats; it is up to you to come with new ideas to stimulate your revenue streams.

What are quick fix ideas based on your data reporting that could ease the downward decline of your revenues and get you back on track to your annual target goal? Email marketing is a quick fix solution. You review your inventory and come up with an email campaign that reaches the folks most likely to purchase because they have purchased from you before and you are inviting them to a “special” that is too compelling not to buy. You segment your email customers with an offer that is not available anywhere else, or you offer a pre-release, a library product, a discount on merchandise or shipping, or maybe a special invite to meet the winemaker in another city for dinner or a reception. You used your data to tell you what to do next. Your complete system allows you to send branded marketing messages and offers to your customer’s home or office 24/7.

Active’s Mobile all-in-one system will help you and your staff take control of a negative trend of dwindling customer traffic affecting your bottom line. By simplifying tasks, offering real time data answers giving you as the tasting room manager other ways of stimulating your staff to sell more smartly with less effort. Active’s easy iPad POS is designed for busy winery/distillery tasting rooms, craft beverage businesses, and retail locations. It includes powerful club features, inventory management, marketing emails, alcohol shipping, tips functionality, kiosk feature, loyalty/gift cards capabilities,and kitchen/fulfillment printing built right in. It communicates live with your unique master database, so it is always current with customer and inventory data. To request a DEMO contact Thomas@activeclubsolutions.com  directly.  Or, visit our website for more information at www.activeclubsolutions.com.

Tasting rooms at wineries, and now distilleries have become a big business, with ever-grander facilities that draw millions of people, which leads to fancier facilities and more visitors. It’s a virtuous cycle — mostly. Here are some tips for the tasting rooms themselves: a single bad experience can cost a brand a customer, every touch point matters, and customers expect a personalized experience.

From the business perspective four key drivers of customer experience include:

1. Matter of mentality
2. The adoption of new IT technologies
3. A new approach of the market
4. A consciousness of where to go with your brand

The touchpoints for the wine or spirits consumer in the customer experience life cycle starts with the discovery facet. Whether in a tasting room setting or special event, stopping in accidently or via a referral, the experience felt from start to finish, sets the tone for the perceptions and expectations and ultimately value of the customer to that business. Opportunities to connect are many and can be executed at home, winery/distillery, retail shop, social events, websites, chat, and other options such as club or subscriber events only.

The best bet is to capitalize on best practices in customer experience, by having a set of systems, technological tools, and, efficient processes that will deliver to your visitors, the grand and welcoming experience you want them to have long term, and at every touch point.  Of course, be sure to train your staff to be friendly and welcoming.  A smile goes along way.

Active’s Mobile all-in-one system will help you and your staff manage customer perception and expectation by simplifying tasks, offering real time data answers freeing the staff to sell more smartly with less effort. Active’s easy iPad POS is designed for busy winery/distillery tasting rooms, craft beverage businesses, and retail locations. It includes powerful club features, inventory management, alcohol shipping, tips functionality, kiosk feature, loyalty/gift cards capabilities, and kitchen/fulfillment printing built right in. It communicates live with your unique master database, so it is always current with customer and inventory data. To request a DEMO contact Thomas@activeclubsolutions.com directly. Or, visit our website for more information at www.activeclubsolutions.com.

Wineries/distilleries have different ways of collecting new mailing addresses. Many use a branded mailing list sign up card. Some wineries/distilleries insist on an email address for every POS transaction. Others incentivize staff to collect mailing list detail or email addresses by paying a dollar amount per name(s) collected per day/week/month etc. Some even offer perks to the guests who sign up, in the form of an immediate purchase discount or limited edition type products, such as signed magnums or engraved flasks.

Whatever method your craft beverage business currently employs, you really should consider a Kiosk system. If your craft business setting already uses iPads you can easily turn an extra iPad into a Kiosk station to allow and encourage guests who are roaming around your tasting room to self-serve and sign up. Let your guests do the work of entering their data details directly into your POS system accomplishing a couple of things. Firstly, no staff member needs to stay late to input all the sign-ups collected. In fact, by employing a Kiosk system for addresses and emails for mailing lists, whether snail mail or email, you are making it very easy for guests to sign up! In this way no one can say your craft business tasting room has pushy sales people. In fact, if you already use a paper form it’s almost the same thing to ask folks to sign up just using a computer rather than a paper version. By letting the guest do the work you eliminate some of the administrative costs because no one on staff is manually entering the guest information. The main thing is to make sure your staff is trained to assist the guests in the sign-up process and are eager to promote it!

Certainly your tasting room is providing you with an important opportunity for you to capture your customer emails and mailing addresses. You have welcomed them, toured, tasted and taken photos of and with them. Perhaps the guests want to sign up for the club to keep the experience of connectedness with the winery/distillery continuing. Here is another reason to have a Kiosk rather than a paper wine club application form. Invariably in many instances the guest is making a purchase and signing up for the club simultaneously. With a Kiosk the guest joining the club can enter their credit card number along with all the ship to/bill to data at the same time. Instead of a paper form which has to be entered in the back of the house at a later date, the details are already the system by the customer directly, often limiting errors from hard to read scribblings on a wine club form. The customer now is a new club member immediately rather than the delay of inputting the application later.

Having a Kiosk makes it easier for guests who visit your tasting room and serves as an efficient way to build continued excitement about your craft beverage business. The Kiosk then automatically syncs up with your POS and even updates your email marketing list to stay in touch with your guests in a personal manner.

However you, the winery/distillery, want to collect mail and email addresses via paper forms or Kiosk, Active has you covered. Active’s easy iPad POS is designed for busy winery tasting rooms, craft beverage businesses, and retail locations. It includes powerful club features, inventory management, alcohol shipping, tips functionality,and kitchen/fulfillment printing built right in. It communicates live with your unique master database so it is always current with customer and inventory data. To request a DEMO contact Thomas@activeclubsolutions.com  directly.  Or, visit our website for more information at www.activeclubsolutions.com.

In today’s retail world, now you can use your Point-of-Sale terminal to load and redeem both loyalty and gift cards. There are super reasons to add loyalty and gift cards to creating a digital love fest between your business and your customers.

Wineries and distilleries alike believe in promoting customer loyalty and finding creative ways of tackling that broadly defined goal. Many platforms utilize mobile rewards or coupons to get repeat business and “court” the customer. Vendors integrate loyalty cards in various ways depending on factors like program goals and intended customer base. Following are five reasons wineries and distilleries should consider adding loyalty and gift cards for their hyperlocal programs.

 1.    Loyalty and Gift Cards Drive Superior Consumer Behavior

Via research, customers behave differently when spending with loyalty/gift cards, as there is a psychology of “the money is already spent” in this scenario. When using a Loyalty/gift card consumers tend to reach to the more expensive items when using a loyalty or gift card. Overspending also tends to occur. It’s hard to max out a card to the penny, usually, consumers spend more that is above the card’s stored value. According to Omri Dahan of Margeta, it’s about 25% or higher.

2.    Stronger Emotional Memory

If you credit $5 or $10 onto a credit card or to your bank account, what happens? Essentially it gets lost into that account, so the consumer never really realizes the cash back effort. It is simply lumped into all the other cash in the account. On that note, how can future purchasing behavior be motivated by a reward you don’t even remember and really have no emotion to? Using virtual currencies and loyalty/gift cards over cash back offers is the better way to go.

3.    Higher Perceived Value

Loyalty/gift cards hold a different connotation altogether. People receive gift cards or loyalty cards on special occasions with the feeling of the card itself that the plastic is a “store of value”. With a coupon, it is seen as “useless” or as a piece of paper or a transparent effort to drive sales. It is perception where the perceived value of a card simply drives higher conversion rates, even up to 25% or more than with a coupon. Zack Smith of Boomerang says, “they get people in the door, and they protect the brand positioning what’s essentially a discount as a gift or earned reward.”

4.    Convenient for Customers

Tying both loyalty and “store” value together is something that is very powerful for businesses, and, also extremely convenient for customers. There has been strong traction and consumer adoption so Active thinks this is a logical extension for wineries/distilleries loyalty service. According to Chris Luo of Five Stars, “certainly Starbucks has done a great job of proving value by using loyalty incentives to increase “pre-paid” purchases over 25% of US transactions are now delivered via Starbucks pre-paid cards that also accrue loyalty points.”

5.    Lower Fees

Finally, there is an additional retailer benefit when swiping a gift/loyalty card – lower credit card fees.  Gift cards are typically processed on different payment “rails”, they don’t trigger swipe fees the way typical credit card transactions do.  However, when a retailer first sells a gift card, it still pays interchanges on the entire amount (and even a higher costs if distribute cards via a 3^rd party.  There is a perception by “retailers” that loyalty/gift cards are “cheaper” to process which is true but probably less than people think.

Active is about to launch a loyalty/gift card offering within the current mobile POS system. Stay tuned for the upcoming release detail. If you want the ultimate in service, speed, security and support, Active has you covered. Active’s easy iPad POS is designed for busy winery tasting rooms, craft beverage businesses, and retail locations. It includes powerful club features, inventory management, alcohol shipping, tips functionality, and kitchen/fulfillment printing built right in. Active’s native app allows you to communicate live with your unique master database, so it is always current with customer and inventory data.

