Love For Wine Inspired Them To Build A Dream Business
They sell approximately 350 wines from South Africa, Chile, Italy and Spain to the Belgian and Dutch market, offer next day delivery, and firmly believe that good wine doesn’t necessarily has to be expensive. Let’s meet Wijnmarkt.be.
Wijnmarkt.be is a relatively small company run by group of wine enthusiasts who prove that loving something is often at the heart of what makes a business successful. With more than 1000 reviews, customers routinely give them a 9/10 rating for their services — so what’s the secret behind their success? A lot of it is common sense, but illustrates the importance of putting yourself in your customer’s shoes. Wijnmarkt.be offers detailed information on all their products, up to date foodpairing, and a number of other wine-specific services that ensure their visitors always find what they’re looking for (even if they don’t know what they’re looking for!).
Speaking personally, I’m also a big wine lover, but I’m far from an expert when it comes to the specifics. So I was quite impressed by how comprehensive Wijnmarkt.be was in offering useful tips, especially for someone like me who always has a dilemma when choosing a wine. Which one is the right one for me? What food will taste the best when paired with it? What’s the best temperature for serving?
Because of my love of wine, but also my admiration of her business model, I was very happy to meet Caroline from Wijnmarkt and to have the opportunity to talk a bit about her success.
The beginnings are always hard, she points out: “We don’t have a unique selling proposition as we are not the only wine webshop out there, but we had to find and have found our niche which is good value for a good price. We offer a number of wines at a relatively low price, but without giving in, in terms of quality. We have a large assortment of wines that we sell below 6 euros.”
But having the passion to explore and adapt is also critical, especially in an industry like wine where trends can change in an instant. “We are also always on the lookout for new and interesting wines and vineyards to work with. It is great to be in contact with other wine fans. We are a relatively small company and therefore can quickly direct our full attention to matters at hand, whether it is regarding a customer, campaign, an order or a new product. We need to stay on top of our game at all times. We have a daily pick-up so orders need to be processed quickly, while maintaining a decent level of service. Adjusting or implementing improvement into the day-to-day business can be hard at times.”
And what is Caroline’s advice to those who want to start their own business? “Persevere, go for something unique or find your USP. Build on your content, your network and your peers. Listen to your customers, work with the good comments and change what needs improvement. “
Being a savvy business woman, Caroline always has her sights fixed on the future as well, and understands the importance of adopting more than one strategy. ”For sure, we are looking at expanding our business, to have more brand awareness. “
Caroline and her colleagues use MonkeyData for analysing their business, so I have also asked about the key benefits of the analytics app. “What we love about MonkeyData is that we now can fully plan and project our inventory for the period to come, based on the data that comes out of using the app. The dashboard is very convenient and we like to connect as much data into it as possible.”
