Liquor Legends and Urban Cellars experienced strong growth in terms of sales and gross profit in 2019, but with the impending launch of a new e-commerce platform, Managing Director John Carmody is expecting 2020 to be even more successful.
Carmody attributes 2019’s success to a focus on growing gross profit, transaction counts and basket size, and through tactical offers, and the success of their Rewards program, they have been able to meet those objectives.
“Performance in 2019 was excellent, with our program delivering growth like-for-like and new business. With our Rewards and Loyalty Program members support, support of suppliers and the launch of our e-commerce marketplace, we expect 2020 to exceed 2019’s exceptional performance,” Carmody told National Liquor News.
“Our immediate focus will be on launching our e-commerce marketplace and ensuring that it delivers to the standard our members and customers have come to expect from Liquor Legends. Taking advantage of our data richness, we will ensure the customers journey on our online platform will showcase the same level of personalisation and detail that our customers experience through all channels of the business and more.”
Artificial Intelligence and customer loyalty
Being able to capture and effectively use customer data is an important element to retailing in 2020 and one which Carmody says isn’t being invested in widely enough. Liquor Legends is well known for its successful loyalty program and they are currently testing ideas on how to take it to the next level.
“Our Rewards and Loyalty program is at the core of delivering on our Customer Lifecycle Opportunities and e-commerce is a critical part of the future, and you must have a solution,” says Carmody.
“We are currently testing new ideas to drive our Rewards program forward which will see some of our customers being rewarded in more customised and tailored ways. We will continue to give our whole customer base incredible pricing and access to money can’t buy prizes and experiences.
“It is essential that you have quality data to be able to do anything with it and the reality is that many independent banners other than us have not invested into technology which allows them to effectively use their data to provide validated solutions.
“We are working on Artificial Intelligence (AI) to assist us across our business and the high quality of our data allows us to do this efficiently and effectively. It’s a stretch to say we use AI today, but we are at the forefront of its integration into our business processes. We use complex algorithms today to plan and deliver better outcomes. It assists us in understanding our business and our members’ business and to personalise the offer to our customer which we see as critical.”