To request a Demo: Contact Thomas@activeclubsolutions.com  directly.  Or, visit our website for more information at www.activeclubsolutions.com.

What is often overlooked when assessing and comparing a “current” POS system to a “new” POS system is the time to budget for the changes that will need to happen; and the level of ease your team has in the transition from old to new before going live. You need to bear in mind the value of the support resources, that the vendor you are considering can provide in parallel support through the transition of you, your team, and ultimately your winery/distillery business. Or, are you and your staff left on your own to figure it out with merely a training manual and some self-help videos?

When you decide Active is right for your winery or distillery, and you become a client you and your business are supported with resources and helpful guides to learn as you go. Complete training takes place yet, prior to formal training sessions for you and your team, there are many introductory video tutorials on most subjects including the featured video on as part of this article, “Active POS Installation: Setup of Active POS on an iPad” that lasts 7 minutes.

Additionally, when you become an Active client you and your team will have help at every step with SETUP CONCIERGE! Custom parsing of your data from your former provider is managed for you. Our president and founder personally oversees all aspects of each new client database construction. Active’s gateway specialists will enable your tokenization and connect your new gateway. Active helps you identify your unique operational needs and gives you a solution that takes you where you want to go.

If you want the ultimate in speed, security and support, Active has you covered. Active’s easy iPad POS is designed for busy winery tasting rooms, craft beverage businesses, and retail locations. It includes powerful club features, inventory management, alcohol shipping, tips functionality, and kitchen/fulfillment printing built right in. Active’s native app allows you to communicate live with your unique master database, so it is always current with customer and inventory data.

To request a Demo: Contact Thomas@activeclubsolutions.com  directly.  Or, visit our website for more information at www.activeclubsolutions.com.

Before your winery or distillery gets started in developing an app or are figuring out your POS eCommerce and Club platform for your system you must have an understanding. What is important is deciding in how you are going to create and use your app. Basically, at this point you have two choices to utilize and develop either a native app or a Web app.

Now the questions can be asked, what are native apps and Web apps and how do they differ? Which is better for you and your business? To know which type is better suited to your needs, you should compare each option by the following four categories.

A native app is developed primarily for one particular device and it is usually installed directly onto the specific device. Users of native apps download then via app stores or online. Apple App Store is the most notable example.

On the other hand, Web apps are essentially internet enabled apps that are accessible via the Web browser.

User Interface

To the everyday user some native apps and Web apps look and work similarly, with no notable differences between the two. Really when making the choice between the two types of apps, the choice must be made only when you need to decide whether to develop a user-centric app or an application centric app.

Some businesses develop both native apps and Web apps, so to broaden reach of their apps while also providing a rich user experience.

App Development Process

“The app development process of these two types of apps is what distinguishes them from each other,” according to P. Viswanathan of Lifewire.com. P. Viswanathan continues to explain the app development process below.

• Each mobile platform that the native app is developed for, stipulates its own unique development process. In the case of Web apps running on a mobile device’s Web browser, the problem that arises is that each of these mobile devices have unique features and come with their unique problems as well.
• Every mobile platform uses a different native programming language. While iOS uses Objective-C, Android uses Java, Windows Mobile uses C++ and so on. Web apps, on the other hand, use languages such as JavaScript, HTML5, CSS3 or other Web application frameworks as per the developer’s preferences.
• Each mobile platform offers the developer its own standardized SDK, development tools and other user interface elements, which they can use to develop their native app with relative ease. In the case of Web apps, though, there is no such standardization and the developer has no access to SDKs or tools of any sort.

Accessibility

A native app is totally compatible with the device’s hardware and native features, such as an accelerometer, camera and so on. Web apps, on the other hand, can access only a limited amount of a device’s native features.

Efficiency

Generally, native apps are more expensive to develop. However, they are faster and more efficient, as they work in tandem with the mobile device they are developed for. Also, they are assured of quality, as users can access them only via app stores online.

Web apps may result in higher costs of maintenance across multiple mobile platforms.  Also, there is no specific regulatory authority to control quality standards of these apps.

As a winery or distillery why does this element even matter as a point of discussion? How will this have an impact in your craft business bottom line and overall operation? One reason to consider in switching to the native app is the tight security, free from "cookies" and other browser tracking devices that allow Active users a faster response time. Using the Native app technology, Active also allows multiple users on many devices throughout your estate, lounge, retail setting or working from home. Your team, using Active’s native app, will sell more with ease keeping your customer information safe and secure with all the transactions going through your system on a busy weekend at your facility or event.

If you want the ultimate in speed, security and support, Active has you covered. Active’s easy iPad POS is designed for busy winery tasting rooms, craft beverage businesses, and retail locations. It includes powerful club features, inventory management, alcohol shipping, tips functionality, and kitchen/fulfillment printing built right in. Active’s native app allows you to communicate live with your unique master database, so it is always current with customer and inventory data.

To request a DEMO contact Thomas@activeclubsolutions.com  directly.  Or, visit our website for more information at www.activeclubsolutions.com.

Added Value with Active

Let's face it. Change is hard, even if it is good change that will improve your workflow, business efficiencies, and systems for the better in your winery or distillery business. Whether you and your staff are frustrated with your current system, or, for many other reasons, you are shopping for a new POS system for your winery or distillery, what elements should you consider?

Certainly factors to ponder include what is the time necessary to transition to a new system, the number of people it will take to execute, and will the financial results intended from the expected actions be improved from the current status quo. Then other questions come to mind, such as, will the system be able to handle multiple locations of inventory or club member swaps on demand?

While researching you need to also weigh ease-of-use against functionality. Next, be sure to look for a system than can start small and grow with your needs and business model. Lastly, how helpful will the new system vendor be in your transitional time before going live? Or, are you and your staff left on your own to figure it out with a training manual and some self-help videos?

When you sign with Active now you have a direct to consumer software service provider with your business needs in mind. Activetakes away the worry of transitioning into a new POS system with the recently launched SET-UP CONCIERGE program. Every step of the way you are guided through set-up where Activemanages your data from your former provider with custom parsing. Active's own gateway specialist will personally enable your tokenization and connect you to your personal gateway. Active's founder, president, and tech guru personally oversees each private database build for every new client!

Talk about peace of mind for your craft beverage business, your passion, and your investment. To speak with an Active sales management executive to learn more or, to request a demo, please go to our website www.activeclubsolutions.com or call 1-877-441-CLUB (x.52).

The line between a cloud app (cloud) and a web app (browser) remains as unclear as ever. This is because of the natural similarities that exist between them. Active’s belief however, is that there are notable variances, especially when looking to leverage cloud apps for richer user customization experience and seamless integration with resilient and scalable back-end infrastructure.

As a winery or distillery why does this element even matter as a point of discussion? How will this have an impact in your craft business bottom line and overall operation? One reason to consider in switching to the cloud is the tight security, free from "cookies" and other browser tracking devices that allow Active users a faster response time. Using the cloud technology, Active also allows multiple users on many devices throughout your estate, lounge or retail setting. Your team is able to sell more with ease keeping your customer information safe and secure with all the transactions going through your system on a busy weekend at your facility or event.

Basically, a cloud app is merely a web app on steroids if not a hybrid of the two methodologies. It accesses the internet like a regular web page/app but the difference being it does not always exclusively depend upon web browsers to work. Advanced features are more than likely to be such as:

• Data is stored in a cloud or cloud like infrastructure
• Data can be cached locally for full-offline mode
• Access can be used from a web browser and or custom-built apps installed on internet connected devices such as desktops, mobile phones and iPads
• Can be used to access a wider range of services as in on demand computing cycle, storage, application development platform

If you want the ultimate in speed, security and support, Active has you covered. Active’s easy iPad POS is designed for busy winery tasting rooms, craft beverage businesses, and retail locations. It includes powerful club features, inventory management, alcohol shipping, tips functionality, and kitchen/fulfillment printing built right in. Active’s native app allows you to communicate live with your unique master database, so it is always current with customer and inventory data. To request a DEMO contact Thomas@activeclubsolutions.com  directly.  Or, visit our website for more information at www.activeclubsolutions.com.

Some wineries have tip lines on their POS receipts and others do not allow tips at all. Other wineries casually place a tip jar on their counter/bar discreetly. Whether your winery allows tipping or not it is usually a philosophic choice that the winery makes. Nevertheless, wineries who would like their staff to collect tips on the ticket often face challenges with their current POS system, as their current system does not allow flexibility in software technologies to be able to create a tip line.

Taking the tipping issue into account, Active has two ways in the POS system that allows Active clients to manage tipping the way they choose. The first option Active offers in tipping management is to offer “on-screen” tip suggestions. With this option the customer/guest selects which amount/percentage to tip based on the screen choices such as:

• 10%
• 15%
• 20%

for example. Another option Active can customize for the winery, is to offer tipping like traditional, restaurant style tip tickets. Here the customer/guest has the ability to write in an amount to tip that is put onto and paid by the customer/guest credit card presented. Or, the customer/guest can leave the tip portion blank and give a cash tip instead; just like a restaurant setting.

