Slurp News

Today sees the launch of a new campaign to show British companies and institutions how to use wine more creatively to deepen relationships with key customers and partners.

Slurp has produced a dedicated new mini-site (www.slurp.co.uk/corporate) and will launch an SEO/Press/Email campaign targeting 36,000 UK purchasing managers directly.  A new department has been created at Slurp’s London HQ to help corporates get more out of wine.

Slurp believes that many more companies could use wine gifting and wine-based loyalty programmes successfully.  In December 2011 Slurp ran a loyalty programme for a major retailer in which customers were sent a free bottle of Prosecco as a reward for spending a certain amount.  The campaign was a huge success and the retailer deepened its relationship with thousands of key customers very cost effectively.

Slurp is now actively pitching similar initiatives to a number of UK companies and agents. 

On top of this, Slurp was surprised in December 2011 by the level of seasonal corporate gifting requests.  These requests involved Slurp sending multiple hundreds of individual bottles and cases to customers all over the country.  Once again, the results were extremely positive with companies reporting very high satisfaction levels.  But Slurp questions why such initiatives are used only for one week in the year when the evidence suggests that they are effective year round.  Being a national and international delivery specialist, Slurp is especially well placed to execute such campaigns.

Slurp’s Head of UK Retail Services Emily Acha Derrington said that companies were often unaware of the possibilities:

“We need to get out there and really bang the drum on this.  Virtually everyone is delighted to receive a gift of wine from a company or organisation, and it can be a really cost effective gifting option in these straightened times.  But we need much more awareness of what the options are for companies.  Our campaign seeks to address this."

Slurp has become the first major UK wine retailer to make all its 6,000+ products 'pinnable' on Pinterest - the explosive new social media platform.  Slurp sees significant sales potential in Pinterest and has already created 25 ‘Boards’ through which to showcase its wines and other products: http://pinterest.com/slurpwine/.

As well as viewing Slurp’s own Boards - which show imaginative food and wine pairings on temptingly titled Boards such as ‘Moroccan Dinner’, ‘An English Wedding’, ‘Italian Summer Dinner’ or ‘Gin O’Clock’ - Slurp customers can now ‘pin’ Slurp products onto their own Boards.  These can then be shared with friends.

As well as offering fabulous contextualised presentations of Slurp’s favourite products, Slurp has also started using Pinterest for special promotions.  Slurp’s ‘Fine Wine Specials’ Board offers deeper pocketed customers amazing and often exclusive deals on fine wine products: http://pinterest.com/slurpwine/slurp-fine-wines-special-offers/.

Pinterest has shot to prominence as its referral traffic has eclipsed that of giants like Facebook and Google.  Pinterest lets users to grab little bits of web content and arrange (‘pin’) them on personal 'Boards'. These Boards are then shared and hence popular products / offers etc. can spread virally across the internet.

Slurp's e-marketing Manager Emily Acha Derrington explains how Pinterest has the potential to eclipse both Twitter and Facebook as a genuine driver of wine sales:

"In terms of wine, Twitter has descended into an interminable (and often pretty dull) conversation between the wine trade and itself.  And on Facebook, people are generally more interested in sharing social experiences than buying things.  But Pinterest offers something different, linking social and commercial in an appealing way.  We have already been surprised at the uptick of traffic to products showcased on our Boards.”

Today Slurp announced that its ‘SlurpVision’ video channel has passed 100 tasting videos. To celebrate its emergence as a major platform supporting online sales, SlurpVision has been given new home page prominence on Slurp’s main global websites

SlurpVision is presented and run by Victoria Daskal with the help of a dedicated film and editing team. Although only six months old, the channel has already attracted 17,800 upload views and has nearly 300 subscribers.

SlurpVision combines wine education with a strong commercial rationale. Many of the videos give an informational and practical assessment of the products being promoted by Slurp. They give the viewer a deeper insight into the wine, beer or spirit – complete with a QR code linking to the Slurp website. They have been shown to materially boost sales, and SlurpVision tasting note videos are now routinely embedded into Slurp marketing emails. Slurp believes that words and photos are no longer enough to excite consumers and the company plans to use tasting videos in support of all major marketing campaigns in 2012.

Victoria Daskal explains the thinking further:

“The idea behind SlurpVision was to introduce consumers to the winemakers who make their favourite wines, explain common wine terms and discover the key regions one video at a time. The response has been amazing. We have produced videos with celebrated winemakers such as Peter Gago (Penfolds) and Serge Hochar (Chateau Musar) as well as interviewed leading critics like Steven Spurrier and Tim Atkin MW. We have created a number of themed videos promoting specific regions such as English, Indian, Languedoc and Washington wines. We have filmed tasting videos of scores of wines that have gone on to become big sellers on Slurp”.

Having demonstrated the success of the idea in the UK, Slurp is rolling out the service to its Asian customers – SlurpVision is today being embedded on the Slurp.asia homepage for the first time featuring a video on what to drink on Chinese New Year. Slurp believes that the thirst for wine knowledge and education is huge amongst Chinese consumers, and a series of Chinese subtitled videos are being planned for the first half of 2012.

Leading international online wine company Slurp stepped up its international expansion today with the launch of Slurp.asia. Slurp.asia is headquartered in Hong Kong but will serve customers across the Asia Pacific region. The Slurp.asia website will offer a selection of high quality wines from across the world - priced in HK$ - and fulfilled from Slurp’s Asian logistics hub in Hong Kong. Over time, Slurp.asia will offer a range of spirits and specialist beers alongside a comprehensive wine list encompassing everything from the most expensive investment wines through New World drinking options.

