Bringing the tasting room and the back office back together.
At a client meeting a few weeks back, I sat between two teams: DTC on one side of the table, and Ops on the other. When I asked about their current work flows and system frustrations, it was as if the two teams worked at totally different companies.
Ops were frustrated with tax discrepancies from their e-comm platform to their compliance and reporting software, creating a growing liability in their ledger. They were still using Excel to manage their multiple complex inventories because their DTC and Wholesale inventory platforms were not connected. DTC wished their aging software had better reporting, and a smoother POS checkout.
Both teams are working hard to run the same business.
Does this scene sound familiar? I hear it every day from wineries across the country. The people welcoming guests and selling wine are focused on one set of priorities. The people managing inventory, accounting, and compliance are focused on another. Yet every sale, shipment, and customer relationship connects them.
What if those teams didn't have to work around each other? What if they could work from the same information, in the same system, toward the same goals?
For many wineries, technology has grown organically. A new platform was added to solve an immediate need. Another tool comes along to handle a different part of the business. Before long, the winery is running on a patchwork of systems that don't necessarily communicate with one another.
Each system might do its job reasonably well on its own. But a bottle taken from the tasting room affects inventory differently than a bottle set to ship from a warehouse. An online order triggers payment processing, tax calculations, fulfillment, and reporting. A wholesale order needs to be reflected in the same inventory picture as a DTC sale. And the numbers that reach accounting need to make sense across all of it.
When those systems aren't connected, people become the connective tissue. They export spreadsheets, reconcile discrepancies, enter information twice, and spend time tracking down answers. They also make mistakes. It's not just an efficiency problem. Disconnected information makes it harder for teams to trust their numbers, see the full picture, or make decisions with confidence.
Vinoshipper brings together the systems that wineries rely on to run both the front and back of house: point of sale, e-commerce, wine clubs, wholesale, fulfillment, compliance, payments, and reporting. Instead of treating each sales channel as a separate operation, Vinoshipper connects them within a broader operating system for the winery.
For the tasting room team, that means technology that supports the guest experience, from checkout to customer relationships. For the operations and accounting teams, it means greater connectivity between transactions, inventory, payments, and compliance. And for the business as a whole, it means less time bridging gaps between platforms and more time using shared information to move forward.
People doing the work can focus more on their work, rather than on making their systems work together.
Compliance isn't separate from the customer experience
For the beverage alcohol industry, there's another reason this connection matters: compliance.
It's easy to think of compliance as a back-office responsibility, something that happens after the sale. But compliance touches the entire customer journey. Every transaction, whether it happens at the tasting room counter or through an online order, has operational and regulatory implications.
When compliance is disconnected from the systems processing those transactions, the burden falls on people to reconcile information after the fact. That creates extra work and can introduce risk.
Vinoshipper was built on a foundation of alcohol compliance. By bringing compliance together with the tools wineries use to sell, manage, and fulfill orders, we help connect the customer-facing transaction to the operational work that supports it.
The tasting room can focus on serving the customer. The back office can work with the information it needs to manage reporting and obligations. Neither team has to operate as though the other is someone else's problem.
That's what connected technology should do: support the entire business, not just the moment when a transaction happens.
Back on the same team
I keep thinking about that meeting and the two teams sitting across from each other. Neither team was doing anything wrong. They were trying to do their jobs with the tools they had. But those tools had created a divide that doesn’t have to exist.
Businesses shouldn't have to choose between a better guest experience and better operations. They shouldn't have to maintain separate versions of the truth. They shouldn't need a spreadsheet to bridge the gap between systems that are supposed to support the same business.
At Vinoshipper, we are building technology that doesn't just make individual tasks easier. It helps people work better together. A winery isn't a collection of departments, sales channels, and software platforms. It's one business, powered by one team.
It's time to bring the tasting room and the back office back together.
Event Type: Webinar
Location: Zoom
Date: 10/29/2026 — 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM
Vinoshipper is 20 years old. One more year until we can raise a glass to celebrate!
We started with compliance, one of the hardest parts of selling alcohol direct. Two decades later, we continue building on that foundation with one idea in mind, to unite your whole business.
