10 steps for getting your bottle shop online - Michael Stone Director of Products and Engineering - Invigor Group
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10 steps for getting
your bottle shop
online
Michael Stone
Director of Products and Engineering
Overview
The Coronavirus Pandemic represents an existential threat to independent liquor Contents:
retailers. While still considered an essential service and allowed to trade, there is the 1. Secure a domain name
ever present threat that Governments will implement more stringent restrictions 2. Choose an eCommerce platform
requiring liquor stores to halt all in-store sales.
3. Decide on your online product range
Even under the current social distancing rules, people are discouraged from leaving the
house especially the elderly and those with chronic illness. More generally, people are 4. Acquire product information
increasingly reluctant to engage in any activity which bring them in close proximity to 5. Decide how to manage inventory
others including retail shopping. 6. Write policy documents
Many major retailers including Coles, Woolworths, eBay and Kogan have reported 7. Determine shipping and delivery options
significant growth in their online traffic and a recent Power Retail survey suggests that 8. Document procedures and train staff
the percentage of online spend will increase significantly moving forward as a result of
9. Raising awareness and acquiring online traffic
the Coronavirus crisis.
10. Taking things to the next level
This trend plays directly into the hands of the major chains (Dan Murphy’s, First Choice,
BWS and Liquorland) which already have online stores available, as well as established
online liquor retailers such as Boozebud, MyBottleShop, BoozeIt. With their established
positions and reputations in the online space they will immediately start eating into
independent bottle shop revenues and then take all independent revenue if they are
forced to close.
The challenge is for independents to get online but how to do this quickly and cost-
effectively?
This white paper describes the 10 key steps for getting your bottle shop online and
provide practical suggestions in terms of technical, operational and financial
considerations for success.
2
Secure a Domain Name
The domain name of your online store is like the address of your physical store but the key Once you have decided on one or more domain names, you need to check whether it is
difference is that you get to choose your online store name! This is relatively easy and cost available. Typing it into your browser to see if it is already in use is not sufficient as it may
effective but it is important that you choose the right name to help shoppers find your already be registered without being associated with a website.
online store. You need to go to one of the many companies which can register a domain name and use
There are a number of considerations when choosing a name for your online store: their domain search facility. This will tell you immediately if the domain is available and if
• It needs to be relatively short: Since people may need to type your domain name into not, will make suggestions of similar domain names which are available.
their browser, the shorter the better. This also reduces the chances of them typing it Once you find an available domain name, you need to provide information including your
incorrectly. name, address and phone number. For Australian domains (.com.au or .net.au), you also
• It needs to be relevant: If you already have a business name which is well know by need to provide your official business name and ACN/ABN and confirm that the domain
your local community, you should choose a similar domain name. For example, “Pete’s name is the same as, or closely connected to your business.
Bottleshop” or “Roseville Cellars” would choose petesbottleshop.com.au and Web domain companies will try to upsell you to lots of other products including email
rosevillecellars.com.au respectively. services and website builders. The key option we recommend is Privacy Protection which
• Beware of banner copyright infringement: If you are trading under a banner you masks your name and contact details in the public domain ownership directory. This will
should check your agreement on whether you are allows to register a domain name prevent hackers and spammers from adding you to mailing lists or stealing your domain. It
which includes the banner. also prevents you being pestered by companies wanting to build your website!
• Deciding on .com versus .com.au: While securing a .com domain name is easier and The other key requirement is to secure an SSL certificate which encrypts the traffic
cheaper than .com.au, we recommend sticking with .com.au unless you are looking to between your online store and the shopper’s browser.
sell internationally. There are many domain registration companies and below are some of the larger ones:
• Making it unique: According to the latest data from Verisign, there were 359.8 million • CrazyDomains
registered domain names at the close of 2019’s third quarter and they increase by 5% • GoDaddy
each year. Many of these are already running as business but there is an entire industry • MelbourneIT
built around registering domain names and then selling them for a profit. As such, you
probably won’t be able to get a generic domain name like bottleshop.com.au or • NetRegistry
liquoronline.com.au but hopefully something similar to your existing business name These companies can also provide SSL certificates which typically cost around $500 per
will be available. year, however free SSL certificates are available through services such as LetsEncrypt.
