Australian Wine Retailers atop Online Honours

Australia’s leading online businesses were recently recognised at the 2015 StarTrack Online Retail Industry Awards (ORIAS), where two wine retailers, Vinomofo and Naked Wines together took home five of the awards’ 14 categories.

Melbourne based online wine retailer Vinomofo secured three titles including Online Retailer of the Year Award, Best Pureplay Online Retailer and Best Online Marketing, following nominations over the last two years.

Vinomofo co-founder and joint CEO Andre Eikmeier, says the achievements were a pinnacle moment for his team as well as for the industry.

“I remember sitting at the table watching the teams from Shoes of Prey, Surfstitch, The Iconic and the like, and thinking what great cultures they seem to have. It would be so awesome to be in that league.

“In a year where the wine sector has faced uncertainty, it was great to see the industry clean up at ORIAS, signalling something really exciting for the future of the industry in Australia.”

Also taking home one the night’s top honours, was innovative online wine store, Naked Wines Australia, picking up the inaugural StarTrack ORIAS People’s Choice Award.

In a StarTrack ORIAS first, the introduction of the People’s Choice category saw tens of thousands of online shoppers nationwide vote for their favourite online store. Thousands of nominations were received and six diverse finalists shortlisted before Naked Wines Australia was selected.

Luke Jecks, CEO of Naked Wines International said their customers directly supported independent winemakers in return for exclusive wines at wholesale prices.

The brand works with 30 independent winemakers based across Australia and New Zealand, each offering generally high-quality boutique productions, hand made in small batches.

On the award, Jecks commented: “The People’s Choice Award is the only StarTrack ORIAS category where Australian customers have the opportunity to decide who deserves to win and, for us, it’s the most important one by a long way.

“When I look at the success of the business, it comes down to one thing – we work with talented winemakers who are passionate about making delicious wine. But we’ve also been able to innovate. Our customers communicate directly with our winemakers online; they form relationships and share their wine related experiences. It’s hard to put a value on that kind of thing – that’s where the business part ends and the social magic begins. I think that feeling of engagement, of genuine and personal involvement with the people who make the product is what makes the difference, why our Angels love being part of the Naked family and keep coming back. ”

StarTrack’s Executive General Manager of Parcel Services, Bob Black said Naked Wines was the perfect example of an online retailer building their business by making their customer’s happiness the number one priority.

“We’re very pleased to see Naked Wines take out our first Peoples’ Choice Award. As a crowd-funded business with a high level of customer engagement and investment in their success, Naked Wines know how important customer satisfaction is and it shows,” he said. “The StarTrack ORIAS are really representing the high calibre and innovative culture of Australia’s online retail industry, which is now worth $16 billion a year online.”

Naked Wines was additionally named ‘Best Bootstrapped Growth Initiative’, which recognised the success of the brand’s Christmas gift tag promotion and the strong company culture in place at Naked Wines.

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