Upshelf has launched as a new platform to help liquor suppliers to monitor their store representation through the major liquor chains.
Founded by Sam Hope, a former Account Executive at Lightspeed Commerce and Chris Griffin, former NSW Sales Manager at Hard Fizz, Upshelf merges the duo’s respective expertise in hospitality software and liquor.
“We launched Upshelf with humble ambitions. Our goal, to help the pioneering liquor suppliers of Australia get seen, heard and available through top-tier in-store representation,” said Hope.
With the 2020 Alcohol Retail Report finding that 76 per cent of Australia’s liquor store sales are through the major chains (BWS, Dan Murphys, Liquorland, First Choice and Vintage Cellars), Upshelf intends to enable a strong and healthy relationship between suppliers and these stores.
“We assist suppliers in ensuring their products are in all the planogrammed stores, are ranged in the correct categories, are refrigerated when they’re supposed to be, have the correct price and promotion tickets displayed, are optimised to show the most facings, ultimately making sure their products are in the best position to sell,” Hope explained.
Upshelf is staffed by a team of trained area brand representatives, who visit the planogrammed stores of major liquor retailers to ensure all core sales drivers are optimal. Suppliers can then follow the real-time results via the Upshelf dashboard.
“With the Upshelf area brand representatives assisting both the in-store managers and the existing representatives of the supplier, all parties can win with better and more consistently represented products positioned to sell more,” said Hope.
“With Upshelf, all liquor suppliers can rest easy knowing their products are looking schmick and in the best position to sell,” he added.
Ultimately, Hope and Griffin created Upshelf to take just one item off the already over-full plate of liquor suppliers while also collaboratively assisting the retail store managers to do the best job they can.
“We’re very aware of the juggling act it takes to run a successful liquor company. You need to have on-point marketing, with top-tier brand awareness along with an effective logistics and fulfilment operation. After all that, the last thing you need to worry about is the store representation of your product. That’s why Upshelf takes care of all store representation in the majors for you, leaving you with one less complex business function to manage,” Hope concluded.
Upshelf is catered to suppliers with state-wide or national ranging in chains with a minimum of 50 stores. Go to www.upshelf.com.au and express your interest in a demo or email hello@upshelf.com.au directly. The Upshelf team will promptly come back to you to schedule a meeting.