Join us Thursday, October 29, from 10 to 11am PT / 1 to 2pm ET to see what United looks like, with front of house and back of house in one system and an industry that grows by working together.
Here’s what we’ll cover
Updates to POS, e-commerce, and club management
Improved CRM and customer communication tools
New dashboards that make it easy to see what’s happening in your business
A first look at how wholesale orders can live in the same place as consumer orders
Our ever-growing Compliance Management Services, which turn our compliance team into your compliance team
You’ll hear from Steven Harrison (CEO), Jen Rink (Forward Deployed Engineer), Taylor Harrison (Director of Revenue), Terra Jane Albee (Director of Growth), and Paul Swigger (Business Development Manager).
We’ll finish with live Q&A. Can’t join us live? Register anyway and we’ll send you the full recording.
Anyone is welcome, including producers, partners, associations, and anyone else interested.
VinNOW has run wine clubs and tasting rooms for decades. The platform is low cost, and its reporting and club tools are strong. Wineries usually start looking for an alternative for one of three reasons: they want to run their business from anywhere rather than a computer at the winery, they are tired of stitching compliance and shipping onto it through separate tools, or their payment processing fees have climbed above 5% due to using legacy processors. If any of this sounds familiar, here is what to weigh.
Where wineries outgrow VinNOW
It is rooted in a local install. VinNOW was designed to run on a computer or a local network at the winery, with a cloud option added over time. If you want your POS on an iPad, your club management accessible in different locations, and your data in one place you can reach from anywhere, a cloud-based native platform is the right move.
Compliance and shipping run through integrations. VinNOW connects to ShipCompliant for compliance and carriers for shipping labels. That works, but it means more relationships, vendors, contracts, and more moving parts.
Locked into high payment processing rates. By managing your own merchant processing relationship this means monthly invoices that include processing fees + statement fee, PCI fee, authorization fee, and batch processing fee.
What to look for in a replacement
One system instead of several. POS, club, online store, compliance, tax, state reporting, and payment processing on a single platform means one customer record and one set of numbers, not a local database plus a compliance and shipping tool.
Cloud access. Run the tasting room, the club, and the reports from any device, anywhere, without depending on one machine at the winery.
Built in compliance and expansion. A platform that verifies age, calculates tax, and includes all the state reports that you need to report and file on time.
How Vinoshipper compares
Vinoshipper runs your online store, club, and point of sale on one cloud platform, with compliance, tax, payment processing, and fulfillment built in. The POS works on a computer, iPad, or iPhone with Apple Tap to Pay and the Stripe M2 Connect reader, so you are not tied to a single machine. Age verification, tax to the nine digit ZIP code, and volume limits run automatically, and the trademark production agreement lets you expand your brands reach to over 40 states.
If you already use Vinoshipper for shipping alongside VinNOW, moving fully onto Vinoshipper consolidates the two into one system, so customer data and reporting stop living in separate places. Migration is handled by Vinoshipper at no cost, including your customer records, club members, and order history, plus credit cards where your processor allows it. There are no sign up fees and no monthly fees. Pricing is based on transactions.
VinNOW is a capable system, and some wineries have no reason to leave it. The wineries that benefit most from the move are the ones who want a modern platform instead of a local install with all other items stacked around it.
Frequently asked questions
Is VinNOW cloud based? VinNOW was built to run on a local computer or network, with a cloud option available. Vinoshipper is cloud native, so the POS, club, and reports run from any device.
Does VinNOW handle compliance and shipping? VinNOW connects to ShipCompliant for compliance and to carriers for labels through integrations. Vinoshipper includes compliance, filings, and shipping to over 40 states in one platform, with no separate compliance vendor.
I already use Vinoshipper with VinNOW. Should I consolidate? If you run Vinoshipper for shipping alongside VinNOW, moving fully onto Vinoshipper puts your POS, club, store, and brand expansion in one system, which ends the double entry and split reporting between them.
What does it cost to switch? Migration is handled by the Vinoshipper team at no cost, and there are no sign up or monthly fees. Pricing runs on successful transactions.