3Choose an eCommerce Platform
In the early days of online shopping, companies would build their eCommerce website • Plug-ins and Ad-Ons: No eCommerce platform will meet all requirements out of the
from scratch spending hundreds of thousands of dollars. Unless you have very specific box so many provide the ability for 3rd party developers to create plug-ins to extend
requirements, there are many eCommerce platforms which allow you to build very and enhance the core functionality. Examples for the liquor industry include adding an
sophisticated online shopping experiences out of the box with no coding skills required. age verification step to the front of the website or applying purchase limitations. These
This is great news for independent bottle shop owners and there are many to choose are generally offered an additional cost but in some cases a basic version of a plug-in
from with TrustRadius listing 178 options alone! which meets your needs may be available free of charge.
These can generally be broken down into two types: • Order Management: Hopefully you will be processing lots of online orders so an
efficient and intuitive order management system is critical. This includes features such
• Open source platforms such as Magento or Wordpress which are theoretically free to
as filtering orders by status (new, fulfilled, paid, etc), updating inventories and
use but complex to set up and support. They will need to be installed and configured
accessing customer contact details.
on a server and then maintained with software patches, data backups, etc.
• Security: There are two key security requirements for online stores:
• Commercial platforms which are generally hosted in the cloud on your behalf and take
away a lot of the complexity and ongoing maintenance. • HTTPS/SSL support means that web traffic is encrypted between the online store
and the shopper’s browser.
We definitely recommend going with a commercial, cloud-based platform as it will get
you online more quickly and ultimately cost less in terms of your effort over the long • PCI-DSS support means that credit card details are handled in a secure manner to
term. reduce the risk of hackers stealing your customer’s credit card details.
In terms of choosing a specific platform, they all offer similar functionality and capabilities Once you have chosen your eCommerce platform you will need to sign up and
but there are a number of things to consider: provide your credit card details. Most offer a 14 or 30 day free trial which is a good
• Mobile friendliness: With more and more web searching and online shopping moving opportunity to test it out and learn how it works.
to mobiles and tablets, it is critical that the platform automatically adapts the user Some of the major eCommerce platforms you should consider are listed below:
experience to the device making it easy to shop on the small screen. • BigCommerce
• Product Management: Your store will probably have several hundred products with • Neto
different pack sizes e.g. 6 pack and carton, as well as characteristics such as brand and • Shopify
categories. The eCommerce platform needs to provide functionality to easily upload • Squarespace
and manage your product range in order to minimise your workload. Most eCommerce
systems have been designed around selling electronics or clothes so it is important to • Wix
choose one which works well with liquor products.
4Decide on your online product range
A typically bottle shop will stock anywhere from 500 to 2,000 product lines, some of domestic lagers from Lion or CUB so it is important to add other beers to your range
which will come in multiple pack sizes (single, 6-pack, carton). Your online store should including:
start with a much smaller range of products for a number of reasons: • Craft breweries (even if they are owned by Lion and CUB…)
• It doesn’t make sense to be picking, packing and delivering individual bottles of beer, • Different styles of beer such as Pale Ales, IPAs, Ales and Pilsners
cider and RTDs so only 6-packs or cartons should be offered online.
• Different types such as mid-strength, low-alcohol and lo-carb
• Creating, uploading and maintaining your online product list takes time and effort so it For wines you will need to stock a range of reds, whites and sparklings in different regions,
is better to get online quickly with your most popular lines rather than trying to grape varieties and price points. Casks wine is also expected to be popular during the
replicate the full range available in store. current Coronavirus crisis so should also be included in your range.
• Browsing an online store is a different user experience to browsing in a physical store There are many different types of spirits including Gin, Rum, Vodka and Tequila and you
and it is important not to overwhelm online buyers with choice and make it easy to find should include your top sellers from each of these subcategories. Whisky has a similar
their preferred items. range of varieties with the most popular including Scotch (blended and single malt), Irish,
The first step is to decide on the categories and subcategories you wish to offer. In many Bourbons and Japanese.
cases, the categorisation configured in your PoS will be a good starting point and aligning It is important to also include a range of non-alcoholic products such as soft drinks,
your PoS categories with your online categories will keep things simple in the long run. In mixers, chips and syrups. While these can also be purchased online from supermarkets,
some cases, you may have too many or too few PoS categories in which case simplifying they can be sold at a relatively high margin in conjunction with spirits through your site.
or expanding the categories may make sense.
