Holiday gift orders and year-end wine club shipments bring plenty of details to manage. Packaging preferences, customer notifications, and delivery questions all need attention while your team is working to get orders out the door.

For wineries handling their own shipping, this is a good time to review where staff are spending time on manual tasks and which recurring instructions could be built into the process. These four checks can help you prepare for the coming weeks and identify improvements for 2027.

Make recurring shipping instructions easier to follow

Start with the details your team needs to remember when preparing an order. Do packaging preferences change by destination? Which shipments need special handling? Where are those instructions recorded?

Putting repeatable preferences into your shipping system can help staff apply them consistently. FORT Ship supports state-specific label language and automated packaging preferences by destination, helping wineries manage these details within their shipping workflow.

Give customer service a complete shipment history

When a customer asks about a delivery, your team needs enough information to give a clear answer. That includes what was packed, where the package has been scanned, and whether delivery has been attempted.

FORT Ship’s Package Life Cycle view provides carrier tracking updates, scan and delivery-attempt history, and a list of the products inside each package. That context helps staff investigate a question and determine the next step.

Review the messages customers receive

Take a look at your shipping communications from the customer’s perspective. Are the messages clear and consistent with your winery’s voice? Does your team have a process for following up when an email fails to reach its recipient?

FORT Ship offers customizable emails for order and package statuses, along with an email failure report. These tools help wineries manage the communications that accompany each shipment.

Turn this season’s shipping data into next year’s improvements

Keep a record of recurring questions and shipping issues as they happen. Pair those observations with your operational data to identify where further investigation would help.

FORT Metrix provides reporting across shipping, inventory, compliance, and customer behavior, including package returns by state and seasonal trends. Reviewing those patterns can help your team set priorities for its next club shipment and its 2027 operations plan.

If your winery is reviewing its in-house shipping process, FORT Ship brings tools developed specifically for wine shippers into a streamlined shipping application.

Explore FORT Ship and connect with the team.

The global wine industry is facing its most significant disruption in decades. Consumption has declined since 2018, vineyard yields are down, and consumer habits have shifted toward spirits, seltzers, and cannabis-based alternatives. (Source: Eric Asimov, New York Times, Oct 14 2025)

Meanwhile, costs continue to rise. Labor, glass, freight, and compliance add expense at every stage of the value chain, while tariffs and climate volatility erode margins. For small producers — the cultural backbone of the industry — survival now depends on efficiency, transparency, and direct engagement with consumers.

Market Overview

Global wine sales peaked near $360 billion in 2018. Since then, total volume has fallen roughly 10%, with the steepest drop in entry-level wines. Premium segments have fared better, reflecting a long-term 'drink-less-but-better' trend. Within the U.S., per-capita wine consumption has retreated to pre-2015 levels even as total beverage-alcohol spending grows. Younger buyers are drinking differently: they value authenticity, environmental stewardship, and accessibility over tradition or exclusivity. The challenge — and the opportunity — lie in aligning production and fulfillment models with these expectations.

Simplify to Survive

Asimov observes that 'wine needs to suffer through the pain of consolidation.' Oversupply, fragmentation, and operational complexity have rendered many producers unprofitable.

FORT addresses these realities directly. Our integrated fulfillment and compliance platform unifies inventory, routing, and reporting into one system. By eliminating redundant software and manual processes, wineries and fulfillment houses reduce labor costs, improve order accuracy, and shorten cash cycles. Simplification is not only an operational goal — it’s a brand imperative. Every hour saved behind the scenes is an hour reclaimed for storytelling, hospitality, and growth.

Affordability Through Efficiency

Price remains the key barrier to next-generation adoption. Asimov notes that few younger consumers will pay $20 for a restaurant glass or $60 for a bottle. Producers who automate back-office tasks, optimize freight, and manage compliance electronically can reallocate savings to pricing — sustaining margin while keeping wine approachable.

FORT’s cost-reduction data show consistent 15–30% efficiency gains in shipping and reporting workflows. These gains help small and mid-sized wineries remain competitive with scaled corporate producers without sacrificing integrity or craft.

Rebuilding Emotional Connection

What sells wine, Asimov concludes, 'is the emotional connection people develop with it.' Yet connection requires understanding — of customers, preferences, and performance.