Thinking about the move? Get started with Vinoshipper.
If you are on WineDirect, you already know the platform is going away. Commerce7 acquired WineDirect's software division, and WineDirect Classic is set to retire on December 31, 2026. Every WineDirect winery has to land somewhere else before then. The default path is Commerce7. However, the move is a great time to ask: what does your winery need from its next platform?
Here is how to think about the move, and where Vinoshipper fits as an alternative.
The migration is a decision, not a formality
A platform change is disruptive, so the instinct is to take the path of least resistance and follow the default. That instinct is worth resisting for a beat. You are already going to move your customers, your club, your products, and your history. The cost of evaluating one alternative is small next to the cost of spending the next several years on a platform that was chosen for you rather than by you. Ask what you were missing on WineDirect, and pick the platform that closes that gap.
What to look for in a replacement
Where does compliance live? Commerce7 is a hub. Compliance, fulfillment, payment processing, taxes, state report filings, and expansion to additional states are run through separate tools like ShipCompliant plus a compliance agency or even Vinoshipper! If you would rather not rebuild that stack, look for the platform that includes compliance.
Who does the migration, and what does it cost? Ask what comes across, who does the work, and what you pay for it. Migration is where the fear lives, so get a straight answer before you commit.
What is the real monthly cost? Add the platform, the processor, the compliance tools, and any per module fees. Compare the total cost of ownership, not just the headline figures.
How Vinoshipper compares
Vinoshipper is a direct sales platform built for beverage alcohol producers, with compliance, tax, payment processing, state report filings, and state expansion included rather than bolted on. Where a move to Commerce7 leaves you assembling compliance, tax, and shipping from separate vendors, Vinoshipper runs your online store, club, POS, compliance, wholesale invoicing and reporting on one platform. Age verification, tax to the nine digit ZIP code, and volume limits run automatically at checkout, and through the trademark production agreement, we can help you expand your brand to 40+ states.
On migration, Vinoshipper does the work in house at no cost. Your customer records, club members, and order history come across, along with your credit cards where your processor allows it, so club billing keeps running. There are no sign up fees and no monthly fees. Pricing is based on transactions.
None of this means Commerce7 is the wrong answer for every winery. It means the migration is your opening to compare, and Vinoshipper is worth putting side by side before you sign.
Frequently asked questions
When does WineDirect shut down? WineDirect Classic is scheduled to retire on December 31, 2026. Commerce7 acquired WineDirect's software division, and all WineDirect wineries need to migrate to another platform before then.
Do I have to move to Commerce7? No. Commerce7 is the default path offered to WineDirect clients, but you can migrate to any platform that fits your winery, including Vinoshipper.
What comes across in a migration to Vinoshipper? Your customer records, club members, and order history, plus credit cards where your processor allows it. The migration is handled by the Vinoshipper team at no cost.
Does Vinoshipper include compliance? Yes. Compliance, tax rates, age verification, dry zones, and self-file state reports are all included so you are not adding separate compliance vendors after the move.
Weighing your options before the deadline? Get started with Vinoshipper.
Vinoshipper is hosting an afternoon event for California producers on Wednesday, July 15, at Dot Wine at Bacchus Landing in Healdsburg.
Attorney John Trinidad of Dickenson, Peatman & Fogarty will speak about several regulatory issues currently affecting the state's wine industry, including the new AB 720 / Type 93 Estate Tasting Event Permit and how counties are interpreting it, proposed changes to winemaker dinner tied-house exceptions, and ongoing legal challenges to the three-tier system and their implications for DTC and wholesale sales.
Meet the local Vinoshipper team in person and see what's new on the platform, from POS to club management to compliance. Come with any questions!
The event runs 3:30-6:00pm, with John beginning at 4:00pm, followed by wine from Dot Wine, light bites, and networking with fellow producers and the Vinoshipper team.
Event Type: Seminar
Location: Healdsburg, CA
Date: 7/15/2026 — 3:30 PM to 6:00 PM
Vinoshipper is hosting an afternoon event for California producers on Wednesday, July 15, at Dot Wine at Bacchus Landing in Healdsburg.