Slurp.asia aims to replicate the success of the Slurp.co.uk brand in the UK – where the company has carved out a very successful niche offering a very wide range of products with competitive pricing, great online selection tools and no minimum order requirements. Although the Asian range will initially be smaller than Slurp’s 7,000+ UK products, the same commitment to choice and ease of ordering will be paramount.

Slurp.asia will be run by Managing Director Tom Chamberlain. Tom is about to complete a WSET Diploma and has made wine in both Australia and the USA. Tom will oversee all aspects of customer service and procurement. Products will be sourced locally, with some fine wines being offered direct from Slurp’s London bonded facilities.

The launch of Slurp.asia represents a mini triumph of British software engineering. Slurp technicians have designed a single software platform that allows all customer, sales, products and inventory data to be managed across different websites in different countries (with checkouts in different currencies) using just one web-based system. It is this platform that will now facilitate the rapid expansion of Slurp brands in multiple countries over the next 12 months.

Slurp has unveiled a huge brand overhaul – the result of 6 months of market research and client consultation. All of our 10,000+ pages have been completely re-designed.  The result (we hope!) is a platform that is lighter, brighter, easier to navigate with loads of additional features.

The new site has:

•     A lighter and brighter design on every page.
•     Re-designed homepage with clearer and more impactful scrolling promotions.
•     New Drop-Down Menus introduced and internal navigation re-organised.
•     Cork Point balances shown in Customer Baskets.
•     Checkout overhauled and simplified.
•     New one click ‘re-order’ function in Account Management section
•     New ‘Mini Homepages’ introduced for Fine Wines, Beers and Spirits.
•     New separate and dedicated Twitter feeds for:  Fine Wine, Beers and Spirits.
•     SlurpChat incorporated into every page. Social media sharing on all products.
•     SlurpVision tasting videos embedded into Product home pages.
•     A Fine Wines trading platform with scrolling ticker (WineTrader).

In order to engage Slurpers with the new site we are this week offering FREE DELIVERY on all purchases and we are entering anyone who buys from us this week into a grand draw to win a £300 case of wine (announced on Sunday at 10pm).

There will also be a major social media campaign on Facebook and Twitter to promote the new site – as well as a communication to all Slurp customers.

Please let us know any thoughts, comments or feedback … we would really appreciate it.  The new platform is a major step forward in Slurp’s quest for market leadership in dedicated online wine, beer and spirit sales in the UK.

Slurp has been nominated for the second year running for International Wine Challenge's prestigious 'Direct Merchant of the Year' award for 2011.

Slurp is delighted to be nominated again for this award and we are grateful to IWC for their recognition of what we have done to improve the quality of online service in the UK.

We are especially flattered by the fact that Slurp is the only small company on the shortlist.  Of the other nominated companies, three are large and established national icons (Berry Bros. & Rudd, Laithwaites and Wine Society) and one (Naked Wines) is owned by one of Europe's largest wholesalers (WIV Wein International AG). 

So truly it will be David against four Goliaths at the awards ceremony in London in September!

Last week Slurp.co.uk took a stand against two elements of Bordeaux en primeur ‘tradition’ that have long been bugbears of UK wine buyers.

For several years now many UK fine wine merchants have forced customers seeking Lafite and Duhart Milon to purchase quantities of Château Rieussec at the same time.  Still other merchants have priced Rieussec at a level vastly above its price on the wholesale market.  Slurp believes both practices are out-dated against customer interests.  Last week Slurp broke ranks and offered Rieussec free of any ties and at a price reflecting only a reasonable mark up on the wholesale price.  This led to Slurp offering Rieussec 2010 at prices ranging from £250 - £295 a case when some merchants were (and still are) quoting prices of almost £500.
 
Slurp published an in-depth Investment Research note explaining how and why it was pricing and distributing Rieussec (full report).  The report noted that because négociants were tying allocations of Lafite and Duhart to Rieussec the Sauternes being anonymously dumped in the market at prices up to 60% less that the release price of €48 a bottle (this for one of Sauternes most venerable and desirable producers).  Slurp has been (to our knowledge) the most active secondary market buyer of Rieussec from négociants and UK merchants alike - and its customers have benefitted accordingly.  Slurp has sold a multiple three figure number of cases in just the first five days of its campaign.
 
Slurp’s Chief Executive Dr Jeremy Howard explained the company’s stance:
 
“If something looks wrong and feels wrong it doesn’t matter to us whether it is ‘established practice’ or not.  As a new company we are outside the ‘en primeur establishment’ and hence think independently.  Where we see an opportunity to help our clients buy a great product at a fair price we are going to seize it.  If it means breaking ranks with the traditionalists then so be it.  Our relationships with négociants are important to us, but just because they are asked to do something by a producer does not mean we as a merchant have to follow suit.”    
 
Slurp is not alone in its view that some en primeur practices are now out-dated and no longer working in customers’ interests.  In her Financial Times column this weekend the UK’s leading wine writer Jancis Robinson wrote a withering critique of the 2010 campaign, specifically referring to the exasperation caused by “Bordeaux negociants’ attempts to bundle less desirable wines with the most sought-after.” (see article, July 9-10th)

ENDS.