However you, the winery, want to address tips, Active has you covered. Active’s easy iPad POS is designed for busy winery tasting rooms, craft beverage businesses, and retail locations. It includes powerful club features, inventory management, alcohol shipping, tips functionality,and kitchen/fulfillment printing built right in. It communicates live with your unique master database so it is always current with customer and inventory data. To request a DEMO contact Thomas@activeclubsolutions.com  directly.  Or, visit our website for more information at www.activeclubsolutions.com.

 Ruby Hill Winery Patio, Livermore, California

Whether it is DTC or Wholesale within the winery or craft spirits business sector, sales performance is critical for the business. A winery or craft spirits business is no more than a hobby for many, but with “customers” it really is a business. Approaching the winery or craft spirits business requires a different way of thinking. How does one design the strategy for the business that provides a data driven machine towards increasing sales? The discernable answer is by tracking and using metrics or data analytics. While it is not easy, the main step into designing a strategy that is successfully using data points for optimization is by defining your key performance indicators or KPI’s.

For any winery or craft spirits producer DTC often is the lifeline for revenues. For example, wineries who produce less than 100,000 cases or less of product per annum, at least 30-70% of sales revenues can be derived from DTC channel. In smaller wineries or craft spirits, DTC often can be 100% of the revenue stream. In either scenario, most wineries or craft businesses have a basic understanding of KPI’s in relation to their sales channels do look at such as revenue by channel, revenue by month, number of club members, and total cases sold. That is usually it. But, what other data points could be utilized to give a better “picture” of what your winery or craft spirits business is doing?

Many wineries or craft spirits businesses are missing out on data that could improve their sales. What are those other KPI’s to take note of? In the tasting room or lounge model there are several data points to observe starting with visitor source. How did your visitor come to your establishment? Are they returning customers, club members, guests of club members, or did a hotel or restaurant refer them? Did you place an add in a travel/tourism magazine or Groupon offer? With this data you are gleaning information to see if your marketing dollars are effective in bringing in new customers.

Another tasting room metric is what is your visitor conversion rate? Are your visitors becoming customers? Was a purchase made? Did they join the club? Who served the visitor? Data from these questions can help you as a manager/owner determine who needs more training, who is better with one-time sales versus repeat sales, and who are the team members reaching the daily, weekly, monthly goals set.

In the tasting room or lounge also consider the time to assess the average sales amount and the sales per person amount. The average sales metric is factored as net dollars divided by the number of people for the day. This data gives you detail as to are the visitors buying more than last visit? Does the average amount per person or the average sales amount fluctuate with seasonality or abrupt weather events? This data can point to offering specials or deals during seasonal down time or offers the manager insights in immediate response strategizes to conduct a telemarketing campaign or email offer to supplement the low seasonal shifts in per person sales or average sales for the day.

Club programs also have their own set of KPI’s. Focused KPI’s include attrition rate, club loyalty and market basket analysis. Club members do sometimes move on as they like variety. Tracking attrition rate can help you as the owner or manager determine trends, such as who is leaving and when. What did they purchase before they left? This metric can help to identify trends to reveal you need to do other things to keep more customers in the club. How long is the average membership is monitored with tracking club loyalty. What is the average purchase amount for any member in a year? What is the average lifetime value? These metrics help you to better understand the customers you have so you can design programs to serve your club members better. Finally, one key to increasing sales is the ability to upsell or make the proper recommendations. Conducting a basket analysis will help you to understand what items your customers purchase together. An example of this, is Amazon, who mentions “frequently purchased together” in the hopes you will add more items to your cart. This KPI can be very useful for not only the club, but ecommerce and retail DTC marketing mix programs.

These are just a few of the KPI’s that any winery or craft spirits business can start to utilize. You need to bring together all your data points to give you a compete look into your DTC operations. When you have a complete automated system to manage all your data points, in one place, you would, essentially, find the “easy button” in your reports to give you better detail. You can make better decisions with data, because you have better insights for your winery or craft spirits business.

Ask how ACTIVE can help with your winery or craft spirits business to improve your data capture management, so you can make better business decisions through KPI’s. www.activeclubsolutions.com  

In a recent article Rob McMillan, founder and executive vice president of Silicon Valley Bank's wine industry practice, was quoted, saying that "the wine industry needs to do a better job on sales and marketing using digital tools." I would add to that thought that all craft beverage businesses should listen to that advice too. The article goes on to talk about the need for a big data product that's approachable yet useful to the industry.

There is an approachable DTC cloud-based solution available to wineries, breweries and distilleries to use data management from more than 18,000 fields to sort and segment your customer list in any way you wish with the parameters you set. Active’s Mobile Tasting Room POS, Club Automation Software and eCommerce Solution all share one common database. Each of these tool sets speak live to your unique and independent master database so they are always current and in sync with your customer and inventory data. With all systems sharing the same data, efficiencies improve, staff sells more and customer service is elevated across your entire operation in "real" time.

Eliminate the hassle of running multiple systems. Active is integrated with many shipping & fulfillment, payment, retail, accounting and marketing services. You’ll have peace of mind knowing that our software features are based specifically on our customers’ need for them.

"Active has streamlined the way I run my club with the ability to send newsletters, manage customers and inventory all from one dashboard. I'm just sorry it took so long to find it!" Amanda Graziano - Spirit Works Distillery, Sebastopol, California

Active’s easy iPad POS is designed for busy winery tasting rooms, craft beverage businesses, and retail locations. It includes powerful club features, inventory management, alcohol shipping, tips functionality and kitchen/fulfillment printing built right in. It communicates live with your unique master database so it is always current with customer and inventory data. Check out the website for more information. www.activeclubsolutions.com

New CLUBs Wizard System to Help you Batch your Various Clubs One Step at a Time

Your customers know they bought wine, beer or spirits from your winery, brewery or distillery and often don’t care if they purchased in your tasting room, received wine from a club shipment or bought online. They do care that they bought wine, beer, or spirits from you. 

Now you can drastically improve the efficiencies of your consumer direct sales programs, specifically running your clubs, by training staff using the club wizard that best suits the type of club you are processing. Running the batches in a “step-by-step" methodology keeps the club manager on track, allows management and ownership to “see” where the club billing is in the process, and provides accurate shipping, compliance, inventory, and accounting numbers to the back of the house for seamless G/L ledger entries, if not full integration.

Whether you are running a regular club where everyone gets the same wines in the package (Package Club) or if your winery allocates the wines or let’s club members choose what they would like to receive (Member Choice or Allocation Club) or, you have run out of a vintage and you call it a Placeholder club for the next vintage release (Placeholder/Member Choice/Allocation club,  Active’s wizard system will take you through all the steps, one at a time, to ensure you complete your club billing start to finish with accuracy.  Visit our website to view the club wizard tutorials to decide that ACTIVE is for you! To find out more information call us at 1-877-441-CLUB (2582) x.48 or contact Debbie@activeclubsolutions.com.

Find us at www.activeclubsolutions.com to learn more or ask for a demo!

Be an INFLUENTIALand DYNAMIC club manager with the most powerful and customizable club software in the industry. We at Active Club Solutions have developed the ultimate customizable wine, beer, spirits, and/or retail shop “club” software. Our robot works for you 24/7!

Some of our wine club software features:

• extensive Customer data features
• gift and prepaid membership features
• membership in multiple clubs
• club automation wizard – customizable steps
• address validation, email address validation, proximity calculation
• calculates package weights, custom discounts, handling fees, shipping fees, origin and destination taxes instantly
• fully integrated shipping, real-time rates, label printing and tracking
• the latest and smartest in member choice / allocation systems allows wine club members to select their own wines for shipment
• placeholder clubs – reusable abstracts can greatly simplify a club program
• automated assistant for declined credit card and revenue recovery
• easy personalized Customer emails sent from where you’re working
• customizable wine club software handles company specific exceptions
• employee incentive system
• automated anniversary (2) and birthdate emails (2)
• automated weather
• automated club management toolsunparalleled search provides an astonishing set of query tools – like,… show: members with a non-payment history
• database change tracking and job queue with log

Powerful Web Tools

Giving your club members access to their information online and through mobile interfaces allows you to easily build your winery into your member’s lives.

• member sign up
• member account management
• Member choice / allocations / futures
• integrated into your website seamlessly
• integrated into your Facebook page

Find us at www.activeclubsolutions.com to learn more or to ask for a demo! If you attended Unified Wine & Grape Symposium last month or Washington Winegrower's this week please ask about our "TRADE SHOW SPECIAL"!

"Trade Show Special"

For a limited time, when you decide to switch to Active's ALL-IN-ONE mobile solution to help your DTC business grow and thrive, Active will waive the set-up fee. Additionally, there will be ZERO down payment fees and no hidden costs. Act fast as this "Trade Show Special" is only good through 2/28/18!

Don't just take our word for it! Read the winery client testamonials below and stop by our Booth #1438 at Unified January 24 and 25. Find us at Washington Winegrowers February 7 and 8 in Richland, Washington too!