Attorney John Trinidad of Dickenson, Peatman & Fogarty will speak about several regulatory issues currently affecting the state's wine industry, including the new AB 720 / Type 93 Estate Tasting Event Permit and how counties are interpreting it, proposed changes to winemaker dinner tied-house exceptions, and ongoing legal challenges to the three-tier system and their implications for DTC and wholesale sales.
Meet the local Vinoshipper team in person and see what's new on the platform, from POS to club management to compliance. Come with any questions!
The event runs 3:30-6:00pm, with John beginning at 4:00pm, followed by wine from Dot Wine, light bites, and networking with fellow producers and the Vinoshipper team.
Vinoshipper, the leading compliance and direct sales platform for adult beverage producers, launched a native subscription product, giving wineries, cideries, meaderies, distilleries, and other craft beverage producers a simple way to run prepaid membership programs inside the same platform they already use to sell, ship, and stay compliant across more than forty states.
Customers pay a set amount in advance. That payment becomes spendable credit in their account, and they spend it on future orders on their own timeline. Producers control when billing happens, tied to their own release schedule rather than an automated renewal clock.
The feature is built around a new product type called Credit Deposit. Producers create a Credit Deposit product at a fixed price, add it to a club release, and when the release runs, customer payments convert directly to stored credit.
Removing another outside dependency
For years, producers who wanted a prepaid membership program had to bolt on separate subscription software, maintain a separate customer record, and reconcile billing across systems. Vinoshipper has been steadily folding those jobs into one platform: ecommerce, club, point of sale, and compliance. The subscription product is the latest addition.
The subscription product via Credit Deposit is available today in all Vinoshipper accounts.
About Vinoshipper
Vinoshipper is the premier platform for alcohol producers seeking to expand their direct sales. Since 2006, its compliance engine has supported wineries, cideries, meaderies, and distilleries by offering a fully compliant online store, point-of-sale, club management, UPS integration, and comprehensive compliance management services. For more information, visit vinoshipper.com .
Media Contact
Adrienne Harrison | Communications Manager | pr@vinoshipper.com
Event Type: Webinar
Location: Zoom
Date: 5/28/2026 — 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM
It's been a great year of updates so far. Join our Founder & CEO, Steven Harrison, and Director of Client Success, Terra Jane Albee, for a mid-year walkthrough of what's new across POS, club, wholesale, CRM, and reporting, and what it means for how you run your business.
Thursday, May 28
10:00 AM PST / 1:00 PM EST
We will chat about:
The latest in the POS, and a pricing change worth knowing about
Customer data that powers Klaviyo, RedChirp, and Mailchimp
All sales in one place: DTC, wholesale, distributor
Why and how Shopify, Commerce7, OrderPort, and Activ8 now integrate with Vinoshipper
How Vinoshipper can now manage all your DTC license acquisition, renewals, and reporting
We will have a live Q&A section at the end, so bring any questions!
Event Type: Webinar
Location: Zoom
Date: 5/13/2026 — 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM
California Producers: Learn about AB 720
If you hold a Type 02 license, AB 720 extends your tasting room privileges to a vineyard you own or control — and to property adjacent to your production facility. No second permit. No new winery site.
Join the Micro-Winery Guild, InnoVint, and Vinoshipper for a working session on what the law actually allows, how producers are structuring agreements to host guests in the vineyard, and the practical details — ADA, risk, guest experience — worth thinking through before you open the gate.
Wednesday, May 13, 2026 @ 10am PST
Register here
Event Type: Webinar
Date: 3/26/2026
Disconnected systems create missed revenue and unnecessary manual work. The new Vinoshipper & RedChirp integration closes the gaps between your e-commerce, club, POS, shipping, and customer communication systems.
During the session, attendees will learn six powerful ways to activate the integration, including:
- Powering 1:1 customer service
- Growing SMS lists through webchat and opt-in tools
- Communicating more effectively with club members
- Automating shipping notifications
- Leveraging AI-powered bulk messaging
- Tracking revenue with order attribution reporting
Thursday, March 26th @ 10:00am Pacific