Another consideration is future supply and availability, especially for low-volume or niche
Ideally you will start with the main categories (Beer, Cider, RTDs, Red Wine, White Wine, products. While it may be great to have these on your website in terms of variety, you
Sparkling, Spirits, Whiskey and Other) and then add 6 to 12 subcategories to each need to be able to restock inventory which may be a challenge for some of the smaller
category. suppliers during the current lockdown.
You should then review the sales figures from your Point of Sale (PoS) system the past 12 So in summary, the steps for deciding on your product range are:
months to identify the biggest selling items across each category as a starting point. It is
important to look at a full year as product demand changes significantly with seasonality • Decide on the product categories and subcategories you plan to offer
and special events. • Export the top selling products over the past 12 months from your PoS system
You can then start to populate each subcategory ensuring you have a decent mix of • Map the products into each category ensuring you have a reasonable number in each
products at subcategory level. For example, your top selling beers will probably be • Ensure you include non-alcoholic products such as soft drinks, chips and mixers.
5Acquire and Collate Product Information
The most time consuming task in setting up an online store with a large number of Options for sourcing this data including:
products is acquiring and collating the product information required by the eCommerce • Supplier or brand websites although this will require tedious copying and pasting of
platform to deliver the best user experience. Unlike a physical store, the online shopper text and images.
cannot see the product in front of them and cannot pick up a product and read the label. • 3rd party data providers such as OnTap Data (https://www.ontapdata.com.au) or
While the PoS system is typically loaded with some of the data, it is generally not suitable SKUVantage (https://www.skuvantage.com.au/) who will charge a license fee and may
or sufficient for populating an online store. For example, product names may be not have all of the required information.
abbreviated to fit on a printed receipt which will be confusing for shoppers on your site. Once all of the product information has been collated, it needs to be uploaded into your
For every product you choose to offer online you will need to get the following: chosen eCommerce platform. This can be done on a product by product basis or
• Product name needs to be the full name rather than the abbreviated version in the PoS preferably, imported in bulk.
and should include pack type, pack volume and vintage if appropriate. The eCommerce platform will offer a bulk import function where you first download the
• Brand can be critical for distinguishing between two similarly named products and to import template (typically as Excel or CSV file) and then add all of your products row by
help shoppers find their preferred brand. row with each column corresponding to a specific type of product information.
• Description should both inform and influence the shopper to buy. It is also critical for The bulk import template typically asks for additional information including:
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) to ensure your online store is found in web searches. • The product title typically combines a number of data fields including the product
• Product images needs to taken with a plain or transparent background to avoid name and brand to provide something that will be recognisable to shoppers.
cluttering up the appearance of your online store. • The handle or slug is the part of the URL after your domain name which identifies the
• Product variants need to accurately reflect pack sizes e.g. 24 in a carton versus 30, 4- specific product page. This is typically includes the product name and brand to help
packs versus 6-packs, etc. with SEO but needs to be constructed with spaces replaced by hyphens (-) and special
• Characteristics such as country of origin, region and grape variety can help shoppers characters (apostrophes, quotes,etc) removed.
find specific products or explore your range. • Characteristics such as grape variety or region need to be added as tags as the
• Product weight can be used to automatically calculate an estimate of shipping costs eCommerce platform will not have fields for these by default.
during the check out. Once you have populated and triple-checked the bulk import template, it can then be
• Price should probably be aligned with your instore prices to avoid confusion for both uploaded to your eCommerce platform.
staff and customers
It is not really feasible for store owners and managers to write all of the product
information and take the product images themselves so this data must be sourced
externally to the business.
