CellarDirect turns 1! and already launched 52 shops

CellarDirect is the DtC arm of wine.co.za, having launched in Oct 2019. With over 50 shops already in operation, CellarDirect works closely with wineries to ensure their shopping environment is easy to use, efficient and effective.

During lockdown there was a great demand for setting up new shops and Kleine Zalze came online just in time.

Carina Gous, Exec Manager Marketing & Sales at Kleine Zalze had this to say: "Cellar Direct provided an amazing on-line shop solution at the time that it was most needed. They were extremely professional in setting up the shop for Kleine Zalze both from an efficiency, accuracy and timeline perspective. The ongoing support and service is outstanding – a true partner."

Darling Cellars was also set up during lockdown. Marketing manager Lourens Relihan says: "Thank you CD for setting up Darling Cellars online platform during lockdown and effortless handling setup problems during this time. The online sales has become an integral part of our business model. They have a great amount of product and customers knowledge which helped us building our customer relationships."

During the challenging lockdown period it was heartening to receive positive feedback from customers:

"I just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone at Bonnievale and CellarDirect as well as Seabourne Express for getting our wine to us under very difficult circumstances. We received our order on Tuesday and were super excited!  The Bonnievale wines taste absolutely heavenly and I will definitely place another order soon." - from Engela Klopper

Sales rocketed during the last week of May and June and of course there were major challenges during lockdown, but all in all, the system and the team managed the massive influx well.

Not only does CellarDirect provide the admin, merchandising, secure site and payment gateway, but it also has created a simple dashboard for wineries to manage their orders,  wines, customers and member base, with dynamic stats available 24/7.

Winery Dashboard Sample

The graphs below indicate the stats for the last year across all wineries.
See all those already running at CellarDirect.co.za

See below the Price Points across all stores. The <R100 wines were much more popular during lockdown, but for the last 30 days we have seen a swing back to more premium wines with 32% being in the R100-R200 category. 

Kevin Kidson, founder and brains behind CellarDirect says, "CellarDirect rocks! It is the 2nd best system I have built." Of course he means the next one will be the best!

KEEN TO FIND OUT MORE?

If you are a winery member of wine.co.za, the set up is free, otherwise the cost is R2 000 once off.

Other costs are 15% commission on all sales, as CellarDirect handles setup of the store, payments, secure environments, communication with customers and couriers, managing logistics and providing wineries access to all their sales figures dynamically.

If you are interested in getting your winery shop up and running in a few days, then contact us now: Judy Brower - judy@wine.co.za or call 021 851 2737.