A Deeper Dive Into the Unpacking Experience in DTC Wine Sales

Retailers have known for decades that packaging represents an important touchpoint with consumers. This has lead to an entire field of package design, which has kept a massive army of designers and engineers employed and making ever-more-interesting boxes and displays. When it comes to DTC shipments, however, things are much more akin to the Wild West: Best practices are suggestions more than strict laws, […]

Opening More Than an Order: Unpacking the Brand Experience

A lot has been written about the effect that packaging has on the “brand experience.” Beyond package design, though, there is the mostly undiscovered territory of how the unpackaging event itself is a part of the customer experience. This represents another good opportunity for customer engagement. What is the difference between good packaging and unpacking? Packaging has mostly focused on elements of design: What are […]

The Convenience Revolution: An Interview with Shep Hyken, Customer Service and Experience Expert

Shep Hyken is the “CAO” (Chief Amazement Officer) of Shepard Presentations, and is a leading expert on the topic of excellent customer service and experience. As well as a nationally known keynote speaker, he is also author of several books on the topic, including The Convenience Revolution (Sound Wisdom, 2018). We recently reached out to Hyken to discuss customer service and experience in the wine […]

The 2019 Silicon Valley Bank State of the Wine Industry Report: DTC and the Wine Experience

The Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) State of the Wine Industry Report for 2019 is out, and making headlines. While there’s a lot of information in it and some rich analysis, we thought we’d “dive a little deeper” into those sections that specifically address DTC wine sales and, subsequently, wine shipping and logistics. The main takeaway we see is this: Wine is a luxury good where […]

How to Ensure a Successful Shipping Season in 2020 and Beyond

This time of year is when the wine industry usually plans for peak holiday shipping season (“OND”). In the past, we’ve given some helpful advice to wineries wanting to make this busy season as smooth as possible, especially for their DTC shipments. But we probably aren’t the first to tell you: 2020 is going to be a little different. That’s not to imply that the […]

What is eCommerce Doing to Our Environment? How Can the Wine Industry Help

Did you know that the month of July, 2019, was the hottest month on Earth ever since human beings have been keeping records? In fact, of the 10 hottest years on record, eight have happened in the past 10 years. (Only 2011 and 2012 missed being in the top 10.) Regardless of what your politics are, this should be disturbing, especially for the wine […]

7 Things to Consider Before Changing Your Wine Packaging

Because of consumer demand, packaging vendors are becoming much more creative with their craft these days. While we can appreciate the hard work that goes into some of these modern designs, there are a lot of economic issues to consider before using any new packaging to ship items to consumers. When we, a DTC wine shipper, talk about wine packaging, we are not necessarily talking […]