That is a core premise of our upcoming analytics platform: FORT Metrix. Metrix will provide unified insight across sales, logistics, and marketing — a series of detailed dashboards revealing what drives conversion, loyalty, and profitability across DTC, club, and wholesale channels. With Metrix, wineries will be able to measure customer and SKU health in real time — transforming raw data into actionable intelligence.

Toward a Resilient, Transparent Future

The future of wine will belong to those who integrate craftsmanship with clarity — who can honor tradition while embracing technology.

FORT Systems exists to support and promote that balance: 

• FORT Ship streamlines fulfillment and compliance. 
• FORT Metrix brings precision analytics to the DTC ecosystem. 
• Together they deliver what the industry now needs most — operational confidence, financial discipline, and data-driven growth.

Wine’s next renaissance will not come from marketing slogans or nostalgia. It will come from infrastructure that works, insight that informs, and producers who adapt with purpose.

Learn More About FORT Systems

Don’t just send labeled boxes out the door and call it a shipping process. So many things happen behind the scenes. This guide breaks down the six stages and ten actionable strategies to optimize your process and exceed customer expectations.

Most ecommerce interactions with customers happen online—browsing, clicking, and interacting via email or chat.

But the minute they place an order, your brand becomes more tangible, more real to them. It’s like your online identity packs a suitcase, along with their order, and steps into the real world, ready to meet them face-to-face.

Countless stages, from product inception to clever marketing, have brought you to this critical moment.

Need expert help selecting the right tool?

With one-on-one help, we guide you to your top software options. Narrow down your software search & make a confident choice. And you get one clear shot to deliver (pun intended). So in this blog post, we’ll focus on the final phase: your shipping process.

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Please stop by our booth for a chat and a brief demo should you wish to see FORT in more detail.  We’re in Ballroom A in a corner booth, #A2410.

Taking too long to pack and ship your daily orders?  Getting too many returned packages with no clear way to improve successful delivery percentages?  

We’d love to learn more about your business, and discuss with you how more efficient shipping management and data analytics tools might help improve your bottom line.  

We look forward to seeing you there!

Fort Systems
Unified Symposium Booth: A2410

FORT is a software platform focused on shipping and fulfillment for the wine industry, and offers solutions for the various accessibility and logistical problems that can come between suppliers and buyers.  While we first encountered many of these issues in the wine industry, the solutions we’ve developed are not limited to alcoholic beverages, and can help make shipping easier to manage for any company.

Within the world of alcoholic beverages, the platform touches all key segments of the industry, including warehouses, carriers, wineries, wholesalers, retailers, marketers, and consumers. The FORT platform also helps streamline shipping and order management functions for manufacturers, loyalty companies, and other retailers and dropshippers. FORT System clients include small start-ups and family-owned businesses, mid-size companies as well as major corporations.

FORT’s powerful platform makes fulfillment a snap, and provides a comprehensive system for fulfillment companies. The system allows management of multiple warehouse locations, zone skipping, carrier label generation, real-time package life cycle management, seamless order uploading and filtering, customer-based preferences, access to 3-tier supply chain channels, client invoicing, robust reporting and analysis tools, and a fully integrated state reporting system. No need to use separate systems for these applications.

In addition to our comprehensive 3PL platform (WMS), we now offer FORT Ship, a “wine smart” shipping app designed for self-shippers.  It is a streamlined, lighter weight application, but still relies on the same powerful FORT engine.  FORT Ship avoids the heavier functionality like inventory management, and focuses on the critical features needed to get packages labeled and out the door.  It is integrated with the same key industry platforms as our WMS platform, and users can often be up and running in a single day.

We have also recently added a data analytics module (beta), FORT Metrix.  FORT Metrix aims to provide intelligence and insights into your business that will help deliver immediate, measurable results, and help automate much of the work associated with your direct ship reporting.

WSC, the premier wine industry fulfillment and logistics company, has selected the FORT technology platform to help ensure continued growth and leadership.

ST. HELENA, CA, UNITED STATES, November 25, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Wine Service Cooperative (WSC), the wine industry’s long-established, premier provider of specialized wine storage and shipping solutions, today announced a multi-year partnership with FORT Systems, a leader in logistics software solutions for the wine industry. As WSC continues to expand its operational footprint in the US, this best-in-class partnership is designed to further improve the efficiency, accuracy, and reliability of wine fulfillment operations, setting a new industry standard for professionalism and customer satisfaction.

