Creative thinking drives efforts on a new kind of wine club to give customers what they really want.

San Jose, CA, January 19, 2021 — As closures and restrictions remain in place for many wineries during the pandemic, the ability to maximize online sales through traditional as well as new marketing initiatives has become imperative. One creative new endeavor that is moving the needle is the Subscription program.

While wine clubs have traditionally been the cornerstone of an integral source of recurring business, the subscription model is a new twist on the classic, and it is quickly gaining traction.

Subscriptions part ways with the standard wine club paradigm in a couple of important ways. Subscriptions offer customers more customizable options for their recurring orders. Unlike traditional club memberships, where the winery or retailer issues wines selected at their own discretion, the subscription model offers the customer the ability to choose the wine they want, and the desired delivery frequency.

When subscribing, a customer can select the shipping or pickup option, such as monthly, every two months, or three months. Through a broader array of ship interval choices, subscribers are granted more granular control over how frequently they will receive their preferred wines. On the operations side, the business can offset any anticipated increase in Subscription related shipping costs by setting a minimum quantity requirement for each product offered as part of the Subscription program.

The Moersch Hospitality Group in Southwest Michigan, whose family of brands include Round Barn Winery, Tabor Hill Winery, and Free Run Cellars recently introduced their 'Vineyard Premier Program'. Vineyard Premier is a subscription-based "new kind of wine club", with options for free shipping, autoship and member pricing.

Marketing Director Sue Veldman helped launch the Vineyard Premier Program in November, 2020. According to Veldman, "Our Vineyard Premier Membership Program has been available just 2 months now and we couldn’t be more pleased with how it has been received. Our customer feedback strongly indicated that buyers were looking for a more flexible and customizable way to enjoy regular shipments of wine."

Veldman explains, "Customers can now select the wines they would like to receive and the cadence of shipments - they don’t have to think about it - they know they will regularly receive their favorite wines, when they want them, at the best price."

The Vineyard Premier Program, powered by the Vines OS platform, has highly customizable options. Customers can choose to Subscribe and Save, with the option at any time to login and adjust their subscription. Veldman affirms 'The order is customizable at any time - we believe this is also important so that members have the flexibility to adjust their orders to fit their needs. My Wine, My Way!"

The flexibility of the Vines OS platform has exceeded Moersch's expectations. In addition to the Subscription program, the Vineyard Premier Program also offers an option of free shipping with a three bottle minimum purchase. Veldman states, "Free shipping is a big deal for consumers, as we’ve learned from the success of other subscription models such as Amazon Prime and other retailer promotions, it made sense for us to offer this to our members. Early numbers are proving our customers agree and we are definitely pacing ahead of goal. Vines OS really brought everything together for our program."

Managing day-to-day operations, Hospitality Director Jessica Schueneman explains how everything is now so much easier. "With our online shop, memberships and subscriptions all being in one place and all connected to our POS, we now have a fully-integrated system."

Vines OS is constantly evolving the features of the club, ecommerce, and reservations platform to incorporate new, innovative options to help their winery, winebar, restaurant, brewery, distillery and retailer clientele. "We are listening carefully to our clients and continually rolling out new and creative platform features, such as the subscription and annual fee 'Shipping-included' clubs," said Vines OS President, Jules Robbins. "We're trying to do anything we can to help during this incredibly challenging time." Since the pandemic hit last March, Vines OS has also released online tipping, virtual tasting bookings, table reservations, local delivery, curbside pickup, gift cards, gift clubs, and contactless ordering.

About Vines OS

Vines OS is a modern, cloud-based, direct-to-consumer solution that has been powering the alcohol beverage industry since 2002. Intuitive and feature-rich, Vines OS provides point of sale, club management, ecommerce, and reservations. Vines OS is also fully integrated with Revel Systems POS.

To learn how Vines OS can help your business, visit www.vinesos.com.

subscription clubs