South African online wine retailer Cybercellar.com is expanding its direct to consumer business internationally, by introducing a distribution model for South African wines in the US and Europe.
Over 70% of the company`s business comes from overseas, says Fiona Phillips, Cybercellar.com CEO.
"The rand has strengthened against the dollar and euro over the past couple of years, which has made South African wines more expensive than equivalent international wines, especially when you take into account the freight costs to get South African wines to the international consumer. We therefore needed a new strategy to keep the price of our South African wines competitive," she says.
To do this, Cybercellar.com put in place a warehouse distribution model, which involves storing South African wines on consignment in two distribution hubs overseas.
This will allow the firm to offer international customers direct delivery within three to five days of order, without them having to pay international shipping fees.
Phillips says the first warehouse was opened recently in Sonoma, California.
A second warehouse will be opened in Brussels in Belgium before the end of the year to supply the UK and European markets.
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