6Managing Inventory
A key difference between an online store and a physical store is that shoppers cannot buy formatted to the templated and uploaded to the eCommerce system. This will need to
products in a physical store if you don’t have it in stock. You may be tracking inventory in be done on a regular basis e.g. weekly.
your PoS but this is typically used for reordering purposes or to check if there is more You will also need export the order data from your online store to update the physical
stock “out the back”. inventory in your PoS to ensure that online sales are reflected in overall stock levels.
With an online store, if the product is displayed on the website then a customer can order • Inventory Integration: This involves connecting your eCommerce store to your PoS or
it unless your inventory is being updated in the eCommerce platform. Most eCommerce other inventory management system to ensure complete synchronisation between the
platforms provide inventory functionality and will remove a product’s listing from the two systems. This may already be available as an option from either your PoS provider
website if the product is out of stock. or eCommerce platform but will most likely require bespoke integration development
There are several approaches to inventory management for your online store with and testing.
different levels of complexity and also depend on what (if any) inventory management Another complication is where you have more than one physical store and want a single
you already have in place. eCommerce website for all of your stores. Most eCommerce platforms can handle
• No Inventory Management: This is the simplest solution and means that if a customer multiple stock locations with independent inventory levels. The order management
orders a product that is out of stock you need to manually edit their order to remove system should also allow you to indicate from which store an order has been fulfilled to
the item and adjust the order total accordingly. You can also manually deactivate the ensure that the correct inventory is deducted.
out of stock product in the eCommerce platform so it does not appear in listings or Even if stock at a particular store is at zero in the eCommerce platform, your website will
search. continue to list the product if it is available from other stores. This means you may need
Some eCommerce platform allow you to apply a two step process to credit card to adjust local delivery or click & collect orders manually based on the inventory available
processing i.e. in the shopper’s nearest store.
1. The total order value is authorised by the credit card which means the customer has For owners with multiple stores we recommend that orders are picked up in a single,
sufficient balance to pay central location such as the flagship store or head office. Where possible, the order
2. Once the order has been fulfilled including any adjustments to quantities, the should be fulfilled from this location while local delivery and click & collect orders should
revised total can be charged to the credit card be redirected to the relevant store for completion.
• Inventory Import/Export: Most eCommerce platforms have the ability to upload your In this case it will be critical to establish clear processes and responsibilities at both head
current stock levels for each product via an inventory template in Excel or CSV. If you office and store level with agreed communication channels established for resolving
are tracking your inventory in your PoS or other system, this can be exported, customer issues.
7Write policy documents
Your online store will require a number of policy document which will generally not exist It may also describe any “contactless” delivery process such as drivers keeping their
for your physical store including refund policy, website terms of use, privacy policy and distance, signing on behalf of customers or leaving an a safe location.
delivery policy. While some of these policies are similar to those on most websites e.g. There are a number of online services which can generate website terms of use and
terms of user and privacy policy, others will need specific terms related to liquor industry privacy policies based on your input, however, we recommend that you also consider
regulation in your state. seeking professional advice from law firms who specialise in eCommerce.
These specific requirements for each policy are described below. We also suggest you review the Retailer Drinks Online Code which is an industry-wide
• Website Terms of Use: This defines the rules for using the website, protects your framework developed in collaboration with government and community to enhance
business from liabilities and provides other limitations, rights and responsibilities. It compliance in the responsible online sale and delivery of alcohol. It provides a
typically covers intellectual property rights, payment methods, order acceptance and comprehensive overview of both the legislative environment governing online liquor sales
right to adjust orders, requirement to register, etc. as well as robust and fit-for-purpose best practices that is applied consistently across
• Privacy Policy: Since your site will need to collect Personally Identifiable Information Australia.
(PII) such as name, address, email and phone number to process the order, you need to
provide a privacy policy compliant with the Privacy Act 1988. It describes what
information is collected, how it is stored and safeguarded, how it is used including
sharing with 3rd parties, how customers can access, change or remove collected
information.
• Refund Policy: This may be included in the Website Terms of Use or may be a separate
policy covering returns, exchanges and refunds. It typically describes the circumstances
under which products can returned, any time limits and to where goods should be
returned. It may also offer “change of mind” product returns and explain how refunds
will be provided.
