New: Higher Protection Against Online Fraud with 3D Secure 2.0

WineDirect employs various security tools and protocols to help keep you and your customer's data safe. 3D Secure (3DS) is one of the security protocols we use specifically designed to protect customers from online payment fraud. 

We are happy to announce we have updated 3DS to version 2.0. This updated version will help to:

• Make payment processing even faster
• Minimize payment disruptions
• Bring additional smart fraud detection (to reduce card fraud)
• Expand authentication to American Express and Discovery cards

3DS 2.0 is now automatically enabled at the payment processor level. No action is needed if you are eligible.

Eligibility Requirements:

• Using WineDirect Payments
• Using V2 Checkout Tools

Not yet using WineDirect Payments? Sign up here.

For more information on 3DS, check out our documentation site here.

Update: WineDirect Platform Stability - First Half of 2022

Here at WineDirect, we are committed to platform stability because we understand how crucial continuous uptime is for your winery. From your website to point of sale, having reliable connectivity is critical for the day-to-day activities you rely on to sell DTC.

We are happy to share the summary report on uptime from our main four applications for the first half of 2022 (January - June):

“With the help of some key partners, we can bring 24/7 coverage to the WineDirect platform. We have spent the time to build automated alerting/reporting infrastructure to help us detect and respond fast. Enabling wineries to run their day-to-day activities knowing they can count on us to be one of the most stable platforms in the industry is really something we take seriously.” 

- Edwin Lo, WineDirect Product Owner

Thank you for trusting us with your critical operations. For the most up-to-date system status, check out the WineDirect Status page.

New Update: Credit Card Updater

We are thrilled to announce some significant updates for Credit Card Updater for Canadian and US wineries. 

For Canadian Wineries:

Credit Card Updater is now available for all Canadian Wineries. WineDirect's Credit Card Updater tool automatically updates your wine club members' expired, lost, or stolen credit cards. You can significantly improve your team's efficiency and make time for more valuable customer service activities by eliminating the hassle of multiple phone calls and emails.

For US Wineries:

Along with already working with Visa, Mastercard, and Discovery cards, we are excited to announce American Express (Amex) credit cards now work with Credit Card Updater. Enjoy smooth updates for all major credit cards without contacting the customer directly.

Eligibility Requirements:

• Available to all Canadian & US Wineries using WineDirect Payments

Not yet using WineDirect Payments? Sign up here.

For more information on Credit Card Updater, check out our documentation site here.

New: Colorado Retail Delivery Fee

Recently, the Colorado Department of Revenue introduced a Retail Delivery Fee - which comes into effect on July 1, 2022. Retailers, including wineries with a physical location in Colorado, or an out-of-state winery with retail sales into Colorado of more than $100k in a calendar year are required to collect and remit the retail delivery fee. Deliveries include when any taxable goods are mailed, shipped, or otherwise delivered by motor vehicle to a purchaser in Colorado. The retail delivery fee is due at the same time as your sales tax return. 

Below are answers to frequently asked questions: 

1. Does my business need to collect and remit the retail delivery fee? 

If your winery is located in Colorado, or you are an out-of-state winery with retail sales more than $100k into Colorado, then you will need to collect and remit the retail delivery fee.  

To determine if you are above the $100,000 per year threshold, you can: 

• Navigate to Reports 
• Click on Sales Summary by State 
• Set your date range in the top left. We recommend checking calendar year 2021 and then year-to-date for 2022 to see if you are above the threshold 
• Click Manage Filters and set the ship state to Colorado 
• View or export the report 

 

2. How do I find out how many "deliveries" I have made into Colorado for reporting and payment purposes?

If the retail delivery fee applies to your business, you need to remit $0.27 per order shipped.  Based on FAQ no. 12 on the Colorado Department of Revenue Taxation Department website.  

"The retail delivery fee is based on each sale to the customer. If a customer orders a number of items in a “cart”, and purchases all of the items at the same time, only one retail delivery fee is due regardless of how many deliveries are actually needed to complete the sale. Alternatively, if a customer orders a number of items and completes the purchase of each item at different times, the retail delivery fee is due on each sale, even if only one delivery is needed to complete the sale." 

