ACME FINE WINES
When is a commerce platform more than a commerce platform?
How Offset Commerce helped ACME Fine Wines reimagine the possible and grow more profitable
ACME Fine Wines in St. Helena, California is more than a premier fine wine retailer. Founded in 2003, ACME is a beloved institution and one of the great ambassadors and evangelizers for American wine. Their sustained success stems from lasting bonds with loyal customers and winemakers who know and trust ACME will introduce their brand with thoughtfulness and care.
When ACME approached Offset Commerce, they struggled with a legacy e-commerce platform that necessitated a large administrative and sales team dedicating countless hours to manual entry across platforms that were not integrated. For ACME, the upshot of all this was frustration, hesitation to grow, and never enough time in the day to put a dent in the mountain of tasks each order, subscription, or allocation required.
ACME's new location in the heart of downtown St. Helena.
“[Before Offset] We were crippled by the time it took to do any of our ‘behind the scenes’ work. As we grew, each salesperson had to ring in their own orders, start to finish. It was very manual. Salespeople aren’t selling; they’re doing a lot of busy work. It took the dopamine hit of a sale away completely.”
Karen Williams, ACME Fine Wines
Today, ACME looks much different.
A team of 3 oversees a business that is more profitable AND more enjoyable. With the blessing of founder Karen Williams, managing director Liz Murray led the transition to Offset Commerce, and together, we revolutionized their business.
“Dare I say, it’s life changing what we’ve been able to accomplish with the software Offset provides.”
Karen Williams, ACME Fine Wines
In the world of fine wine and high net-worth clients, anticipatory service and seamless customer experiences are what counts
Offset Commerce did not just migrate ACME’s customer data and inventory, we developed custom integrations across platforms to sync ACME’s commerce with their digital marketing (Klaviyo) and their new external fulfillment partner (Sherwin Wine Services).
Real-time harmony across these platforms enabled ACME to engage in more targeted and tailored communication, reduce order processing time, keep clear records of order modifications, and ship wine to customers faster than they ever had.
Every commerce provider says they focus on the customer experience, but if your platform does not work in concert with marketing, compliance, and fulfillment, then the customer experience suffers.
“It used to take me 2 weeks to process our club orders. Now it takes me 4 hours”
Liz Murray, ACME Fine Wines
For many years, ACME’s well-deserved reputation and its digital presence were misaligned
While Offset’s roster of custom websites is deep, ACME offered a welcome challenge. Their chief requirements were their volume of SKUs, multiple sales channels (open cart, subscription, allocation, and in-store POS), and in-depth product descriptions.
A collaborative, but streamlined approach yielded a modular website with light design and tech customizations that aligned ACME’s digital presence with its stellar reputation. Most importantly, Offset’s CMS has allowed ACME to update its website consistently and successfully for 18+ months without assistance or development hours from Offset. Our content management system allowed ACME’s team to lean into technology, not become subservient to it.
ACME's website mirrors their impeccable personal service and curation.
“A great website on a great commerce platform is a 24-hour salesperson. That’s what we have now.”
Karen Williams, ACME Fine Wines
ACME Fine Wines enters its third decade healthier and more profitable than ever
With a technology partner that allows ACME’s St. Helena Showroom to be “Open by Appointment or by Chance,” Karen, Liz, and Carina have time for the inspiring moments that lured them to the wine business to begin with. Visits to vineyards, lunches with clients, and time to dream up exciting ideas about sharing great wine with passionate people are all part of ACME’s new reality.
Product pages customized to reflect their deep relationships and insights on the wines they carry.
“Now we have time for relationships. It’s changed the entire complexion of the business.”
Karen Williams, ACME Fine Wines
FAQs
How did Offset Commerce help ACME improve operations and profitability?
Offset’s expertise in e-commerce solutions for the fine wine category played a pivotal role in transforming ACME Fine Wines’ operational efficiency and profitability. Our technological framework and collaborative approach redefined ACME’s capabilities, improved the customer experience, and streamlined the business.
How did Offset Commerce help ACME reduce its staff by 70%?
As a modern e-commerce platform that is purpose-built for wineries and fine wine retailers, we understand the specific needs of our customers. Even without integrations and customizations, Offset Commerce’s incorporation of customer preferences, shipping and tax tables, and a host of other capabilities, ACME went from 25 minutes to create and process an order to less than 5 minutes. The time required to process ACME’s important club orders was reduced from 80 hours to 4!
How did Offset Commerce help ACME externalize inventory and fulfillment?
Custom integration with an off-site inventory and fulfillment partner allowed ACME to reduce its required square footage and move its showroom into a more desirable location in downtown St. Helena. The custom integration also dramatically reduced order picking and shipping times, ensuring customers received their wine sooner.
How did Offset Commerce help ACME optimize its digital marketing?
Through a custom integration with Klaviyo, Offset Commerce empowered ACME Fine Wines to utilize data-driven marketing strategies. They created targeted marketing campaigns that resonated with their audience by analyzing customer purchase history and preferences. The integration synced Offset Commerce’s sophisticated CRM with its multi-channel digital marketing platform.
How did Offset Commerce improve ACME’s SEO?
ACME’s commitment to robust and valuable product descriptions gives them a serious leg-up from an SEO perspective. Offset Commerce structured ACME’s new website to improve its search engine ranking. On a deeper level, creating new, customized product description fields allows web crawlers to draw even more connections across the internet, pointing more queries toward ACME.
How we did it
Offset Brand Studio