"Happy New Year! 2018 brings a new year and a new order management system for Red Car Wine. Active Club Solutions is a new and very intuitive program that we area happy to share with you."

-Kathleen B., Hospitality and Wine Club Concierge, Red Car Wine Co. 

 “We have been using Active Club Solutions since 2009 and with their wine club and eCommerce software and support, we have been able to grow and maintain a thriving wine club of over two thousand members. Their eCommerce and online shop features are both easy for us to manage, and for our customers to use, which is a necessity in today’s wine market!”

- Eric M. C., Ruby Hill Winery

 “Since employing Active Club Solutions, my team and I have had a much easier time with many of the day-to-day operations of our business in real time. The exceptionally user-friendly point of sale makes communication with my floor staff much simpler, and the interactive club management ensures that organizing customer information and transaction history is a breeze. Not to mention the high level of encryption and security provided, which I know our clients greatly appreciate. We look forward to expanding our online sales even further with the cart sale option, which can easily be linked up to our business website!”

- Brianna, Tasting Room / Wine Club Manager, Castle Hill Cider

"You guys have the easiest program to learn and train. It’s naturally intuitive. I honestly just love your dedication to customer support and your being there for us all the time.”

-Seth Hansen, Cougar Crest Winery

 All in One Single Database

Why consider ACTIVE? Our tasting room solution includes everything you need to manage and grow your wine sales, from our mobile winery POS to training and support. Visit our Booth #1438 at UNIFIED to see how you can maximize service and elevate sales!

•  iPad Winery/Tasting Room POS
• Customizable Wine Club Automation with Wizard
• Responsive eCommerce and Account Management Apps
• Powerful Database App with Live Data Reporting
• Marketing and Customer Relations Management (CRM)
• Unparalleled Search and Data Mining Capabilities
• Expert technical support
• Integrated and certified

 www.activeclubsolutions.com or call 1-877-441-CLUB x.56 to schedule a demo!

Wineries, distilleries, breweries, wine shops, and wine bars are fun vibrant busy places. Processing sales, managing club members, taking special orders and shipping purchases can be vibrant and fun too! Active's platform is mobile, easy, quick and interactive.

Active's tasting room POS mobile native app is all that and then some. The back end of Active's mobile POS solution offers unique level of powerful retail and club control, inventory management and accounting integration.

Active's combination of mobile tasting room POS, leading wine club software and customizable eCommerce toolkit offers a truly integrated solution, all in one single and unique database. Below are the top 20 features that can help your DTC business elevate service and maximizze sales.

1. first with attached mobile EMV reader
2. is part of a true integration in one database: information gets updated across systems and locations full and in real time
3. is easy to use saving you hours of training time
4. has easy and powerful swaps, returns, voids, pending order changes
5. has automated discounts, tax, and S&H features
6. is affordable, with minimum equipment investment
7. is integrated with an etremely secure payment processor, using point-to-point encryption at card swipe and full tokenization, protecting your business and your clients
8. comes with multi-location Tasting Room POS and inventory management
9. shares orders across mulitple locations
10. unlimited users and iPads at no additional license cost
11. allows you to add or edit club members
12. has amazing Wine Club pickup features, with iPad signatures
13. automates Swap Outs, reconciling both payment/credit and inventory
14. kithen or fulfillment printers
15. modifiers for restaurant POS functionality
16. wholesale functionality, giving field reps a mobile solution for creating new accounts, generating invoices and even taking payments in the field
17. comes with a full back office (Active Club Manager) accessible from your mobile device
18. comes with expert support and free upgrades to new versions
19. is integrated iwth QuickBooks Accounting
20. bluetooth barcode scanners supported

You are invited to stop by Booth #1438 at Unified to see how Active's POS Platform can help your DTC business elevate service and maximize sales!

Efficiently manage and grow your direct-to-consumer wine, beer, or spirits sales with Active's powerful, all-in-one solution. Active's Mobile Tasting Room POS, Club Automation Software and eCommerce Solution all share one common database. Each of these toolsets communicates live to yourunique and independent master database so they are always current and in sync with your customer and  inventory data. With all systems sharing the same data, efficiencies improve, staff sells more and customer service is elevated across your entire operation.

Eliminate the hassle of running multiple systems. We've integrated with many shipping and fulfillment payment, retail, accountiing and marketing services. You'll have peace of mind knowing that our software features are based specifically on our customers' need for them.

Active's ease iPad POS is designed for busy winery tasting rooms, craft beverage businesses, and retail locations. It includes a powerful club features, inventory management, alcohol shipping, tips, functionality and kitchen/fulfillment printing built right it. It communicates live with your unique master database so it is always current with customer and inventory data.

Active's club automation system will save you hours of time. With automation many of the time consuming tasks, like batch creation, batch payment processing, email communications, and more, are easily managed. Our flexible system allows you to run Standard Package, Member Choice/Allocation and Placeholder Clubs.

Active's eCommerce Solution inserts right into your current website so there is no re-direct when customers are shopping. The pages have an open style sheet so your web designer has fufll control of the look and feel to carry your brand image through every page. Features include catalog shopping cart, club sign-ups and a member portal allowing customers to control their own profile. The solution is connected live to your unique master database so there is never a difference in customer data and inventory data.

If you want to see how your DTC business can better elevate service and maximize sales, stop by our booth at the 2018 Unified Wine & Grape Symposium to see for yourself the power of "Active" at your fingertips! www.activeaclubsolutions.com

Active Club Solutions, Inc. Hires Marketing Manager

Pleasanton, CA – Active Club Solutions, Inc. is a leading provider of DTC solutions (Mobile Winery POS, wine club software, ecommerce) since 2003, and is pleased to welcome Debbie Klimeck to the team, in a new role for the company, as Marketing Manager.

As Marketing Manager for ACS, Klimeck will perform a broad range of event planning, marketing, social media, public relations, and administrative duties in a dynamic, entrepreneurial environment to aid in the strategic growth of the business in support of the current nationwide team structure.

“I am delighted to join the Active Club Solutions team as marketing manager! In this role I am thrilled to share the Active story to better communicate and promote the cutting edge services that ACS provides. Active has an all-in-one DTC solution that can maximize sales for current and potential clients, creating “real time” win-win scenarios for all DTC channels in the wine and alcohol related sector,” says Klimeck.

Debbie joins Active Club Solutions after many years working a variety of roles in the wine industry, from the tasting room front lines, developing wine clubs, ecommerce and event programs, to GM of DTC, and winery DTC consulting roles. A graduate of Pacific Union College in the Napa Valley, where she earned a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Business Management, Debbie spent the early part of her career gaining experience in various aspects of the industry while focusing on DTC and pioneering best practices for club retail management. Since completing graduate school with an MBA in marketing from the University of Phoenix, Debbie has worked with DTC winery clients to include Chateau Montelena Winery, Artesa Winery, Bouchaine Vineyards, Clos du Val Winery, and Silver Oak Cellars. She has a unique perspective to assist the ACS team in further developing the business.

“Debbie is a seasoned veteran of the Napa scene and we are excited to have her as a member of our team.” Dan Nechemias, VP of Sales and Marketing Active Club Solutions

About Active Club Solutions:

Active Club Solutions, Inc. is a leading provider of DTC solutions (Mobile Winery POS, wine club software, ecommerce). Our mission is to provide a single and comprehensive sales platform for firms selling direct to the consumer. Active Club Solutions has been providing DTC solutions to wineries, distilleries, and wine stores that seek to elevate sales and maximize service. Today the company has an entire suite of sales tools all in one single database. Active Club Solutions’ commitment to developing and continually improving its sales software and service has made us a leading and well-respected provider of direct sales software with a commitment to quality and customer success.

For more information, visit www.activeclubsolutions.com.

Contact: Dan Nechemias
Dan Nechemias, Vice President of Sales and Marketing
Dan@activeclubsolutions.com
(925) 248-4190 (ext. 56) or (877) 441-CLUB (ext. 56)

New Time Clock 

You asked and we delivered.  This new function will let your staff punch in and out right on the iPad POS and will allow your managers to schedule staff, adjust time punches, adjust schedules and run time keeping reports with ease.  One more step in Active's goal to reduce the number of apps you use to get the job done in the most efficient manner.

New HTML Email Editor

Elevating Service & Maximizing Sales just got easier with Active's new html email editor.  No need for 3rd party software...segment lists, design, send and track right from Active Club Manager.  Designing sharp focused emails couldn't be easier.  But, if you love your email marketing software, Constant Contact, MailChimp, Vertical Response and SocketLabs are all integrated.

New Email Tracking 

Also, built right into Active Club Manager, is the tracking of all e-mail events. This is not just a benefit designed for e-mail marketing but for all e-mails whether marketing, member communication, internal communication or organizational processes. Unlike other systems, Active Club links these events to customers, transactions, processes, organizations, and staff for superior reporting and visibility.

http://www.activeclubsolutions.com/winery-pos-wine-club-software-demo/

Active Club Solutions is excited to announce the promotion of Dan Nechemias to the role of VP of Sales and Marketing.  As VP of Sales and Marketing, Dan Nechemias will continue to further expand awareness about the Active suite of products, while developing new channels and directing the efforts of the company’s sales and marketing team. For the past four years, Nechemias has overseen the development and expansion of Active’s services while doubling the client base.  Prior to Active, Nechemias served as Direct to Consumer Manager for Argyle Winery. 