WineDirect supports these reporting requirements - follow these steps for the best way to get the information you need to report and pay (when applicable): 

• Navigate to Reports>Sales>Orders by Ship/Pickup Date 
• Select the appropriate date range for the reporting period you will be paying taxes in 
• Click "Manage Filters" and use the following filters 
• Under "Date Type" select "Submitted Date" 
• Under "Ship States," click "Deselect All" then find and select only "Colorado" (Note that you will need to select "Add Filter" and check the box next to "Ship States" in order to see this filter) 
• Click View and take note of the item count listed at the bottom: ie: "Showing 1 - 50 of 292" would indicate that you have 292 shipping orders destined for Colorado in the given reporting period 
• Multiplying the quantity of orders noted in Step 4 by $0.27 each to determine your tax liability 

3. Do I need to present the Retail Delivery Fee on the invoice? 

The answer is: “not yet.”  CO DOR has stated the following regarding the requirement to present the retail delivery fee on invoices or receipts, based on FAQ no. 8: 

“...the Department currently has no plans to prioritize enforcement of this provision as long as retailers are paying the full amount of the fees due in accordance with their liability under section 43-4-605(6)(c), C.R.S.  Retailers who are temporarily paying the fees are advised to avoid statements indicating that the retail delivery fee will be assumed or absorbed or that it will not be added to sale as prohibited by section 39-26-108, C.R.S.” 

We will keep you posted on these developments as they evolve.  

For further information, check out this great up-to-date resource in the FAQs at the bottom of the Colorado Department of Revenue website. It states important details on who is impacted by this change, when the change is in effect, and when the department will begin to enforce the requirement to present the fee on the consumers invoice or receipt (they are delaying enforcement for now). Thank you.

New: WineDirect x Klaviyo Integration

While the current WineDirect platform offers email marketing, some wineries have asked for more advanced automation and segmentation abilities. We are happy to announce that Klaviyo – the leading email automation platform – is now available to be integrated with WineDirect stores. Leverage Klaviyo’s advanced email and SMS marketing automation and best-in-class segmentation tools to generate more sales on auto-pilot.

WineDirects mission as "The Winery's Champion" focuses on offering the best in class tools to wineries of all sizes. This includes looking outside WineDirect and ensuring our wineries have the ability to use the tools they need and reach their goals. We are excited to partner with our friends at Best Worlds – a Certified Klaviyo Systems Integrator and Master Partner – for them to build out this additional hosted service to support WineDirect customers. This integration is a paid feature created and hosted by BestWorlds, including the $250 cost to have Kalviyo and the included set-up fee.

Learn more about the WineDirect x Klaviyo integration here!

New: ATS Shipment Dropdown

If your winery is in Canada, you can now access ATS as a carrier in the shipment dropdown of your orders. This should save you significant time when shipping out wine orders - simply watch the video below to learn more:

>>Watch the demo here.

We are thrilled to roll out further improvements to Canadian wineries as we continue to refine and improve the tools you need. We look forward to continuing to support you and your DTC business.

Partner Spotlight: QuickBooks Online Integration

Exciting News! Our partner, WineGlass Integration Technology Solutions (WGits), is now offering a new online automated accounting solution for WineDirect clients. Save time, money, and stress reconciling your transactional data with this seamless, easy-to-use integration: Quick Books Online.

Key Benefits of QuickBooks Online:

• Significant time savings with the automatic integration
• Reduction of human error by reducing manual entry
• Easy bank reconciliation
• Access anywhere with an internet connection on a tablet or computer (no software required)
• Included top-notch support

• Available for both US & Canada

We had the pleasure to sit down with Dan from WGits to give us an overview of the integration, its main benefits for wineries, and some FAQs. Check out the video below to learn more:

Features Include:

• Customer name mapping
• Order class mapping
• Easier reconciliation
• Transaction dates
• Shipping charges and more!

Price: $250 set up fee and $99.99 / month (USD)

> Interested in learning more about QuickBooks Online? Contact WGits for a demo.

 

 

Already use QuickBooks or want to learn more about the integrations with WineDirect? Check out our documentation page.

New: Digital Gift Card Batch Processing

Good news! You asked about the ability to batch update digital gift cards and we listened. In the Gift Cards Actions menu of the gift cards page, there is now a new batch feature that can be used to alter any currently existing gift cards in the system.

Here, you can learn how to use this new feature and interact with gift card in your store.

