Work · VIDA · demand reporting and ecommerce
A specialist wine importer that buys to a demand signal.
Trade accounts and direct customers were two separate businesses sharing one warehouse. We put them on one demand report, so buying, allocation and marketing finally argue from the same stock position.
Chapter 01 · The section that could not hear the others
Two order books, one cellar, and allocations decided by whoever asked first.
Restaurant and retail accounts ordered by email and phone while direct customers ordered online. Neither view knew what the other had committed, so allocations of small parcels were a negotiation, marketing promoted wines already spoken for, and reorder decisions were made months after the signal appeared.
Chapter 02 · What we connected
One shelf, one demand curve, two ways to buy from it.
Trade orders and online sales were brought into a single stock and demand report by wine, region and producer, with rate of sale and days of cover on the same line. Direct customers hear about what is genuinely available, the trade team allocates from the same numbers, and the buying list for the next trip is written from the curve rather than from memory.
One stock position
Trade commitments and online sales against the same cellar.
Rate of sale by producer
Days of cover on every line, refreshed weekly.
Marketing that matches
Campaigns only feature wines with cover to sell.
Chapter 03 · Who did what
The AI side
Watches cover every night
Rate of sale and days of cover recalculated nightly, with anything about to run dry flagged before the campaign goes out.
The human side
Our team sells the wine
Store, trade ordering and email built and run by people who taste the range.
Chapter 04 · The output we were held to
Better buying, fewer awkward calls, more sold at full margin.
The importer now buys against observed demand rather than last year's list, and discounts far less to clear parcels bought on instinct. Trade and direct grew together instead of competing for the same pallets.