Hello Drinks Online liquor has officially relaunched into Australia as a cloud-based online liquor retail store.
The independent startup business originally launched out of a Sydney storage unit around five years ago with just 12 products, building to 200+ products during the peak of the pandemic in Australia. With this relaunch as a cloud-based superstore, more than 4000 products will be available through Hello Drinks.
This model intends to offer a simpler online liquor retail experience. By not using multiple vendors, the business avoids multiple packages being sent out for single orders, which aims to satisfy both the customer and the supplier due to the lower cost and the smaller carbon footprint. With 95 per cent of the product range under the one cloud, Hello Drinks said this lean model eliminates around 250 trucks delivering to a warehouse, which in turn removes the need for a forklift for moving more than 1000 pallets.
Speaking about the relaunched version and ditching the warehouse, Hello Drinks Founders JP and Steph Tucker said early responses have been good since the recent live testing of the site in October.
“It’s great for our customers, as it offers more choice, new categories, brand extensions,” JP said.
“We’ve come a long way from when we started out at Kennards Storage to where we are today, it was always our vision to become a cloud-based business but felt the industry wasn’t ready for it in the early stages. However, during COVID, the landscape has changed to open up the opportunity.”
Steph added: “We took a decision during COVID to go for it so we came out of lockdown stronger than we peaked, and to launch on the same weekend that on-premise was reopening couldn’t have been timed better. The team have worked hard to get us in this position. Already we are seeing increased basket sizes, wider spread of purchases, and we still haven’t spent $1 on advertising, so I am excited with the plans we have in the pipeline to scale the business.”
JP said that the goal of Hello Drinks has always been to innovate and do things differently, in order to reduce costs and become more competitive. He noted that moving to a cloud-based model has allowed the business to remove costs up to six figures off its bottom line.
The relaunched website is also now equipped with AI software, which allows the business to develop a better understanding of what customers want and improve their experiences in return visits. According to JP, all the elements of the new site combined are already having a positive impact on the business.
He said: “With a solid plan in place, we aimed to come out of COVID stronger than we peaked, and we are already seeing the benefits of the changes.”