• Delivery Policy: This is critical for liquor store owners as it needs to comply to relevant
state liquor laws in terms of an adult over the age of 18 years being present to accept
the delivery and the potential requirement for appropriate identification. There are
also separate requirements for same day versus non-same day delivery.
8Shipping and Delivery Options
A critical part of any online business is how a customer gets their order. There are three check the status of their delivery online. Most eCommerce platforms provide the ability
main options available for online liquor stores as described below: to add the tracking number to the customer’s order confirmation as well as plug-ins to
• Click and Collect involves the customer placing the order online and then collecting it estimate shipping charges and print shipping labels.
from the store. This is the simplest option from the store owner’s perspective and will As described in the previous section, it is important to review the relevant legislation and
be preferred by customers who do not want to risk exposure to Covid-19 by entering guidelines governing the delivery of alcohol and ensure that delivery staff (including 3 rd
the store and/or do not want to wait for, or pay for delivery. It may also be an parties) are delivering orders within these guidelines. This also includes click and collect
important option if bottle shops are forced to close their doors to physical shoppers. orders where standard age verification is required.
In this case, the order is picked and packed after being received and then the customer Irrespective of the delivery mechanism, it is important that the ordered products are
is advised that it is ready for collection. Alternatively, you may choose to guarantee that packed in a secure and safe manner to minimise the risk of breakage. This means having
the order will be ready within a specific time frame e.g. 30 minutes or 2 hours. lots of cartons on hand as well as single bottle packs and filter material such as bubble
• Local Delivery involves offering a special delivery option for shoppers who live in close wrap.
proximity to your store. This can be defined in terms of specific postcodes or a radius Australia Post sells a range of specialised wine packaging materials including single and
around the store and generally involves local contractors or store staff making the twin boxes which can be bought in bulk.
delivery. This is a great option for retaining your existing customer base as it can be
offered as a same day service unlike the online stores owned by the major chains.
In terms of making these deliveries, there are a number of options:
• Existing store staff can be used, especially if your store is forced to close to physical
shoppers.
• Local contractors including recently retrenched individuals. This includes freelancer
platforms such as Airtasker and ServiceSeeking.
• On demand delivery services such as Sherpa and Go Fetch
• Couriers and Australia Post can be used to deliver orders outside of your local delivery
radius. Australia Post has the largest footprint and network and is also experienced
with liquor deliveries offering specialised handling processes and optional transit cover.
These companies will also provide tracking numbers which the customer can use to
9Procedures and Staff Training
Ensuring that your online sales operations are both efficient and deliver a great customer • Customer notifications are generally handled automatically by the eCommerce
experience will require clear procedures and processes for all scenarios combined with platform including order acknowledgement and delivery tracking, however, there may
staff training and reinforcement. While modern eCommerce platforms are relatively other notifications such as order adjustments, local delivery time windows, which need
intuitive and easy to use there are generally many ways to do the same thing and it is to be sent manually.
important that staff are handling each step of the order process in a consistent manner. • Order Returns and Refunds including reversing and refunding payments, exchanging
The best way to achieve this is to document these processes and ensure that staff products and approvals.
understand and follow these processes. You may already have documented operational • Shipping and Delivery including how products should be packed, printing and
processes for your physical store such as closing up or approving refunds and it would positioning of delivery labels, delivery driver safety and contactless delivery
make sense to add the online store procedures to this documentation. instructions.
If you don’t have existing documentation, this is a great opportunity to start putting these • Inventory Management including how to manually deactivate an out of stock product,
in place! exporting inventory from the PoS system, reformatting the data for importing into the
We recommended that procedures be documented in terms of When, What and Who: eCommerce platform and any checks or reviews after the import is complete.
• When the procedure should be followed e.g. new order, customer refund request. It is important that the process documentation is readily accessible and easy to read. As
• What are the specific steps involved including clear references to the specific buttons procedures change or are improved, they will also need to be updated and reissued. With
or fields in the eCommerce platform to avoid any confusion. this in mind, we recommend that document be created and views using an online tool so
it can easily be opened alongside the administration page of the eCommerce platform.