“With customers in 16 states and Canada, Active is known as the premier provider of DTC software.  Our technology, innovation and passion for customer service are unparalleled in the industry. I’m excited to lead our team in sharing the Active story with our customers in wine, beer, spirits and beyond,” says Nechemias.

“Dan has done an excellent job guiding our development and expanding our customer base,” says Arne Haugland, President. “In his new role, Dan’s experience, creativity and energy will be invaluable in growing our reputation and reach.  As one of the first all-in-one DTC solutions, Active has a proven track record and best-in-class product and Dan will mobilize and enhance our expansion.”

About Active Club Solutions

Active Club Solutions publishes a direct sales suite of tools written specifically for the wine & alcohol related industries and offers a complete solution including software for tasting rooms, wholesale, wine club, shipping, inventory, ecommerce, and accounting.

Founded in 2003, Active Club Solutions has been providing a cloud sales database solution to wineries, distilleries, and wine stores. We got our start in wine club software and have been building on market requests ever since. Today the company has an entire suite of sales tools all in one single database.

Active Club Solutions’ commitment to developing and continually improving its sales software and service has made them a leading and well-respected provider of direct sales software with a commitment to quality and customer success.

To learn more, please visit www.activeclubsolutions.com. 

Email Campaigns Made Easy!

• Design emails that increase brand recognition.
• Communicate effectively with your audience.
• Drive in sales, feedback, and increase ROI.
• Create emails that can be read from any device.

Active continues to be at the forefront of Direct to Consumer software technology with our new merchant processing partnership with EVO Payments.  Our partnership with EVO makes available the Chipper.  The Chipper™ is a compact card reader combining MSR and EMV chip reading and end-to-end encryption technology, facilitating reliable & instant mobile payment anytime, anywhere.  It plugs into the earphone jack of the iPad, giving you true mobility for retail POS and costs less than $100.

Active Club is more affordable than ever with our new POS and Club setup fee of only $999 and monthly rates as low as $150. This offer expires March 30, 2017.

Please visit us in Sacramento at the 2017 Unified Wine and Grape Symposium.
The Symposium is January 25th and 26th.  Active Club Solutions will be located in Hall A-E, Booth #1336.  We look forward to the opportunity to meet you and show you why Active is the leader in Direct to Consumer Solutions.  To help celebrate, we will be offering the Active POS/Club system for a special symposium price of $999!

Elevate Service...Maximize Sales

Active Club now has a shopping cart catalog toolset for web developers to embed in your web site, giving them 100% control of the design.  Now, your catalog and cart can have the elegance and feel of the rest of your web site.

• Track cart abandonment.
• Use the automated email generator to get those missing sales converted.  
• And, embed your cart on your Facebook page.

Active Club now has a shopping cart catalog toolset for web developers to embed in your web site, giving them 100% control of the design.  Now, your catalog and cart can have the elegance and feel of the rest of your web site.

• Track cart abandonment.
• Use the automated email generator to get those missing sales converted.  
• And, embed your cart on your Facebook page.

This month, Active Club is pleased to release more features that our customers have been requesting.  On the inventory and wholesale side of things we have created reports for cycle counts that can be date sensitive and take advantage of Active Club's extensive search capabilities.  These reports will help you stay on top of your inventory and planning.  On the retail side, we have added the ability to store and select Multiple Shipping addresses for customers across, our Club, POS and eCommerce platforms.  This will allow for smoother management of club customers with multiple/seasonal residences as well as enhance the holiday shopping experience for your customers in our shopping cart.  

Find out why we are the leaders in industry innovation for wineries, breweries and distilleries: http://www.activeclubsolutions.com/

To request a demo of Active Club: http://www.activeclubsolutions.com/winery-pos-wine-club-software-demo/

Active Club Solutions introduces our new reports Dashboard. Now, you can see your sales data anywhere, any time. Our latest feature is fully integrated with our iPad POS, Club/eCommerce and can be accessed anywhere.

• Hundreds of charts and tables give you real time and historical KPI’s.
• Access from your phone, tablet, laptop.
• Powerful Club, Tasting Room and eCommerce metrics.
• No wasted time calculating Sales by Employee, Club Conversion/Attrition, Sales by Hour, Year over Year.
• Know your business better.

Check out our special harvest pricing and schedule a demo to see how Active Club Solutions will work for you at www.activeclubsolutions.com

Active Club Solutions introduces our new Mobile iPad wholesale platform. Now, you can sell wine anywhere, any time. Our latest feature is fully integrated with our iPad POS, Club/eCommerce and multi-location inventory management systems.

• Take wholesale orders anywhere.
• Generate invoices or receive payments immediately.
• Affect inventory in real time....
• Never miss a sales opportunity.

Combine our industry leading DTC solution and mobile wholesale and you have a best in class, direct to market Active Solution.

To request a demo: http://www.activeclubsolutions.com/winery-pos-wine-club-so…/

Combine our industry leading DTC solution and mobile wholesale and you have a best in class, direct to market Active Solution.

To request a demo: http://www.activeclubsolutions.com/winery-pos-wine-club-so…/

Hopefully you did not get up on the wrong side off the bed…Today’s the day, wine club members are coming to your tasting room to pick up their club selections, it’s going to be… a breeze! A breeze? How?

Let’s see, they will ask:

• To swap bottles in their selection (We know…)
• To add bottles to their order
• For a tasting
• For their discount
• Membership profile changes
• Billing information changes

Active Club Solutions comes with the best wine club system in the industry, powerful and highly customizable, yet affordable.

It is no secret that wine club members are your best customers, your ambassadors, your number one online shoppers and you want to keep them happy. How?

Get the tasting room checkout line moving and keep your staff and your club members smiling, start using Active Club POS pickup and swap features.

The Active Club swap feature eliminates clunky merchandise returns that clog up your checkout line.  Credit cards that have already been charged are automatically reconciled and so is the inventory.

And that’s not all… we’re giving you the ultimate wine club pickup “must have feature”, the instant iPad signature for pickups.

Watch this quick video.

Watch how Active Club iPad POS would work in your tasting room

With our native app, processing sales, managing club members, taking special orders and shipping instructions is mobile, easy, quick and interactive.
The backend of our solution offers a unique level of powerful control, inventory management and accounting integration.

With our leading wine club software and eCommerce options, we offer a truly integrated tasting room direct to consumer solution, in one single database.

Watch Now

12 reasons to choose the Active Club iPad Winery POS

The Active Club Mobile Winery POS native app:

1. Is part of a true integration in one database: information gets updated across systems and locations fully and in real time.
2. Is user friendly and incredibly fast (native app).
3. Has easy and powerful return, void, pending order changes, discounts, tax and S&H features.
4. Is affordable, with minimum equipment investment.
5. Is integrated with an extremely secure payment processor, with encryption at entry or card swipe.
6. Comes with multi location POS and inventory management.
7. Allows you to add users or POS stations at no additional license cost.
8. Allows you to add or edit club members at the POS.
9. Has handy Wine Club pickup features, with iPad signature, "swap out" and payment info update capabilities.
10. Comes with a full back office system (Active Club Manager) accessible from your mobile device.
11. Comes with free expert support and free upgrades to new versions.
12. Is integrated with QuickBooks.

Learn more about our iPad winery POS

Questions you should ask before replacing your tasting room software

• Can you trust your tasting room solution system?
• Can you afford it?
• Which features are most important to your tasting room sales?
• Which features are most important to managing and growing your wine club?
• Which features really support your online sales?
• How well are you managing your inventory?
• How secure is your customer data?

Our developers and entire team have worked with wineries since 2003. Our experience gives us a unique ability to understand what will create a positive difference in your tasting room operations, expand your wine club and support your online sales.

Why wineries trust Active Club Solutions

• Active Club Solutions is committed to high standards of quality, service, infrastructure, and support.  Active Club’s success comes from its clients' success.  As Active Club Solutions grows, we constantly strengthen our infrastructure, staff, and services to ensure that old and new clients have access to the same high-quality product and level of support we have always offered.
• Active Club Solutions offers the best-of-breed support...and it is free.
• We have built the most advanced database platform for managing wine clubs and winery ecommerce.   With the company's twelve years of experience and development, we have produced the iPad winery POS our clients have asked for.
• Active Club Solutions’ infrastructure is state of the art, featuring  four data centers nationwide, supporting wineries coast to coast in the US and Canada.

12 reasons to choose the Active Club iPad Winery POS

The Active Club Mobile Winery POS native app:

1. Is part of a true integration in one database: information gets updated across systems and locations fully and in real time.
2. Is user friendly.
3. Has easy and powerful return, void, pending order changes, discounts, tax and S&H features.
4. Is affordable, with minimum equipment investment.
5. Is integrated with extremely secure payment processors, with encryption at entry or card swipe and EMV ready.
6. Comes with multi location POS and inventory management.
7. Allows you to add users or POS stations at no additional license cost.
8. Allows you to add or edit club members at the POS.
9. Has handy Wine Club pickup features, with iPad signature, “swap out” and payment info update capabilities.
10. Comes with a full back office system (Active Club Manager) accessible from your mobile device.
11. Comes with free expert support and free upgrades to new versions.
12. Can be integrated with QuickBooks.

