This thing is happening in waves, isn’t it?

Consumer responses, that is, to the current Shelter In Place (SIP) orders.

First there was the wave of stocking up, as wine consumers faced the challenge of an uncertain future by bringing in “supplies.”

Now there’s the wave of “settling in place” (another SIP), as those consumers get used to the current reality partly by establishing routines and partly by exploring both the challenges and the opportunities of new standards for wine purchasing and communication.

The next wave is TBD. We don’t know the shape of it yet, but we’re fairly certain the post-pandemic reality will be a “new normal” for wine commerce everywhere.

There’s a lot of uncertainty within those three waves.

But wineries aren’t powerless in riding the waves, and we want to help you navigate.

By “we” I mean colleagues at WineDirect and Sovos ShipCompliant, as we team up for a webinar next Thursday, April 30 called “Post-Pandemic Planning: Customer Engagement for the Road Ahead.”

“It’s increasingly clear that we will not be returning to the previous status quo anytime soon, especially when it comes to tourism and hospitality,” said Adrienne Stillman, Marketing Director at WineDirect. “We may not know exactly what’s coming, but the more prepared we can be for a variety of outcomes the better. I look forward to discussing some of the key digital trends and tools wineries can leverage in the months to come to keep their customers engaged and their businesses thriving.”

You can read the full description here of the webinar but please know that it’ll be timely and useful for all wineries engaged in direct shipping. “The time is now to think about how to make the most of customer relationships that are changing and growing going forward," said Sovos ShipCompliant's Alex Koral, "and how to stay compliant all the while to maximize your winery’s success."

The reason I’m personally so psyched about it?

It will equip wineries with information, and information is a powerful, stabilizing tool against the vertigo of these waves of uncertainty.

Enolytics' specific contributions to the conversation will be about identifying at-risk customers, the relative value of current vs prospective customers, cleaning "bad" data, and segmenting by age, gender and geography for better personalization of communication.

I hope very much that you’ll join us. Thank you in advance for that and, as always, for reading these newsletters and sharing this experience as wine + data continues to evolve.

Stay safe, stay healthy —

Cathy