The Michael's On East Wine Cellar had built an impeccable reputation for its ability to bring unique, world-class wines to Southwest Florida's most discerning customers. Over the years, wine sales had grown steadily - keeping toe with the popular Michael's On East restaurant and catering divisions. Yet, its wine connoisseurs were limited to the geographic boundaries of Florida's Gulf Coast. To take the business to the next level, Wine Florida needed to migrate its services to an online storefront.
Our discovery process revealed that the wine cellar's brand was inextricably tied to the Michael's On East restaurant name. For true market expansion, it would need to stand on its own with an online presence that would engage and entice visitors who weren't familiar with the restaurant. First, we created the “Wine Florida” brand to reflect the eclectic, rare wines the store carried. The brand was the cornerstone for the new interactive solution with rich flash imagery, intuitive navigation and dynamic content. This innovative approach to online wine selling was topped with an e-commerce application that enabled customers to purchase and ship wine across the state. Not only did the new site make life easier for the connoisseurs purchasing wine, but it also gave Wine Florida staff the power to add and remove wines, manage special promotions and coordinate with their point-of-purchase system for full inventory management - all in real-time. The site's one-of-a-kind search function allowed users to locate wines based on variety, vintage, maximum and minimum price, keywords and country/state of cultivation.
After launching the site, WineFlorida.com traffic and sales outnumbered all previous figures. Online visitors reveled in the ease and convenience of discovering and purchasing an amazing assortment of wines from around the world - all from the comfort of their home. The site's ever-evolving specials, Bordeaux Futures sales, wine tasting tips and details about area wine events inspired users to keep returning. Offline branding initiatives also increased attendance at Wine Florida's wine tasting events. In just the first month, online wine purchases increased the wine cellar's previous annual revenue by more than 30 percent.
