Direct Wines, the online wine retailer, has deployed cloud-based planning, promotion, forecasting and fulfilment software from Predictix, to improve alignment between marketing, planning, merchandising and supply chain operations.
UK-based Direct Wines sells more than 40 million bottles a year to 750,000+ customers in Australia, Hong Kong, and Germany as well as the UK and via partners in the US. It is an omni-channel business, selling via catalogue, online and through an estate of retail stores under the Laithwaites brand. It also provides wine clubs to customers of The Wall Street Journal, Zagat, Virgin and the Sunday Times.
The retailer generates high sales volumes for products that are often produced in limited quantities by brand or vintage, and then sold individually or in a multitude of mixed cases. This, together with dynamic and sophisticated direct marketing, created the need for a particularly flexible solution that enabled the company’s supply chain to respond in real-time to changes in actual and anticipated demand.
It turned to Predictix for a suite of cloud-based applications covering: merchandise financial planning; creating and managing mixed wine offers; promotion planning; offer planning; and demand planning.
“Predictix has helped us start to break down the walls and eliminate the silos between marketing, merchandising and supply chain,” said Direct Wine’s chief executive officer Simon McMurtrie.
“For the first time, we have an end-to-end solution that fits our unique business model. We set a number of ambitious goals for this initiative, and it has been a great team effort between Direct Wines and Predictix.”
It reckons it now has better alignment between marketing, planning, merchandising and supply chain operations, with a structured approach to range planning and the ability to plan offers that will meet revenue targets in the overall marketing plan.
“Direct Wines also has greater visibility into forecasted demand and projected stock requirements across all channels. This will help drive greater inventory efficiency and reduce the need for case and SKU substitution by ensuring that Direct Wines’ buyers purchase the right wine in the right quantities at the right time on a global basis.”
