Shipping bottles of wine is trickier than many consumers might think, says Andrew Walleck, chief operating officer at Wine Access Inc.
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Beyond the obvious risk of glass breakage, he says, other hazards include “light strike,” in which light exposure can damage wine. Too much vibration during transport and exposure to the wrong temperatures also are potentially harmful.
“It’s a surprisingly temperamental product,” Walleck says. And he’s dealing with those shipping nuances in a temperamental year for online retailers planning out their holiday fulfillment strategies.
Elevated fuel prices, turmoil in supply chains and U.S. inflation at a 40-year high have added extra layers of complexity to ecommerce.
Online retailers are adjusting their operations, looking to squeeze out greater efficiency as the cost of receiving inventory and fulfilling orders continues to rise. Another key priority is finding ways to deliver goods to customers without contributing to climate change.
Wine Access ramps up fulfillment efficiency
In the case of Wine Access, managing fulfillment costs means changing its approach to shipping inventory between its West Coast and East Coast warehouses.
Each week, Wine Access sends trucks cross-country to put wine closer to customers. So, when a customer in Maine orders a California wine, the order is first picked up on the West Coast and trucked across the country to the East Coast warehouse. From there, Wine Access ships the order to the customer using United Parcel Service Inc. or FedEx Corp.
Walleck says Wine Access used to routinely make those cross-country shipments in trucks that were 70% to 80% full. Currently, Wine Access prioritizes full utilization, even though it means the retailer must occasionally skip a weekly shipment to keep the trucks full.
Also, the retailer now imports several containers of wine from the European Union each month. Those larger shipments from Wine Access’ suppliers help keep transfer trucks fully utilized shipping wine between warehouses. Wine Access also incentivizes its customers to make fewer, bigger orders.
Encouraging larger orders
“We have recently rolled out a feature called As You Go that helps customers fill a 12-pack case of wine and have it ship when they are ready. This improves the customer experience — fewer deliveries to manage — and simplifies our supply chain,” Walleck says.
Customers using the new option can buy any bottle and ask Wine Access to hold it for 30 days, or until the order reaches the retailer’s $150 free ground-shipping threshold. Purchase any bottle, and you won’t be charged for shipping at checkout. Instead, the company will hold your wine for 30 days or until your order reaches $150. Once you hit the new $150 threshold, you’ll choose your delivery date — and you won’t pay a cent for shipping.
Despite favorable currency exchange rates that make it easier to buy from overseas, the overall cost of doing business is sharply higher in 2022 than in the recent past, Walleck says. Industry-wide, the rates for using overseas shipping containers are up four-fold from what they were two years ago, and fuel prices are nearly double what they were a year ago, he says.