Fix: XML Errors

If you encounter a blank XML or invalid XML error when calling Web Services, please retry your calls at later time. Thank you for your patience and understanding as we continue work in 2021 on platform stabilization improvements.

Fix: Checkout Completion for Some Australian Wineries

If your winery is located in Australia, you may have noticed your consumers experiencing intermittent errors when trying to purchase wine on your website. In some cases, consumers were hit with error messages upon submitting their web order, preventing them from completing the checkout process.

Our team identified the issue and worked tirelessly to fix it. Thank you for your patience.

 

Now: California Sales Tax Change for Marketplaces

You may have heard of a recent change to the California state statute for 3rd Party Marketers and wineries using their services. Essentially, the obligation to collect and remit sales tax for sales to consumers using 3rd Party Marketers will now shift from the winery “seller” to the marketplace.  This means our marketplace partners will start remitting California sales tax for orders originating from their platform. Vivino will be starting that remittance effective May 1st, so we are outlining a couple of simple steps for orders to ensure tax collection continues to run smoothly

Tax Disbursement

As part of our monthly disbursement process, WineDirect will be disbursing the sales tax amounts to our partners (ie. Vivino) and no longer passing those onto the winery, specifically only for California destination orders. You will see this in the form of a debit as a part of your statements, so that the tax amount is deducted from our total disbursement amount.

Tax Reporting with ShipCompliant Integration

Since our partners will remit California taxes on sales to consumers made through their platforms, you will need to ensure that these California destination orders are not included within your California reports. 

For wineries integrated with ShipCompliant this will require changing the status of the orders in ShipCompliant, from ‘Shipped’ to ‘In Process’, and the removal of the tracking number on those same orders. We have confirmed this with ShipCompliant's support as the best way to exclude those orders from your tax forms. This can be done either one by one in the ShipCompliant portal, or in bulk. The bulk option is by downloading the orders in ShipCompliant, changing their status & removing tracking numbers, and then reuploading the file. This update would need to occur the first of the month to effect prior month.

We will be working to automate this step, so you will not have to take these actions in the future.  We will keep everyone updated once timing for this automation has been determined.

Tax Reporting for those WITHOUT ShipCompliant Integration

Since our partners will remit California taxes on sales to consumers made through their platforms, you will need to ensure that these California destination orders are not included within your California reports.

For wineries that use one of the reports or obtain the data via an integration for your compliance filing, your compliance expert will have all the data that they need to determine how to deal with those orders.  While not exclusive, some possibilities are simply to delete the California orders, or bulk upload all the orders and then modify California orders so they do not count towards the tax calculation.  This process would need to be completed by the first of each month to effect prior month.

We would recommend that you talk to your compliance expert prior to taking any action in order to cover additional details that may be required. 

Fix: SiteAdmin Backend Permission Checks

As part of our ongoing commitment to security and PCI Compliance standards, we have recently identified a deficiency in the enforcement of our admin roles that temporarily allowed a Basic Admin User to edit or delete the profiles of Domain and Master Admins. We quickly worked to implement a patch and added an additional layer of security to prevent this in the future.

No action is needed from you, we have rolled this update out across the platform successfully on May 24th. Thank you for your understanding.
 

New Offer: Enolytics Helps Turn Data into Action

What should Wineries be doing post COVID-19 closures? Embrace Data!

Here we are in May, over a year since COVID-19 shut everything down and finally, in most areas, the world seems to be slowly opening up. For wineries, this is excellent news as guests once again venture out to enjoy the in-person winery experience. And what’s really exciting is that many wineries are entering spring/summer 2021 with a whole new set of tools learned over the past year. Wineries are embracing digital marketing in so many forms – social media, email marketing, paid search, online advertising – all designed to engage with consumers and drive them to websites (or into tasting rooms) to buy wine. The next few months we’re going to see wineries perform a delicate balancing act as we return to the land of in-person visitation while working hard not to forget about our new-found digital friends who have been supporting us over the past year.

