Landmark deal signed between CellarDirect and global wine e-commerce leader Commerce7

Cape Winelands – An agreement has been signed between CellarDirect, a division of Southern Skies Investment Holdings, and Commerce7 providing world leading wine e-commerce technology within South Africa’s leading end-to-end Direct-to-Customer (DtC) solution for the benefit of SA Wine Producers.

Group Managing Director of Southern Skies, Andrew Douglas says “Direct-to-customer sales are by far and away the most profitable sales channel for Wine Producers. The core focus of our activities right now is to expand the existing CellarDirect offering to equip and enable SA wineries with the necessary tools, training, business intelligence, support and logistics capabilities to optimise their DtC sales. Best-in-class wine e-commerce, cellar door and club software is key to this.”

President of Commerce7, Andrew Kamphuis added “Through the partnership with CellarDirect, Commerce7 will now be more accessible to wineries in South Africa. Enabling wine producers to own their customer relationships and increase DtC sales has always been Commerce7’s “reason for being” and of all the countries in which we operate, South Africa is a great opportunity given the relatively lower levels of DtC sales (as a % of sales channel) here compared to other new world wine regions.”

Douglas goes on to say “The Commerce7 partnership provides best-in-class e-commerce, cellar door & club software along with impressive performance reporting functionality for the next iteration of CellarDirect.  When bundled within CellarDirect’s new end-to-end solution that will now also include DtC coaching & learning, business intelligence, warehousing, fulfilment (pick & pack) and customer care we believe we provide a more compelling yet very affordable value proposition for wine producers to maximise their DtC sales.”

Whilst pricing for the bundled new CellarDirect offering is yet to be announced Douglas confirmed that costing for Wine Producers will remain more price competitive than any other solution currently in market with additional, unparalleled support and capability.

Douglas finished by saying “It’s incredibly difficult for wineries to build cost efficient end-to-end DtC solutions in isolation. We believe through the consolidation of key DtC elements and amortisation of associated costs we can create economies of scale to benefit our wine producers whilst ultimately delivering a better service to the end consumer…resulting in repeat business and increased sales.”

It is expected that existing CellarDirect Wine Producers will begin the transition to the expanded CellarDirect offering from January 2023.

Wine Producers looking for more information regarding CellarDirect’s new offering can get in touch at e: enquiries@cellardirect.co.za.

About CellarDirect

CellarDirect is SA’s most utilised independent Direct-to-Customer wine solution with up to 45 Wine Producers and brands using CellarDirect for their online wine sales and order processing.

In November 2022, CellarDirect announced the expansion of its offering to include business intelligence, digital marketing training and support, new high performance wine e-commerce, cellar door and club software provided by Commerce7, warehousing, fulfilment, and customer care capabilities.  The new offering will be launched in January 2023.

For more information visit cellardirect.co.za

About Commerce7

Commerce7 is a modern DtC platform for wineries focused on providing customer-centric commerce solutions. Innovative features including being 100% API based, a top shelf personalization engine and modern ecommerce and club tools has made it the platform of choice for over 1,400 wineries worldwide looking for a more cutting edge solution. Regardless of size, all clients on the Commerce7 platform have access to the entire suite of products, features, and functionality. 

For more information, visit commerce7.com.

About Southern Skies

Southern Skies’ primary objective is to enable South African wine producers to sell wine Direct-to-Customer.  E-commerce technology, marketing, business intelligence & logistics are at the heart of Southern Skies’ core DtC capability. 

Southern Skies has acquired and/or founded a number of complementary businesses to support its DtC objective including wine.co.za, cellardirect.co.za, wineshow.co.za, cybercellar.co.za, oorskotwyn.co.za and vintelligence.co.za.

Visit ssih.co.za for more information.