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THE RECIPE FOR ECOMMERCE SUCCESS
by KRYSTINA SKIBO
A decade ago, all you needed was a website to stand out online. There was no requisite for chatbots or fancy digital cart features, and SEO was still a new concept that businesses were in no rush to figure out.
Fast forward to today, and the ecommerce market has never been more competitive. Now, AI chatbots are welcoming you to almost every website you visit and proper SEO usage is a must. Without a specified team dedicated to keeping your site up to date, you might as well not even exist online.
The Coveo 2024 Commerce Industry Report found that 91 % of consumers expect the online buying experience to be better than, or equal to, the traditional in-store experience. That’ s a huge percentage of shoppers with high expectations.
And because the competition is so fierce, if consumers encounter any problems with your website or can’ t find what they’ re looking for, they’ ll simply go somewhere else.
Beverage Dynamics spoke with a handful of on- and off-premise retailers who are succeeding at ecommerce to see what they’ re doing right.
PAIRING ONLINE EXPERIENCES WITH SALES
Heritage Distilling’ s CEO Justin Stiefel says the first thing retailers should pay attention to when looking to boost ecommerce sales is to focus on your margins.
“ You have to really focus on premium products where you have margins to play with, whether it’ s going to support shipping or support more advertising,” he advises.“ The more premium you make it, the more margin dollars you can generate.”
While only selling premium products may deter some customers, offering a happy medium between lower- and higher-priced items allows for more wiggle room with margins.
Generating margin dollars is crucial to improving your ecommerce presence. It gives you more ad spend and the ability to make the shopping experience more seamless, which is another important factor for websites, according to Tequila Tromba’ s CEO and co-founder Eric Brass.
“ The real winners in alcohol ecommerce are the ones delivering convenience without losing experience,” he says.“ Fast delivery and curated selections are all big drivers, but
8 Beverage Dynamics • Summer 2025 www. beveragedynamics. com