WOODINVILLE,
Wash. and REDMOND,
Wash., Sept. 23, 2019
/PRNewswire/ -- Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, the third-largest
premium wine company in the United
States, and Microsoft Corp. have announced plans to empower
consumers throughout the shopping experience and transform the way
Ste. Michelle Wine Estates does business with an
end-to-end omnichannel solution across physical and
digital channels.
With three distinct consumer touch points — e-commerce,
traditional brick and mortar, and loyalty programs such as wine
clubs — Ste. Michelle Wine Estates was challenged by the complexity
of the technology needed to provide a true 360-degree view of its
consumer. To offer consumers the best possible experience, Ste.
Michelle Wine Estates was seeking a single comprehensive consumer
engagement platform capable of integrating distinct brands across
all its direct-to-consumer sales channels. Microsoft Dynamics 365
Commerce enables Ste. Michelle Wine Estates to offer a holistic
consumer shopping experience.
For example, this new platform will provide a complete purchase
history for every consumer across all three direct-to-consumer
channels — e-commerce, brick and mortar, and clubs — and across the
different brands in the Ste. Michelle Wine Estates portfolio. This
will enable Ste. Michelle Wine Estates to custom-tailor product
offerings to individual consumers and to offer individualized
suggestions based on past purchases — again across all brands and
channels. The platform will also enable future convenient methods
of fulfillment, such as mobile ordering for curbside pickup at a
winery or on-site purchase with same-day courier delivery service
to the home.
"We make and import the best wines in the world, but we need to
do a better job of getting those wines into our customers' hands,"
said Joe Gregg, chief information
officer, Ste. Michelle Wine Estates. "Matching Microsoft's
world-class technology with our world-class wines enables us to
meet that challenge."
"When I joined Ste. Michelle last year, I worked with our Senior
Management Team to set forth a new strategic plan for our company.
Building an omnichannel approach to marketing, selling and consumer
engagement is a key pillar of our plan," said Jim Mortensen, chief executive officer and
president, Ste. Michelle Wine Estates. "Our new strategic plan
places the consumer at the center of everything we do, and
Microsoft's technology will allow us to make good on that promise
by delivering a more seamless consumer experience."
Dynamics 365 Commerce is a comprehensive omnichannel
solution for retail and e-commerce companies that unifies
back-office, in-store, call center and digital experiences.
Dynamics 365 Commerce empowers people in the organization to
transform the customer experience — from the digital experiences
that make shopping fun and rewarding to productivity and
collaboration solutions to help retail employees provide
outstanding customer service. In addition, intelligent systems
provide deep insights to empower advanced decision-making and
personalization, delivering the fully
connected commerce solution retailers need to build brand
loyalty, optimize operations and supply-chain efficiencies, and
deliver better business outcomes.
"Ste. Michelle Wine Estates has been a pioneer in the wine
industry for more than 80 years," said Lorraine Bardeen, general manager, Dynamics 365,
Microsoft. "Today, the company is innovating again, leveraging
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Commerce to provide its customers with
elevated digital experiences while improving productivity and
collaboration amongst employees. Commerce provides Ste. Michelle
Wine Estates with the deep insights and advanced decision-making
capabilities it needs to continue to modernize."
About Ste. Michelle Wine Estates
Ste. Michelle Wine
Estates, located outside of Seattle,
Washington, has a distinguished history that dates back to
1934. The company pioneered vinifera grape growing in Washington State while wines under the Ste.
Michelle label were first introduced in 1967. Today, SMWE owns more
than 3,900 vineyard acres across Washington, Oregon and California with key sites certified with the
LIVE, Salmon Safe or Napa Green designations. SMWE's 'String of
Pearls' wine portfolio represents owned or imported brands, all
demonstrating the producers' unwavering commitment to creating
distinctive, high-quality wines from authentic estate vineyards.
Chateau Ste. Michelle, its cornerstone winery, enjoys winemaking
partnerships with some of the world's most distinguished vintners.
Col Solare is an alliance with Tuscany's Piero
Antinori, Eroica Riesling is a partnership with the Mosel's
Ernst Loosen and Tenet is a
collaboration with Michel Gassier
and Philippe Cambie of France. SMWE's charitable giving program,
which supports some 400 non-profit organizations annually, has
provided more than $3 million for
scholarships for high-achieving, low-income students at
Washington universities. The
company also was the principal fundraiser for Washington State University's viticulture and
enology institution, the Ste. Michelle Wine Estates Wine Science
Center.
Ste. Michelle's Washington
portfolio includes: Chateau Ste. Michelle, Columbia Crest, 14
Hands, Col Solare, Northstar,
Spring Valley Vineyard, MERF, INTRINSIC, Seven Falls and Michelle
sparkling wines. In California,
the company owns Stag's Leap Wine Cellars (with Italy's Antinori family), Conn Creek
(Napa Valley) and Patz & Hall
(Sonoma). Ste. Michelle also owns
Erath Winery, in Dundee, Oregon.
The company became the exclusive U.S. importer in 2006 for the
renowned Marchesi Antinori wines of Italy and Chile's Haras de Pirque wines, for Champagne
Nicolas Feuillatte of France in
2009, and for New Zealand's Villa
Maria Estate in 2010. For more information, please visit
www.smwe.com.
About Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT" @microsoft)
enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud
and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and
every organization on the planet to achieve more.
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SOURCE Microsoft Corp.