7 ways our wine club software is the best

Active Club Solutions has developed the ultimate customizable wine club software. Our robot works for you 24/7 and is able to complete tasks in seconds that would take the average person hours to complete.

The Active Club Wine Club Software comes with hundreds of unique features. Here are 7:

1. Features to pre-authorize credit cards, send automated declined credit card reports, and an automated assistant for declined credit card and revenue recovery.
2. Special Gift and Prepaid membership features.
3. Automated calculation of custom discounts, shipping and handling fees, origin and destination taxes, and shipping fees instantly.
4. Fully integrated UPS, FedEx and GSO shipping, real time shipping rates, and label printing.
5. An automated system to allow wine club members to select their own wines.
6. Powerful online club member registration and secure member login pages.
7. Automated and personalized HTML email communications to customers.
8. Powerful and customizable reporting capabilities.

Ecommerce that gives you more control to sell more and smarter

Ecommerce is an essential part of any tasting room solution. Our shopping cart will be customized to look like your existing website and fully integrate with your Active Club Solutions mobile winery POS and wine club software. Let your customers enjoy a full, branded, state of the art online shopping experience and catapult your wine sales to the next level.

The Active Club Shopping Cart

• Is integrated into your website, to look seamless.
• Recognizes your club members, and assigns custom club discount automatically.
• Has tablet and mobile ready shopping pages.
• Comes with social sharing features for every single product or event.
• Includes our new always visible shopping basket widget.
• Event shopping cart – sell tickets to your events.
• Gives you full control over product display and inventory management.
• Allows customers to shop with or without registering.
• Calculates taxes, shipping fees, and discounts instantly.
• Sends automatic order confirmations.
• Is integrated with UPS, FedEx and GSO shipping and tracking.

Most wineries want a mobile POS for their tasting room and events...but changing to this new platform often means giving up on powerful point of sale, customer relation management and inventory management features.

Active Club iPad Winery POS is an iPad native app faster and more powerful than other POS web apps.

It is part of the Active Club Solutions all in one tasting room solution and is feature rich.

Active Club Solutions has its own development team and is constantly improving its products with new features requested by our clients.

Active Club iPad Winery POS features include:

1. Easy and powerful return, void, pending order changes, discounts, tax and S&H features.
2. Integration with extremely secure payment processors, with encryption at entry or card swipe and EMV ready.
3. Multi location POS and inventory management.
4. Allows you to add or edit club members profile and orders at the POS.
5. Handy Wine Club pickup features, with iPad signature, "swap out" and payment info update capabilities.
6. Comes with a full back office system complete with an email system, reporting, inventory management, email manager and CRM.
7. Comes with free expert support and free upgrades to new versions.
8. Ipad pro compatible, bar code scanning, cash drawer features.
9. integration with QuickBooks.

Effective inventory management is key to a winery costs management and profitability.

On the direct to consumer side, challenges include:

-        Spillage

-        Theft

-        Managing several storage locations including third party fulfillment warehouses,

-        Replenishing stocks in a timely and accurate manner

-        Allocating the proper inventory to the various DTC channels:

• Tastings
• Events
• Online Sales
• Wine Club Sales
• Tasting Room Retail Sales

Active Club Solutions advanced inventory management system is the best tool available with a mobile POS.

Daily inventory management tasks are easily handled at the iPad POS. Stock management, allocations and adjustments are simple to manage in the administrative interface, Active Club Manager.

To see a demo of our advanced inventory system, iPad POS, wine club system and ecommerce contact info@activeclubsolutions.com, visit www.activeclubsolutions.com or call 1-877-441-2582 et 56.

Apple and Microsoft agree: The future is mobile and the future is in the cloud. Mobile POS have become the new standard for wineries.
But changing to this new platform often means giving up on powerful point of sale, customer relation management, inventory management features and approximate integrations to your wine club, ecommerce and accounting interfaces.

Active Club iPad Winery POS is an iPad native app faster and more powerful than other POS web apps.
It is part of the Active Club Solutions software, a customizable solution in one unique database built to your specifications.
Active Club Solutions has its own development team and is constantly improving its products with new features requested by our clients.

Active Club iPad Winery POS features include:

• Easy and powerful return, void, pending order changes, discounts, tax and S&H features.
• Truely integrated shipping features.
• Point to point encryption at credit card swipe and tokenization, the best and most secure credit card capture and storage standard.
• Bar code scanner features
• Multi location POS and inventory management.
• Allows you to add or edit club members profile and orders at the POS.
• Handy Wine Club pickup features, with iPad signature, "swap out" and payment info update capabilities.
• Tips and open ticket features
• Split payment features.
• Comes with a full back office system complete with an email system, reporting, inventory management and CRM.
• Comes with free expert support and free upgrades to new versions.
• Integration with QuickBooks.

Active Club Solutions POS is affordable and can be customized for small or large multi location wineries needs and budgets.

Learn more about our iPad winery POS

Credit card security is a hot topic for customers and wineries as more mobile and online purchases are made. Wineries are requested to be Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI) compliant, and avoid data breaches that could put them out of business.

Maintaining PCI compliance can be a burden and the perception that your winery’s systems are not secure can prevent customers from coming back.

In addition, merchants that are found to be the source of a credit card data breach are liable for financial damages and legal penalties.

Active Club Solutions development team has always put data security at the top of its list. Now, with our partner OpenEdge, we guarantee to keep offering the best and most cutting edge secure payment processing options, as credit card security requirements are changing fast.

You should expect today’s highest standards of security from your mobile winery POS, wine club software and Ecommerce.

These standards must include:

• Point-2-Point Encryption OpenEdge’s proprietary encryption is designed to render cardholder data unreadable, encrypted at the device. Merchants are unable to view card numbers after the swipe or hand-key.
• Token Vault Cardholder data is replaced by digital “tokens” based on this technology. Sensitive data is stored in the secure OpenEdge vault rather than in the merchant environment.
• PCI compliance merchant systems and support.

Contact us today: info@activeclubsolutions.com, call 1-877-441-2582.

First, business owners were buying a cash register at the office store, along with an accounting ledger notebook. Then, they were spending $10,000 to $30,000 in computerized Point Of Sale Systems. These systems were powerful but clunky, hard to learn and full of frustrating glitches. (We all know what the initials POS ended up standing for...) 

It is no wonder that iPad POS solutions are gaining popularity in most industries and specifically with wineries. In 2015, businesses that have chosen an iPad POS to start with or switched to one are glad they did.

There are many reasons why. Here are the top 6.

1. It looks great!
2. It's affordable, even for a small new business
3. It's user firendly and intuitive
4. It makes it easy to capture customers' information
5. Inventory, sales, customer profiles are updated throughout your systems instantly (other iPad, back office computer, web apps such as an integrated winery ecommerce)
6. It is mobile, can be used anywhere with a wireless or cellular connection, it is perfect for out of site event sales

 Choosing the right iPad POS can be challenging. There are many factors. Here are the top 3, most businesses consider when selecting one.

1. Cost: both initial software and equipment cost and usage and credit card fees need to be considered. Initialy "free" systems tend to be extremely expensive after one year of usage.
2. iPad and back office features: inventory management, CRM, email, wine club management, ecommerce, wine shipping, accounting integration, reporting and many more... These can vary wildly from one system to another when taking a close look.
3. Technical support: from non existent, to unreliable or very costly, technical support also varies from one system to another. When purchasing a business tool, expert, reliable technical support is a must.

To schedule a personalized demo of Active Club iPad Winery POS, go to Active Club Demo.

Most wineries want a mobile POS for their tasting room and events...but changing to this new platform often means giving up on powerful point of sale, customer relation management and inventory management features.

Active Club iPad Winery POS is an iPad native app faster and more powerful than other POS web apps.

It is part of the Active Club Solutions club management software and is feature rich.

Active Club Solutions has its own development team and is constantly improving its products with new features requested by our clients.

Active Club iPad Winery POS features include:

1. Easy and powerful return, void, pending order changes, discounts, tax and S&H features.
2. Integration with extremely secure payment processors, with encryption at entry or card swipe.
3. Multi location POS and inventory management.
4. Allows you to add or edit club members profile and orders at the POS.
5. Handy Wine Club pickup features, with iPad signature, "swap out" and payment info update capabilities.
6. Comes with a full back office system complete with an email system, reporting, inventory management and CRM.
7. Comes with free expert support and free upgrades to new versions.
8. integration with QuickBooks.

NEW! Our iPad POS integrates with a bluetooth bar code scanner and reads bar codes. 
 

Learn more about our iPad winery POS

• Can you trust your tasting room solution system?
• Can you afford it?
• Which features are most important to your tasting room sales?
• Which features are most important to managing and growing your wine club?
• Which features really support your online sales?

