Moore Brothers Wine

The Challenge: A Wine Retailer in Need of Digital Transformation

Outdated eCommerce Platform

Moore Brothers Wine found itself grappling with an outdated and custom-built eCommerce platform. To make matters worse, the original site builder was largely unavailable to assist with website updates, leaving the company with a design that was not only visually outdated but also technologically inefficient.

Knowing that no developer would be willing to learn and modify this legacy build, the Moore Brothers Wine team began searching for a partner that had the expertise and knowledge to build a new site from the ground up, exactly how they envisioned.

Multiple Physical Stores & Inventories

Since this retailer had three physical locations in NY, NJ, and DE, customers are required to choose which store they are shopping at the onset of a session. Due to legislation around shipping alcohol across state lines, making sure that only that store's inventory was visible posed a significant challenge. 

This unique setup was not something that BigCommerce, even with its Multi-Storefront (MSF) capabilities, could handle natively. With each physical location also having its own Chase merchant ID to process transactions, no eCommerce platform could fulfill Moore Brother Wine’s needs out of the box.

Since each brick-and-mortar store maintained its own inventories, independent of each other, a methodology would need to be invented to keep track of product availability across the three locations. Furthermore, this information would need to be integrated in near real-time with the Point of Sale (POS) system to process the transaction correctly.

Unique Website Features

Wine enthusiasts everywhere know that some wines are perfect for a special occasion, while others are just the right pairing for their neighbor’s homemade Havarti cheese. To help Moore Brothers Wine customers remember their thoughts on their purchases, the Wine Journal was a core feature of their previous site.

The Wine Journal acted as private notes that users could write about the wines they drank. This was helpful as they could then reference these notes in the future if they were looking for the same bottle, something similar, or a recommendation. Although similar to reviews from the outside, the specific requirements of this merchant meant that the native BigCommerce functionality wouldn’t work. 

In a similar fashion, the default BigCommerce option for gift certificates didn't meet their needs. The Moore Brothers Wine team wanted customers to be able to purchase gift cards online or in-store and spend them both online or in-store. This set our team searching for an out-of-the-box alternative.

Shipping Rules

Referencing the three locations again, our client needed a new shipping solution to integrate into BigCommerce’s checkout process. This solution would need to be able to be pre-programmed with the desired shipping rules based on which store the customer selected, where the customer lives, and weight/size limitations.