One thing that will help wineries continue to thrive both in ecommerce and on-site activities is data. Acquiring new consumers is getting to be increasingly expensive as competition increases. Using your own existing data to understand and engage with consumers is an incredibly effective way to maximize your winery marketing efforts. Think of it from your own perspective as a consumer. What is more effective at driving you to purchase something? A generic email showcasing wines that you’re unfamiliar with or clearly don’t appeal to you? Or a personalized email that is addressed to you (properly!) and features wines that you know and love? Maybe the email even references a recent purchase you’ve made and provides a recipe for an appetizer that pairs amazingly with the wine. Or perhaps it’s a note from the Winemaker just to check in to see how you enjoyed the wine? To be able to do these things you need good data and you need to know what to do with it.

I know what you’re thinking – who has the time? Resources? Knowledge? We are all out here trying to sell wine. Completely understandable. This is why Cathy Huyghe and the team at Enolytics, have been working to solve for this problem. Enolytics takes your winery data from within the WineDirect system and creates simple to navigate (as Cathy says “It’s designed for wine people, not just data people!”) reports and dashboards from which wineries can find the data that is most important to them to help guide decision-making. The ability to perform customer segmentation and data cleansing is just the beginning. With Enolytics, wineries benefit from advanced reporting for immediate results, and support resources available 24/7. 

Enolytics are generously offering a special incentive for WineDirect clients: a 30-day free trial and zero set up fees along with a 15% discount on the first year’s subscription. This offer is good through September 6, 2021. Set up is fast and easy and the team at Enolytics will walk you through the whole thing. Click here for more information.

Fix: Database Index for POS

We have recently deployed a database index that fixed an inefficiency within Loyalty Points. On May 8th, this caused POS users to be unable to log in for a couple of hours. Those who were able to log in experienced a very slow response.

This permanent fix has patched the inefficiency and POS users will be able to interact with the app as usual. We apologize for the impact to your business and will continue to monitor POS as we move into busy tasting season.

 

Fix: Masked Credit Card Numbers

At WineDirect we take security very seriously and adhere to PCI compliance standards for the storing, processing, and transmission of credit card data and cardholder information. With our most recent security upgrade, we have now deployed a new layer of security to ensure masked credit cards remain private, with only the last four digits visible for order verification purposes. 

No action is needed from you - we are continuing our security upgrades to ensure the most secure platform for you and your consumers. Thank you.

 

Fix: Credit Card Updater Tool

If your winery uses WineDirect Payments Credit Card Updater Tool, you may have noticed your cards weren't getting updated. Our team has now implemented a fix to ensure your club members cards continue to update every 40 days.

There was a little backlog catching up on processing updates to cards between Feb 11 and April 28. We have now  updated all cards previously in the queue.

Thank you for your patience as we continue to monitor this process to ensure you're back on track for your next club run.

Exploring the WineDirect Academy

Just over a month ago, you got access to the WineDirect Academy - a free online training portal to master WineDirect's robust toolset. With a new 'Mastering Emails' course recently added, I sat down with Ben Kraemer to chat about the Academy and dive into what you need to know to get the most out of this exciting new offering.

 

To get started, simply create an account for free, choose which courses benefit you and then complete the modules. If you've already signed up, you can continue learning from where you left off. We think you'll love the new Academy, but don't take our word for it:

"I am loving it! I think the Academy is so great. This is fresh and in real time and feels very current. They segments are short and to the point. I know I will get a ton of use out of it." - Nancy Dunsmore, Ex Nihilo Vineyards

We are excited to support you on your journey of mastering WineDirect's robust tools. Stay tuned for even more new modules soon!

New: Live Chat for DTC Pro and DTC Advanced

If your U.S.-based winery is on the new DTC Pro or DTC Advanced plan, you now have access to enhanced support with live chat functionality and help from our senior Support Specialists. This team is made up of the people who know WineDirect best, and are dedicated to giving you a quick and thorough response, leveraging their collective knowledge and new tools like live chat. 

Haven't used our chat feature yet? Check out our Resource Kit with steps for accessing chat, as well as other tips for reaching WineDirect and our partners. Of course, you can always connect with us by emailing support@winedirect.com or calling 800-819-0325 too.

We’ve also launched WineDirect Academy, an on-demand educational resource that you can access for free - anytime, anywhere. We encourage you to check it out so you and your team can take full advantage of the platform’s robust toolset.

The Client Success Team is here for you seven days a week, with ample coverage during business hours, ready to assist when it's convenient for you. We are always happy to help!