Reviving this thread as I think a few changes have happened and some updates are needed.
Offset, the software solution previously referenced as Commerce by Figure, has had some major growing pains (when one of the bigger software companies saw everyone jump ship to them). It took them over a month to answer my email and when they did, they rejected us because we were too small. Many smaller wineries are complaining about them and how the service level has plummeted.
@Ridgely_Evers - seems like the softare you helped developed has also changed name and been sold?
So, what’s the latest: is there a good platform available today for smaller producers that allow good allocation management etc? Have any new players turned up?
CompleteDTC (f.k.a. Captina) was acquired by VinoShipper in May of last year; I’m still actively involved, and am on the board of the combined company.
I selected VinoShipper for CompleteDTC’s next phase because of their customer-centric culture, their deep understanding of what it takes to sell alcohol in states other than your own, and their very friendly pricing. Adding their capabilities into CompleteDTC, which we’ve been busy working on for the past year, has created an unmatched system.
With the benefit of being able to sit back a bit and look around, I can honestly say at this point that CompleteDTC is, by far, the best solution for running a DTC winery. Their significantly larger development team has made possible a number of improvements to the CompleteDTC system in the past year, and we will be announcing a couple of industry-changing updates in the coming weeks.
Interestingly, their pricing fits smaller producers especially well, as there is no fixed or minimum fee. They’ve cleverly used their client base (well over 2,000 wineries across the country) to secure UPS rates that are incredibly low, along with great credit card fees. And support remains excellent, industry-knowledgeable, and unlimited regardless of your size.
All by way of saying you might want to dig a bit deeper; maybe schedule a demo…
HI Adam, We have allocation management within Bottle360. Much of our club management and processing has unique features compared to others, making it more intuitive and easy to manage and increase club. www.bottlethreesixty.com
Commerce7 was sold to Full Steam which is an investment company who reports state is possibly over extended. They have bought up some 77 other software companies and now manage the product. Employees at a trade show recently seemed to be uncomfortable with the changes
We acquired the former Truvi Commerce in 2021 and since then have invested millions of dollars into rewriting, improving, and adding to the platform. We now believe we have the strongest DTC all-in-one winery software. Transition to our software is a breeze since we do the transfer of your sales history, products, club members, notes, and more with our inhouse team and only once your test site looks perfect do we move your account to a live version. Monthly costs only begin at that point. We easily provide the smoothest switch to a new platform in the industry and provide true 24/7/365 phone support. All wineries regardless of size should see a demo of Bottle360 before choosing their solution if they are looking for intuitive software that helps them sell more wine and reduce labor waste.
Dan from Submatic here we have many clubs running on our platform that are using Square POS in the tasting room. Here are a couple of videos showing how it works:
Can I just say after using winery club software now for almost 2 years - and yes, I am a Luddite - that it’s not always as time efficient as we make it out to be. Because what happens in reality is this:
You forget how to use software and process the wine club with only 2 releases per year - so you have to get a refresher each time. Often this refresher needs a zoom call with the software guys to remind yourself of all the variables.
To put a new wine in, you have pages and pages of iterations and complexities - is it available only for Club, or both Club and POS? Is it limited release? Is it wishlist? Is it available in webshop? Is it free shipping? Discount? Red? White? Alcohol level? UPC code? SKU number? Endless stuff that cascades and affects other stuff. Easy to make a mistake and it gets very complex, very fast.
You still don’t have access to customers CC info, that’s hidden from you (at least in my software), so you can’t just process anything fast without having to go in, add a wine, rigmarole it to their basket, process it, make sure they get the discount and free shipping, etc. Then after that you still have to export it all to the shipping software. Many can do it internally, but I found that my dedicated shipping software is so much better than the built in one.
You get charged each month. And for some of these providers, it’s a lot of money, too. Plus they normally skim a bit off the top on the CC processing as well.
Here’s my takeaway - if you have a small winery with under 100 club members I would just keep it all manual on a secure Google Docs link on your website. It’s just so much quicker to have binder or Excel sheet with each customers deets in - you can quickly go in and change an order, add to a club, put notes in, etc. No need to relearn each time, no need to have delayed CC payments, no need for all these complexities.
Sure, you’re a big winery, it makes total sense. Nobody wants to process 1000’s of club shipments manually, but below 100, it really isn’t a big deal. Processing it manually is less time than relearning the software each time, guaranteed.
Technology for technology’s sake, isn’t always the answer.
I want to post a word of caution for anyone who is considering using vincipia/vinsipp. We have been using it for 2 or 3 years now and never had anything run smoothly. Very poorly programmed, incredibly glitchy and buggy. Yesterday it somehow charged some club members who had cancelled and been deleted from the membership database.
Considering using vinoshipper in the future but I am open to any recommendations. Looking to manage 200-600ish members