• Who should perform the steps including any other people involved in approvals
There are a number of free content creation tools which could be used including Google
Most eCommerce platforms provide individual staff logins which provides an audit trail to
see who did what in the platform. It also allows you to configure what functionality is Docs, SlimWiki and Zoho Wiki.
available to each user to restrict their ability to make critical changes. Some procedures such as those associated with picking and packing or delivery may also
need to be physically printed so that can be on hand in the warehouse or vehicle rather
For an online store we recommend the following procedures be developed and
than requiring a computer to view.
documented with clear step-by-step instructions.
• Order handling including who first reviews an order, picking and packing orders,
adjusting orders due to out of stock products, printing shipping and delivery labels,
finalising the order and marking the order as complete.
10Raising Awareness and Generating Sales
You should now have a shiny new online store with lots of products and a fully trained also pay for ads to appear in Facebook news feeds which can be targeted based on
team ready to process orders. The next question is how do you attract customers? your local area, customer demographics and interests.
Online shoppers are spoiled for choice and your online store will be competing against all • Search Marketing: Appearing in search results can be achieved in two ways. Search
of the major chains (Dan Murphy’s, First Choice, BWS and Liquorland) as well as Engine Optimisation (SEO) involves optimising the pages in your website to increase
established online liquor retailers such as Boozebud, MyBottleShop, BoozeIt and more. your position in search rankings. It is something of a “black” art as the search ranking
Most customers will buy products online by using either of two discovery methods: algorithms are a closely guarded secret and it can take time for changes to come into
effect.
1. Entering the website domain directly into their browser
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) involves paying for ads to be displayed within search
2. Searching for the product or service via Google or other search engines
results. As with Facebook advertising it is possible target these ads to specific locations
With this in mind, it is important to implement marketing strategies that align with these and demographics. You can also include discount codes in your search engine ad
methods. campaigns to help drive traffic to your online store.
• Discount Codes: Most eCommerce platforms allow you to create discount codes which • Referrals: This has always been the lifeblood of independent local bottle shops and it is
could be used as an introductory special for new online customers. These codes can be just as valid in the digital world. Many eCommerce platforms have referral plug-ins
included in the marketing ideas below to encourage new customers. You can also which work by given every customer a referral code or URL to share with friends and
create different codes for each initiative and then compare performance. family. If this referral code is used for a purchase the new customer receives a discount
• Flyers and Brochures: Even in today’s digital world, physical flyers or brochures are and the referrer also gets a discount on their next purchase.
great for raising awareness of your new online store especially while your physical store • Digital Marketing: One of the advantages of having an online store is that you are able
is still trading. This should include the domain name or search instructions (“Enter to collect contact details (email or mobile number) of your customers which can be
Pete’s Liquor Balmain in your search engine”) as well as an introductory discount code. used for future marketing activities. Regular customers can be advised of upcoming
These can be given to every customer who enters your store or you can do a letterbox specials while dormant customers can be reactivated using special discount codes.
drop to nearby residents.
Whatever marketing you do for your online store, it is critical that your try to measure the
• Newspaper Advertising: People will continue to read the newspaper so putting in an effectiveness of different initiatives so you can learn what works and what doesn’t. In
ad to promote your new online store along with a discount code could be an excellent addition to initiative specific discount codes, you can also use free web analytics tools
way to raise awareness. such as Google Analytics to measure traffic to your store including whether they found
• Social Media: If you already have a Facebook page or Twitter account you can advertise you via organic search, paid search, website referrals or Facebook.
your new online store with a discount code to an existing group of followers. You can
11The Next Level
Getting your online store up and running during the current Coronavirus pandemic has At Invigor we take a broader view of Loyalty with a focus on maximising customer
been primarily about survival – keeping revenue coming through the door, keeping your lifetime value. It is a combination of purchase frequency and average spend but must
loyal staff employed and moving valuable inventory. But your online channel can also drive profitability.
potentially become a significant part of your business attracting new customers and To achieve this outcome we use data science and artificial intelligence to identify the
growing revenue above pre-crisis levels. behavioural drivers for customer as well as the best way to drive lifetime value. These
To do that we need to move to the next level through some of all of the initiatives below. factors are then used to personalise all engagement to loyalty members and also help
• Customer Service: Your local bricks and mortar store primarily competes on customer identify the types of customers you want to attract to your site.