Our developers and entire team have collaborated with wineries since 2003. Our experience gives us a unique ability to understand what will create a positive difference in your tasting room operations, expand your wine club and support your online sales.

Our cloud solution is powerful, state of the art and fits any winery size needs and budget.

Why wineries trust Active Club Solutions

• Active Club Solutions is committed to high standards of quality, service, infrastructure, and support. Active Club’s success comes from its clients' success. As Active Club Solutions grows, we constantly strengthen our infrastructure, staff, and services to ensure that old and new clients have access to the same high-quality product and level of support we have always offered.
• Active Club Solutions offers the best-of-breed support...and it is free.
• We have built the most advanced database platform for managing wine clubs and winery e-commerce and with the company's twelve years of experience and development, we have developed the iPad winery POS our clients have asked for.
• Active Club Solutions' infrastructure is state of the art and nationwide, with four data centers supporting wineries coast to coast in the US and Canada.

FInd out about our prices, iPad winery POS, wine club software, winery Ecommerce.

Visit us on January 28 and 29 at the Unified Wine and Grape Symposium in Sacramento and play with our iPad POS for wineries, and explore the extraordinary inventory, wine club QuickBooks integration features at booth #1615.

Active Club Solutions has developed a truely integrated tasting room direct to consumer solution, in one single database. Information gets updated accross systems and locations fully and in real time.

The Active Club Mobile POS native app:

1. Is part of a true integration in one database: information gets updated accross systems and locations fully and in real time.
2. Is user friendly.
3. Has easy and powerful return, void, pending order changes, discounts, tax and S&H features.
4. Is affordable, with minimum equipment investment.
5. Is integrated with an extremely secure payment processor, with encryption at entry or card swipe.
6. Comes with multi location POS and inventory management.
7. Alows to add users  or POS stations at no additional license cost.
8. Allows you to add or edit club members at the POS.
9. Has handy Wine Club pickup features, with iPad signature, "swap out" and payment info update capabilities.
10. Comes with a full back office system (Active Club Manager) accessible from your mobile device.
11. Comes with free expert support and free upgrades to new versions.
12. Is integrated with QuickBooks.
13. NEW! Bar code scanner option!

Wineries, distilleries, breweries, wine shops and wine bar are fun vibrant busy places where processing sales, managing club members, taking special orders and shipping instructions should to be mobile, easy, quick and interactive.

The Active Club mobile winery POS mobile native app is all that.

The backend of our solution offers a unique level of powerful control, inventory management and accounting integration.

With our leading wine club software and E-commerce options, we offer a truly integrated tasting room direct to consumer solution, in one single database. 

Learn more.

The Active Club Mobile POS native app: 

• Is part of a true integration in one database: information gets updated across systems and locations fully and in real time.

• Is user friendly.

• Has easy and powerful return, void, pending order changes, discounts, tax and S&H features.

• Is affordable, with minimum equipment investment.

• Is integrated with an extremely secure payment processor, with encryption at entry or card swipe.

• Comes with multi location POS and inventory management.

• Allows you to add users or POS stations at no additional license cost.

• Allows you to add or edit club members at the POS.

• Has handy Wine Club pickup features, with iPad signature, “swap out” and payment info update capabilities.

• Comes with a full back office system (Active Club Manager) accessible from your mobile device.

• Comes with free expert support and free upgrades to new versions.

Active Club Solutions has developed a new mobile POS for the wine, craft beverage and specialty product industries. The Active Club POS native iPad app is elegant, user friendly yet powerful.

Born from the best database platform to manage wine clubs and winery eCommerce, this very modern tool benefits from the company’s 12 years of experience and development.

The POS app can be used alone.  But what is rare in today’s market, it that is truly and completely integrated with Active Club wine club software and eCommerce, in one single database. Used together, it is the most powerful, functional tasting room solution available to all size wineries and in their budget.

“This POS had to far exceed anything else in the marketplace.  Not only must it be a POS it would need to be an extension for club and inventory management (pickup signatures, swaps, card updates, and much more).  Mobile a must.  Super easy to use.  And fast.  Wi-Fi and cellular.” Arne Haugland, President says. “Now we have what the our market wants, a complete all-in-one DTC package with the best of breed support”.

Over the last years, credit card theft has become the greatest concern for Federal Law Enforcement, yet many mobile POS payment processing systems are not truly secure.  Active Club Solutions, has always made secure payment a priority, and uses a credit card processing system with encryption at entry/swipe point and tokenization.  Active Club Solutions users are guaranteed to be protected.

Many features make this solution unique, but its complete multi location advanced inventory management system and truly functional QuickBooks integration make it exceptional in the mobile winery POS market.

Active Club Solutions is committed to high standards of quality, services, infrastructure and support.  Active Club Solutions’ success comes from its clients’ success.  As the company’s grows, it takes every step in growing its infrastructure, staff and services to make sure that old and new clients have access to the same high quality product and level of support it has always offered.

There is still time to reach out to your club members and offer them a holiday promotion to use on your Ecommerce site.

The Active Club shopping cart can be customized to look like your existing website and fully integrate with your Active Club Solutions Wine Club Software. As a result, the shopping cart recognizes club members, gives them the special terms, pricing or discount they have been promised automatically. Let the power of internet purchases catapult your holiday sales to the next level.

What your Active Club shopping cart will do:

• Integrate into your website, to look seamless.
• Recognize your club members, and assign custom club discount and shipping terms  automatically.
• Link your products to Facebook like and Twitter.
• Accept up to 2 promo codes per order.
• Double as an event shopping cart – sell tickets to your events.
• Provide full control over inventory visibility.
• Allow customers to shop with or without registering.
• Calculates taxes, shipping fees, and discounts instantly.
• Send automatic order confirmations.
• Integrated UPS, FedEx, GSO shipping and tracking.

Visit us on December 4th at the North Coast Wine Industry Expo for a preview of our new mobile POS.

Active Club Solutions has developed a truely integrated tasting room direct to consumer solution, in one single database. Information gets updated accross systems and locations fully and in real time.

.    The Active Club Mobile POS native app:

1. Is part of a true integration in one database: information gets updated accross systems and locations fully and in real time.
2. Is user friendly.
3. Has easy and powerful return, void, pending order changes, discounts, tax and S&H features.
4. Is affordable, with minimum equipment investment.
5. Is integrated with an extremely secure payment processor, with encryption at entry or card swipe.
6. Comes with multi location POS and inventory management.
7. Alows to add users  or POS stations at no additional license cost.
8. Allows you to add or edit club members at the POS.
9. Has handy Wine Club pickup features, with iPad signature, "swap out" and payment info update capabilities.
10. Comes with a full back office system (Active Club Manager) accessible from your mobile device.
11. Comes with free expert support and free upgrades to new versions.
12. Is integrated with QuickBooks.

Active Club Solutions wineclub and ecommerce software offers true, certified integrations with UPS, FedEx and GSO. This means no more manually importing or exporting data.

All addresses are validated and all shipments can be created, billed, and tracked in Active Club Manager. Notifications are automatically sent to the club manager and the customers. Rates are instantly calculated, including negotiated discounts. Fewer exceptions means noticeable savings in shipping costs for wineries that use Active Club Solutions.

For example, Active Club Solutions is integrated with the very latest version of the UPS software, making us among the first to offer great new UPS shipping features like Smart Pickup. The UPS Smart Pickup option uses innovative technology to automatically arrange a pickup only when you need it.

When a winery processes a UPS shipment using Active Club Manager, the system automatically notifies a UPS driver to make a UPS Smart Pickup that same day to pick up all prepared packages. Wineries using this feature can save on the new UPS pickup fees.

Wouldn't it be nice, to sit at your desk, process your wine club release, without mistakes, hassles or disruptions and in no time, be back doing all the very important things your winery requires?

Let's take a look and see how you could be a little closer to this dreamland.

Time Waster #1: The phone keeps ringing!

WIne Club members have been notified and here they are, calling to make changes to their address, billing information, wine club selections or even to cancel or put their membership on hold.

Solution: You can give them a deadline to make such changes, and hope that they'll comply. (chuckle) The problem can be greatly helped if your wine club system comes with club member login webpages that allow them to make all these changes, including to their club selections. The changes will be instantly reflected in your club system and taken into account when processing the club.

Time Waster #2: Everybody is different!

Of course you have your shippers and your picker uppers, those with special dicounts, special shipping requirements, those on hold, those that are gifts and need a gift note included, those with different wine selections, etc... No matter how you try, it seem sthat you have to go through your list one member at a time!

Solution: A wine club system where everything can be programmed, every exception for discounts, shipping, S&H fees, type of packaging, customer preferences down to their wine selections, gift memberships, etc... at the time of the release the system will find all exceptions and handle them for you.

Time Waster #3: Oopses!

Have ever shipped a club selection to a member who had cancelled? Have ever given the 4 bottle club to somebody belonging to the 2 bottle club? Then, you are just like everybody else...human!

Solution: Not a human, a robot! You need a wine club system that will catch all human mistakes before they happen. 

Other Time Wasters and Solutions

Active Club Solutions wine club software has hundreds of features designed to save you time and make you susccessful. Take a look at your upcoming club release, make your wish list and contact us at 877-441-2582  ext 56 or at info@activeclubsolutions.com.

