SevenFifty, an online platform for the wholesale alcohol industry, introduced Online Ordering on Tuesday, a first-of-its-kind ordering platform that enables buyers to create, track, and manage orders to multiple distributors. The platform is more than an online shopping cart—it’s an order management system that introduces a new level of transparency, efficiency, and organization to the ordering process by leveraging the current email workflow between buyers and distributors. The platform is available now to all buyers and distributors on SevenFifty.
SevenFifty built the Online Ordering platform to address the often confusing and disorganized ordering process that members of the team experienced in their previous roles both as buyers in restaurants and retail and as sales reps at distributors. The system aims to simplify the fragmented process of sending orders through different emails, text messages, and phone calls into one platform, so all orders are easy to reference and track.
Built on top of SevenFifty’s current search platform and database of over 500,000 available products, the new ordering platform leverages existing email workflow between buyer and distributor by enabling the buyer to create orders in minutes and send detailed instructions and product information to their rep with a few clicks. The platform reduces confusion about what buyers intended to order because messages to reps automatically include detailed product information like item numbers, full producer/product name, size format, vintage, and more. Additionally, order history with each distributor is stored on SevenFifty, so buyers can quickly re-order previously purchased products.
"Ordering on SevenFifty saves me time and creates a level of reliability and accuracy in the ordering process that has not previously existed in our industry,” says Arvid Rosengren, sommelier at NYC restaurant Charlie Bird and Best Sommelier in the World 2016. “I can add items to an order in an instant and be confident that the details will not get lost in translation between me and my sales rep. With so many moving parts involved in running a beverage program, knowing that my ordering process can be streamlined and made simple on SevenFifty enables me to focus on the creative process of building a wine list and educating my staff and customers."
Distributors do not have to be logged on to SevenFifty to receive incoming orders, and can reply to buyer emails as they otherwise would through their existing email client. The ordering platform also integrates SevenFifty data so that distributors can suggest replacements for items that might temporarily be out of stock, suggest additional products to consider, schedule a follow-up tasting appointment, or otherwise suggest modifications to the order.
“SevenFifty’s vision is to revolutionize and modernize the way the wholesale alcohol industry operates, and we couldn’t be more excited to debut our ordering platform to help streamline the workflow between buyer and distributor,” adds SevenFifty CEO Aaron Sherman. “The process of wholesale buying and selling alcohol in the U.S. is one of the last frontiers of commerce that has yet to be modernized by technology. Online Ordering is another major step forward in empowering the trade to focus more on relationships, and less on the busy work and analog processes that bog down the industry.”
