TechNO Expo

Nick Eian
President, Endurant Business Solutions, Eden Prairie

The Wine Company is a wine importer and distributor, and its customers are wine and liquor retailers and wholesalers, restaurants, and wine bars throughout Minnesota.

Although The Wine Company carries many wines from large vineyards, its owner Larry Colbeck is passionate about artisan wines made by small vintners and distributed regionally. It’s difficult for importers and ex-porters to introduce these wines to Minnesota markets. Colbeck wanted a Web site that would acquaint retailers with artisan wines that would appeal to Minnesota consumers.

Endurant’s first version of the Web site was essentially a catalog. Consumers could enter a zip code to find the name of Wine Company outlets closest to them, but could not buy on line. The number of hits on the site grew rapidly, and the sale of artisan wines increased, but Colbeck wanted hard evidence that consumers were asking for artisan wines.

In 2006, Colbeck began developing e-commerce channels for his customers and suppliers. The new site, artisanvineyards.com, is aimed at wine consumers—not to sell directly to them, but to influence their wine purchases. The Web site still sells through established distribution channels.

The online store provides retail partners with a “virtual wine cellar” that allows customers to interact with their favorite retailer. When a customer puts a bottle of wine in his shopping cart, he is automatically sent to what looks like the retailers’ own Web site, but in fact draws from The Wine Company’s online inventory. So retailers can sell from the entire inventory of Wine Company wines without a physical inventory in their stores. Wine can be picked up at a retailer or delivered directly to the buyer. In all scenarios, the retailer receives the same amount of money as it would from an in-store purchase.

Artisanvineyards.com is linked directly to The Wine Company’s enterprise resource planning system and its finance and accounting modules. Inventory records are refreshed daily. The site also provides a personal wine cellar for the wine consumer to record notes about wine selections and maintain an inventory of their wine.