By leveraging FORT’s state-of-the-art software platform, WSC will optimize its supply chain operations with advanced features such as real-time inventory tracking, predictive analytics, and seamless integrations and order management. Together, the companies aim to deliver unparalleled service to wineries, distributors, and end customers across the country.

Steve Tamburelli, WSC’s President, said, “Wine Service Cooperative is excited to partner with FORT Systems to provide our clientele with a seamless experience from the bottling line to the distributor or consumer. The team at FORT embraced our unique requirements and developed a solution that will serve our members well for years to come."

Commitment to Long-Term Innovation
This partnership represents more than a business agreement; it signifies a shared vision for the future. Over the next several years, FORT and WSC will work closely to implement continual improvements and introduce innovative features that address the evolving needs of the wine industry. Some of the fundamental objectives include:

• Enhanced Order Accuracy: Utilizing FORT’s reporting, tracking, and process flow capabilities, reduce errors and improve delivery times.

• Sustainable Fulfillment Practices: Minimize the carbon footprint of wine storage and transportation.

• Customer-Centric Solutions: Expanding software features to meet unique customer demands, including third party integrations and enhanced analytics and business intelligence.

"We are thrilled to deepen our partnership with WSC, a company that shares our commitment to excellence and innovation," said Scott Liebman, CEO of FORT Systems. "As they continue to experience unprecedented growth, WSC’s faith in FORT is particularly meaningful. After an extensive review of world-class logistics platforms, WSC’s decision to rely on FORT confirms that our long-held policy of continual reinvestment in the platform is indeed the correct one. We’re dedicated to building the best logistics platform in the industry, and we’re grateful to see that focus rewarded with the recognition that FORT is the platform best suited to the complex needs of an industry leader like WSC."

Liebman added that many of the functional enhancements required by WSC will help strengthen FORT’s platform not only for WSC, but for other FORT-powered fulfillers as well.

About Wine Service Cooperative
Wine Service Cooperative specializes in providing tailored storage and shipping solutions for wineries and wine distributors. Wine Service Cooperative has implemented best-in-class technology to deliver a seamless member experience managing inventory, storage, and fulfillment processes.

email: info@wineservicecoop.com

About FORT Systems
FORT is a leader in shipping and logistics technology, offering comprehensive solutions for supply chain, warehouse and inventory management, fulfillment and package life cycle management, and beverage alcohol reporting. FORT’s innovative platform empowers businesses of all sizes to streamline operations and achieve greater efficiencies.

Jim McClellan
FORT Systems
info@fortsystems.com
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By Nick Thomas October 3, 2024 9:54 pm (Washington Examiner)

Wine consumption globally is continuing its downward trend, and some winemakers and other industry players are failing to see what could be an existential crisis for the nectar of the gods. 

Wine has been facing a long-term structural decline for some time. Major wine markets such as France and Italy have indeed been in such decline for decades while the United States, the world’s most valuable market for wine, appears to be in a downward cycle, according to industry body IWSR. 

The reasons for such decline are multiple, including a trend toward drinking moderation. But one key area is the apparent di culty of attracting younger generations to wine.

“The wine category is becoming increasingly reliant on older drinkers, thanks to a number of factors, including aging populations in regions such as Europe, and a challenge recruiting younger LDA (legal drinking age) consumers in certain markets,” according to an IWSR review of 2023 data. “LDA Gen Z consumers are not being recruited into wine at anything like the rate that they were ten to fifteen years ago.” 

That may partly be the fault of many wineries not making su cient effort to reinvigorate the attraction of wine. 

“Not enough wineries put an emphasis on trying to reach the next generation of wine drinkers,” said Ian Bearup, head winemaker at Millbrook Vineyards & Winery in upstate New York. “Oftentimes, younger wine drinkers are not taken seriously. I don’t see enough smaller wineries making the effort to reach a younger audience.”

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A 3PL service provider can help you manage individual modules like warehousing, transportation or shipping. Some providers also offer a comprehensive suite of services to manage the entire supply chain.

In an interview with SelectHub, Jim McClellan, Co-founder of Fort Systems, explained:

"3PL services are basically a solution for companies looking to outsource elements of their logistics and supply chain management functions to specialized firms. It’s an option that can make sense for small to medium-sized companies that lack the infrastructure for efficient fulfillment and WMS operations, but also for large companies looking to gain efficiencies and focus on core competencies.”

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