August 10, 2010 | E-Commerce, Marketing | Andrew Kamphuis

How Wine Tasting Network Increased Club Reorders by 255%

It's always great when we hear or see our clients dedicating time and resources to marketing and testing their wine e-commerce store. Tweaking store content, optimizing email promotions, and general testing can take your e-commerce sales to the next level.

Our client/partner Wine Tasting Network (WTN) is a company we love working with because of the amount of testing they do. They gave us permission to share one of their most recent tests including the results. WTN has a few websites on our platform including Geerlings and Wade. Club members can reorder wine from their club shipment and receive 20% off if they purchase $200 or more. The director of marketing, Kristina Palko recently conducted a test to see if highlighting/reminding club members of this discount would increase reorders.

Creative for May VIP Package Insert

Starburst On June Newsletter

Objective

The object is to increase reorder revenue from Passport Wine Club members.

Strategy

With the May club shipment, WTN included a printed VIP card with the standard 20% off club member discount.
With the June club shipment, WTN included the same offer but this time it was in the form of a dollar amount ($50 off $250 or more). It was given an increased presence in the newsletter and there was no VIP card. (A starburst was placed on the newsletter to highlight the 20% off.)

Results

Club member purchases in May/June increased 255% over club member purchases in January, February and March. The average order value also rose 18%.
While the number of orders in May and June for each offer was the same, the average order value for the VIP card insert program was a whopping 66% higher ($261 versus $435).

Next Steps:

Test a dollar offer versus a percentage offer to see if the average order size is directly related.

Here are a few of my takeaways for wineries:

Offer club members an easy way to re-purchase the wines in their club shipment.
Measure often (WTN knows how well their offers perform by measuring every single month). Also note that they have a baseline to gauge against (They know the data from Jan, Feb, March).
Measure multiple variables (WTN knows the average order value as well as the number of orders).
Always be retesting (WTN has laid out a path of what to test next based on the past results).
A simple reminder like a VIP package insert may help to increase reorders and order value.

Thank you WTN (specifically Chris Edwards for allowing us to post your test on our blog, and Kristina for running and tracking tests like these).

Comments

Mike Duffy

@ Aug 10, 2010 at 11:07 PM

http://blog.winerywebsitereport.com/

Great post, Andrew. Thanks for some real-life results.

Tim Duggan

@ Aug 11, 2010 at 11:32 AM

Although I agree with several of your takeaways, I think that the results of this test and the gist of the post are a bit misleading. If measurement is important, don't we have to do away with touting % increase without explaining the sample size or gross results? An increase of 255% is less impressive if the offer went to 5000 customers and the response rate went from 20 to 51, than if it went to 1000 and the response rate went from 200 to 510.

Also, most wine-sales professionals would have to question the efficacy of comparing January-March reorders with April-May reorders, considering factors like the normal buying patterns of wine, weather concerns for shipments, etc.

Please keep bring us real stories from the front lines, but maybe a bit more analysis is in order.

Andrew Kamphuis

@ Aug 11, 2010 at 11:49 AM

http://www.vin65.com

Tim, thanks for your comments.

I agree that having more data posted would be nice. WTN invests a considerable amount (both time and money) testing their e-commerce and I'm thankful they gave us permission to talk about this test. (Most clients spending money on tests, don't let us talk about them). I assure you that the end dollars and numbers are significant.

Also you are right that comparing Jan-Mar with May-June isn't a great scenario. It would be better to split the club in half and send half of them the offer, and the other half no offer.