service and product knowledge which are delivered via face to face conversations or in • Business Insights: Online stores generate enormously valuable data and most
response to telephone enquiries. In the online world, this must be done in different eCommerce platforms provide reports and dashboards to measure performance. Your
ways utilising technology solutions. instore PoS is also collecting useful data but it is difficult to analyse your business as a
• Live Chat allows you to communicate directly with shoppers as they are browsing whole when you have both physical and online channels.
your site so you can answer questions or make recommendations in real-time. Invigor’s Retailer Insights solution is designed to ingest data from a range of different
These typically appear as a button on the page which customers can click to start a data sources including PoS, eCommerce and others to provide a comprehensive 360°
conversation. The challenge is that you need staff on hand to engage with view of your business allowing you to analyse store, product, category and promotion
customers, however staff members can do this using from anywhere via performance irrespective of the channel.
iPhone/iPad or Android apps. • Price Competitiveness: For many customers, online shopping comes down to price and
• Email Newsletters provide a vehicle for you to share your product knowledge and comparing prices online is very easy. You cannot afford to go head to head on price
experience with a wider audience while driving sales and repeat visits. Sending out with the big boys like Dan Murphy’s or First Choice but you need to make sure your
a regular email to your online customers with tasting notes, new product releases, higher prices don’t outweigh advantages like local delivery. This means monitoring your
cocktail recipes and even food match suggestions will remind customers of your key competitors and responding in a strategic manner which might mean matching
site and inspire then to purchase. You can even include links in the email which will some of promotions or offering special discounts on products they are not promoting.
open your website on a specific page of the product you are promoting. Invigor offers Australia’s most comprehensive liquor market pricing service tracking
• Loyalty: Most eCommerce platforms provide a range of loyalty modules or 3rd party more than 50 different retailers including websites and catalogues. This allows you to
plug-ins which are designed to reward repeat customers. This is typically done using check the price of almost every product in the market and immediately see how
reward points which are earned for actions such as store purchases, referring others, competitive you are. We also offer a dynamic repricing engine which uses our liquor
posting on your Facebook page, etc. Points can then be redeemed as discounts on market pricing to intelligently and automatically updated your prices based on
future purchases. sophisticated business rules.
12This all seems pretty hard…
While we have tried to present a step-by-step process for getting online, the challenges of
following this process cannot be underestimated. Comparing eCommerce platforms,
working through all of the configuration items, collating all of the product information will
take time and effort as well as expertise that many independent bottle store owners
simply don’t have.
For this reason, Invigor has developed its Drink@Home solution which is an end-to-end
implementation of the steps described in this white paper. It has been developed in
conjunction with Retail Drinks Australia and is specifically designed to get independent
bottle shops online as quickly and cost-effectively as possible. Once we have all of the
required information, you can be trading online in days, not weeks or months!
Drink@Home includes the following components:
• Fully functional eCommerce platform with support for PC, tablet and mobile
• Optional domain acquisition, setup and configuration
• You keep 100% of revenue generated from your site less credit card fees
• Customisation including your logo, branding and store details, etc
• Product range loading including images, descriptions, pack size variants
• Product inventory loading including support for multiple stores
• Choice of shipping options including local delivery, click & collect and courier/AusPost
• Encrypted credit card support with revenue deposited directly to your bank account
• Standard Refund Policy, Privacy Policy, Delivery Policy and Website Terms of Use
• Admin access for order handling, customer details, refunds and inventory management
• Comprehensive staff training with ongoing support and process documentation
If you would like to learn more on how our Drink@Home solution can get your bottle
shop online, please register on our website or email sales@invigorgroup.com.
13About Invigor Invigor Group Ltd (ASX:IVO) is an Australia listed company with offices in Sydney, Singapore and Berlin. We have been involved in the liquor industry for more than 6 years providing a range of innovative, data driven services to retailers and brands with clients including Endeavour Drinks Group, CUB, Pernod-Ricard, Vantage Group and various state government authorities. Invigor Group Ltd. +61 2 8251 9600 sales@invigorgroup.com invigorgroup.com
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