How To Use Batch Gift Card Updater

1. In the Admin Panel, navigate to store > Gift Cards > Batch Update Gift Cards
2. Click Batch Update Gift Cards
3. Select "Download Gift Card Sample File"
4. Open the file in Excel

>>Read the full documentation here.

 

If you have any ideas about what you want to see from the WineDirect platform, please feel free to leave them on the Idea Form. Cheers! 🍷

All-New WineDirect Update

We are well into the discovery stage of this important project – doing the deep research necessary to fully scope the work to ensure that the All-New WineDirect platform will be everything our customers want it to be, and more. 

In addition to crucial research, we have scaled up the team, so we are properly resourced to meet the challenge of building the All-New WineDirect in the coming months. 

I recently met with Jim Agger, SVP Ecommerce to get a quick update on the newest developments with the All-New WineDirect platform. Watch the video below to get the latest. 

Corinna: Can you give us a refresher, what is the All New WineDirect? 

Jim: We are completely rebuilding our platform. All new architecture, all new infrastructure, all new code that will enable the next generation of DTC tools and services for wineries. 

Along the way we will bring best of breed partners together, like BigCommerce who brings world-class CMS, website design tools, shopping cart and third-party ecommerce integrations to the All-New WineDirect platform.   

Over the next few months, you will hear more announcements as we build out our partner ecosystem. 

Corinna: Can you talk about the recent milestones we have hit? 

Jim: Behind the scenes we have been scaling the product and engineering team, which will end up around 50 professionals working on this project. 

We have finalized the architecture, design and started building the foundational components of the All-New WineDirect platform, which has us on track to release our ecommerce-only functionality in mid- 2022. 

It's important to mention that we haven’t stopped working on the existing WD Platform. The past few months we really focused on stability and system performance and you could see that in action during the busiest Cyber Weekend across the WineDirect platform to date.

We have also completed the first phase of a rebuild of our wine club tools, which will be in public beta in January 2022.  This will be the first look at some of the design and automation you will experience in the All-New WineDirect. 

Corinna: One question we get a lot is “what do I need to do now”? How will the switchover happen from our current platform to the All-New WineDirect? 

Part of being The Winery's Champion is supporting you every step of the way. There isn't anything you need to do now. The key is that once it's time, we have a strategic plan in place to onboard folks who meet the technical criteria. We will support you in this endeavour and will support you to make it as simple as possible.

Corinna: What improvements can folks look forward to in the All-New WineDirect platform? 

Jim: One thing that won't change is the all-in-one nature of our system, which never sacrifices the 360 degree view of your customers.  

We will have the best, most flexible wine club and a consumer-focused Point of Sale system that is simple, reliable and elevates the consumer experience. 

With the new platform you can look forward to more marketing automation, better visibility across your entire business, the most flexible and highly converting webstore available, and a roster of integrated partners to help sell in new and exciting ways. 

In short, we are committed to using our experience, scale and unique vantage point in new ways to help our clients succeed by providing software, automation and services to attract, delight, nurture and retain consumers across multiple channels.

We take being the winery’s champion seriously, therefore, we will continue to have the industry’s best onboarding, training and support experience. We understand that you are in the hospitality business, and as such, require a higher level of service that a typical software company provides. Stay tuned as we continue work on this key initiative - we are so excited for what's to come!

Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2021 Performance

You did it! Your hard work drove sales to new heights for Cyber Weekend 2021. We’re excited to report that, for our clients, a 32% increase in orders across all channels drove revenue up 21% versus Cyber weekend 2020. Thanks to the infrastructure upgrades we've made to support your sales growth, you also experienced a 35% faster response time, even with much higher volume. WineDirect reported no downtime over Cyber Weekend.

2020 was an anomaly year for ecommerce, so we looked to 2019 data to benchmark. Cyber Weekend website sales are still 41% above pre-pandemic numbers, proving that much of the growth you fought so hard for in 2020 has lasted. Tasting rooms sales came back bigger than ever for Cyber Weekend 2021 - with a whopping 35% more tasting room sales than Cyber Weekend 2019. 

The lightning-fast transaction speed and stability you saw this week are the result of continued dedication to improving our architecture. These enhancements are just the beginning of what's in store as we we continue to build the All-New WineDirect platform.

WineDirect is here to support your winery through the remainder of the holiday season and heading into 2022. Congratulations on a hugely successful holiday sales weekend!