TOP RETAILERS
Ecommerce Innovation at Bacchus
BY JAMIE STAFFORD
Bacchus Wine & Spirits has distinguished itself for having a unique location and personality . Situated within a butcher shop in Millbrae , CA , it provides a customer experience centered around the local community . Owner and founder Quinton Jay recalls how popular tastings are at the store . Drinks paired with different cuts of meat from the butcher shop allow customers a unique experience . Of course , this came to a halt with the onset of the pandemic , so Bacchus had to adapt quickly to an entirely digital environment . Ecommerce was the name of the game , but it wasn ’ t always that way .
Jay remembers ,“ To be honest , pre-pandemic , only 1 or 2 % of my business was online . So many of our customers wanted that in-person experience , so it wasn ’ t really necessary , up until , of course , the pandemic hit . Luckily , the POS system I used had an ecommerce module . I took all my employees and had them help populate the module with photos and product descriptions . Within six weeks , we had a full-fledged website up and running . I was amazed .”
Jay diversified his ecommerce strategy in a bid to stay relevant with consumers . “ We use ecommerce in two ways . First , we ’ re a fulfillment partner with Caskers in order to drive volume . And then we ’ re also building our customer base ourselves , through the shop .”
Ecommerce was able to thrive because change came rapid fire as everyone scrambled to catch up . Regulation , an area notorious for being slow and frustrating for the industry , had to evolve quickly in order to help businesses stay afloat .
“ Restaurants were allowed to start selling wine ," Jay says . " That opened Pandora ’ s box , as it were , because the lines have become quite blurred as a result . But I ’ ve also been a beneficiary of this . Before , the laws were quite draconian about where you could and couldn ’ t serve alcohol . During our tastings , I couldn ’ t even have people out on our patio . With the pandemic , all the gloves came off . I was even able to do tastings in the parking lot ! From that aspect , I ’ ve been able to expand Bacchus in that way , but I do think all those regulations that were relaxed will be pulled back . It ’ s just in the nature of regulators to pull back .”
While the shop has endured many changes and employed many ecommerce innovations over the past few years , as the pandemic began to abate , they had to return to familiar strategies . “ I ’ ve had to retrain my employees about becoming a retailer again ,” Jay says . “ We had to pivot back to being a brick-and-mortar business ; it was essentially starting over again .”
“ I had to look at my store and figure out what I was going to keep and what I was going to jettison ,” he adds . “ I looked at what was profitable and what was not .”
Profit is obviously the marker of success for a business . But when asked to define success within the industry , Jay was somewhat dismissive of the usual numbers game . “ My biggest thing is still having fun ," he says . " Once the business takes over your life and you don ’ t control it anymore , that ’ s unsuccessful . It ’ s also important to be able to employ great people .”
14 Beverage Dynamics • June 2022 www . beveragedynamics . com