We will be happy to show you what we can really do that others can't.

We have removed the pitfalls of a cloud based wine club and ecommerce software, without removing any of our functionalities.

Remote Active Club Manager has fulfilled the needs of wineries across the country for over a year.

Cloud based solutions have amazing benefits: always up to date, always backed up, built in email and web login functionalities, instant customer, inventory, transaction records updates, accessible from anywhere by multiple users at no additonal cost... until your internet connection fails.

Remote Active Club Manager has been offering new access to its cloud-based wine club management system, from PCs or Macs, via the Internet over almost any type of connection, including satellite.

This is another step toward a fully universal system. Online Active Club Manager already offers great features for Mac, iPad, tablet, or mobile phone users. Remote Active Club Manager is the solution for any "full operator" with a slow Internet connection or a Mac.

Remote Active Club Manager is an "add-on" to Active Club Manager. To learn more about Remote Active Club Manager, contact info@activeclubsolutions.com, or call 877-441-2582 (441-CLUB).

6 signs you haven't really put your wine club system to work

1. Your wine club releases are weathered like a bad storm instead of managed
2. Your wine club hasn't grown more than 10% in the last year
3. More than 10% of your club members credit cards get declined
4. Membership retention is less than 85% per year (over 15% of club members quit after a year)
5. There is a bottleneck at the cash register when "pickup" club members show up to get their selections
6. More time is spend "dealing" with the club day to day issues than promoting it

Take me to the website for ideas and tips.

Really? I have questions.

Summer promotion to end soon.

Learn more about what a great wine club software system can do.

Show me the promotion

Show me some info and a demo

Can your software really do this? We think of EVERYTHING!

• Lets you know when club members are having a birthday
• Automatically cancels memberships due to expire
• Alerts you of shipments status
• Automatically creates club orders according to each customer preferences or selections
• Seamlessly integrates with FedEx, UPS, GSO without import/export and full use of ALL their features (like holding a shipment at a FedEx location)
• Comes with customizable club members web pages making it easy for them to manage their membership
• Has a robot programmed to run daily tasks, reports and alerts for you.
• Much much more... we thought of everything!

Talk to us about your club, learn about our powerful customizable options.

Why not?

Contact Us

Contact us for more information or a personalize demo. Call 1-877-441-2582 (CLUB) option 1, or send us a request.

Ok, let's do it

www.activeclubsolutions.com

info@activeclubsolutions.com
1-877-441-2582

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• Active Club Essentials: get 3 months free. Offer valid until 09/01/2014.
• Active Club Pro + Shopping Cart Add On: $1,250.00 license and implementation fees. Offer valid until 09/01/2014.

Contact us about this offer today.

Increase your Fathers’ Day wine sales by making gifting easy, personalized, and attractive!

A special bottle of wine or a wine club membership makes a great gift for birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas, and especially Fathers’ Day.

Active Club Solutions’ wine club software and e-commerce system comes with powerful automated gift features.

Gift club memberships and online gift purchases

• Gift givers are billed and received detailed receipts, while gift recipients receive customized gift receipts without prices.
• Customized, automated welcome e-mails are sent separately to the customer paying for the gift and the customer receiving the gift.
• Gift messages are automatically included with the gift welcome e-mail and gift receipts.
• Gift recipients can track their own shipments with a tracking link included in the gift receipt.
• Gift givers can manage the membership and duration of the gift online.

New! Active Club gift message card printing

•  Including an attractive, personalized gift card in a wine shipment is as easy as one click!
• Print all personal gift messages on Avery 5389-format cards, with your choice of designs from the store or on your own stationery.
• The gift card will include: From: (gift giver name), To: (gift recipient name), and a personal message to the customer. 

Active Club Solutions understands the challenges and nuances of keeping wine club numbers up to date and accurate in bookkeeping.

Active Club Solutions wine club and e-commerce software works hard for wine club managers and bookkeepers!

If you are using QuickBooks Accounting, there are many reasons to integrate your wine club and e-commerce software with your accounting software.

• Our QuickBooks Integration is available and free for Pro and Enterprise users.
• Active Club Manager QuickBooks integration synchronize your customers, inventory and transactions.
• Keep your sales, taxes, shipping and handling Fees and inventory levels all properly recorded in your QuickBooks accounting system.

Save hours and mistakes in bookkeeping!
Active Club Solutions also integrates with QuickBooks POS, and Manufacturing.

Active Club Solutions integrates seamlessly with GSO, UPS, Ship Compliant as well as many fulfillment warehouses.

But did you know that Active Club Solutions is THE ONLY wine club and ecommerce software part of the FedEx Compatible Solution program?

Core FedEx functionality is built into Active Club Solutions, so accessing the shipping and delivery services you need, from Active Club Manager is simple and streamlined.
Active Club Solutions periodically upgrades to the latest FedEx Compatible program giving Active Club users access to all new great FedEx services and features.

FedEx ensures that Active Club clients can:

• Enjoy the peace of mind that a successful, marketplace-tested solution brings.
• Ship within Active Club Manager.
• Reduce costly keystroke errors.
• Access shipping options and rates for FedEx and other featured carriers without having to switch programs or re-enter information.
• FedEx tests the shipping functionality of each solution to make sure it provides the reliability you expect from FedEx — with fast processing, powerful tracking and a broad array of services.

Learn more on www.activeclubsolutions.com

Successful wine stores and wineries often have a growing wine club or are thinking of starting one.

A wine club is a source of high profit-margin income. It often creates a 15% increase in revenue, while also boosting on site sales and online sales.
Wine club members become ambassador for the business and the brand. Customers will choose to become members of a wine store club, if they can rely on your expertise to deliver exciting selections. Wineries customers will become members if you can make them fall in love with your wines, your winery or your brand.

The holidays are a huge opportunity to launch or promote a club, club memberships make unique gifts, while existing members are likely to re-order their favorite selections to share and spread the cheer!

We have 10 years of experience delivering and supporting our customizable cloud-based solutions for wine stores, wine bars and wineries.

Our solution can work side by side with your existing POS, and often can be integrated with it.

"Active Club Solutions enables us to seamlessly integrate our personalized customer service with the demands of our growing wine club. Technical support is always on hand to help us optimize our wine club solutions to better fit our needs.”

Nick G., Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant

Visit our website for more information, pricing and watch our demo: www.activeclubsolutions.com.

Active Club Solutions releases the most comprehensive set of system emails for wine club members and online shoppers.

These beautifully designed, full-HTML system emails can include details from each customer's member profile and order history; both content and format are easily changed to meet each winery's needs.  They can be sent easily to a single customer or to a selected list of customers, either automatically by the system or on demand by the administrator.

 Active Club Solutions' wine club and shopping-cart software includes the following system email messages:

• Welcome emails to welcome new club members or online shoppers.
• Gift Welcome emails for gift recipients including the provided gift message.
• Membership Data email to confirm club members membership information and club announcements.
• Sales Receipt emails with live tracking numbers.
• Gift Receipts emails
• Shopping Cart order Confirmation emails
• Selection Confirmation emails to confirm customer's custom selections before a club release.
• Birthday and Spouse Birthday emails
• Wedding Anniversary emails
• Club Membership Anniversary emails
• Goodbye email to confirm a membership cancellation.
• Delivery Confirmation emails to confirm a package was successfully delivered by your direct shipper.

With Active Club Manager, sending personalized, elegant, accurate, and detailed e-mail to customers is as easy as pushing a button.

It offers new access to its cloud-based wine club management system, from PCs or Macs, via the Internet over almost any type of connection, including satellite.

This is another step toward a fully universal system. Online Active Club Manager already offers great features for Mac, iPad, tablet, or mobile phone users. Remote Active Club Manager is the solution for any "full operator" with a slow Internet connection or a Mac.

Remote Active Club Manager is an "add-on" to Active Club Manager, available with the Active Club PRO and Enterprise packages. We are currently offering a three-month free trial. To try Remote Active Club Manager, contact info@activeclubsolutions.com or call 877-441-2582 (441-CLUB).

Dan has years of experience as a leader in the winery industry. His knowledge, charisma, expertise in brand management and winery direct to consumer strategies make him an exceptional addition to our company. We are looking forward to all our clients and partners to meeting Dan and working with him.

You may contact Dan at dan@activeclubsolutions.com, or by phone at 877-441-2582 (CLUB) ext 56.

Pleasanton, CA. June 4, 2013.

“The new Active Club Solutions Lacey, WA Data Center now offers Pacific Northwest and British Columbia wine clubs a greater level of performance. With powerful servers in Washington, data has a much shorter distance to travel between Active Club Solutions databases and web pages. Washington State and Western Canadian wineries can now manage their wine clubs with lightning speed.

“This is another major step in the development of the company,” says Arne Haugland, Active Club Solutions president and developer.

As a leader in wine club software features and services, Active Club Solutions has been well established in the west coast wine country for ten years. With the introduction of its new Virginia Beach data center last year, the Washington data center today, and a Texas data center in development, the California-based company offers improved performance to wine countries nationwide.”