WINC
A CASE STUDY
Introduction
Winc is a service that delivers 4 bottles of wine to your doorstep monthly. Each bottle of wine is selected according to your personal preferences, the data of which is collected after the customer fills out a quiz consisting of 6 questions. Each month they ask the customer to rate their satisfaction with the selection in order to perfect their personalized order for the future. This company is based in California and was established in 2012 by Xander Oxman and Geoff McFarlane, paired with the wine sommelier Brian Smith.
User Research Plan
Client
Winc
Product
Mobile application (updated nine months ago)
User Types
Experienced wine drinkers: Users who know what flavour profile(s) they enjoy in wines, as well as shop for wine often, being familiar with their typical pricing vs quality.
Inexperienced wine drinkers: Users who do not know what flavour profile(s) they like in a wine, do not shop for wine often/shop without flavour or quality in mind.
Product and Feature(s)
The mobile iOS Winc application is the product to be tested. What specifically will be tested is: the ease of use of the user’s wine test, accuracy and details of the said test’s results, the ability to access/locate the appropriate wines based on either the user’s results or personal knowledge, and overall usability during these processes.
Problem Statement/research Questions
We know that finding the perfect wine can be difficult online. This is a problem because a user will have a poor experience with both selecting and drinking their purchases, and thus unlikely to make a second purchase. My solution should support the user's needs by supplying accurate, in depth, and helpful information regarding wine choices, as well as make the process easy and efficient.
Methodology
Methods for research are as follows: app review research via the Apple Application store, user interviews, journey maps, in person user testing of the application.
Participation
I will include both experienced and inexperienced wine drinkers of any age, gender, profession, and class. Ideally, I will aim for two participants in both categories. Experienced wine drinkers will already know the type of wine they prefer and have experience when it comes to pairing wines with food, the general differences between different types of wine, and are familiar with pricing. Inexperienced wine drinkers will be casual wine drinkers and lacking the knowledge as to why they prefer one type of wine over the other.
Schedule and Logistics
This research will happen over the course of this class (Design Lab 1: Users) -- between the weeks of July 20th until August 24th. User testing will aim to be between 30 minutes to an hour.
Screener questions
1.) How old are you?
As a general rule, getting confirmation that the participant is of legal drinking age is important in order to prevent any enabling of underaged drinking. It’s also a requirement in order to order from Winc in the first place.
2.) Where do you live?
Wine may not be as popular in certain cities, towns -- even states and countries -- as others due to the culture.
3.) What is your profession?
A person’s income may come into play in regards to how often they purchase items with varying quality, as sometimes it is tied to their price, thus their availability to those in certain income ranges.
4.) Do you drink alcoholic beverages?
Those participating in the study would need to actually imbibe in drinking (as opposed to never partaking) in order to have experience with drinking to discuss.
5.) Do you drink wine? If so, how often?
The frequency in which a person drinks wine will contribute to whether or not they have developed a preference for specific varieties or brands.
6.) What is your preference in terms of types of wine you would drink? (white vs red, merlot vs pinot noir, dry vs sweet etc)
Depending on how specific the participant gets with their preference will demonstrate their knowledge. Experienced wine drinkers are likely to specify not only the colour preference, but also the flavours of that specific type that draw them in. In contrast, the inexperienced wine drinkers will likely only choose “white”, “red”, or “rosé” and not go beyond that description or explanation of the reasoning behind said preference.
7.) Do you use delivery services?
Winc is a delivery service. If a participant is to be viable to interview for the case study, they would need to be someone who is likely to use a delivery app, instead of preferring to drive to the store and pick up products themselves
8.) Would you be interested in having wine delivered to your door?
This determines if the participant would be a potential future user of Winc, therefore a user whose opinion will hold weight when redesigning the mobile app.
Interview Results & Analysis
7 people were screened and interviewed in order to gather information on potential users of the application. 2 of the 7 were classified as experienced wine drinkers, the remaining 5 being inexperienced.
Recognized Patterns
The 2 experienced wine drinkers used all the criteria for deciding what type of wine to purchase. Meanwhile, the inexperienced ones all said they didn’t take the region or body of the wine into consideration. 3 of the 5 inexperienced wine drinkers said they do not have a preferred or go-to brand of wine they buy from. All participants said they don’t think wine is considerably expensive, most of them also having a budget or plan to stay below $30 when purchasing alcohol in the first place. 4 out of 7 deemed wine as being popular in their community. The time spent drinking ranged between daily to once a month, those being inexperienced tending to be around the once a month range. When experiencing wine or getting into drinking it, 4 participants attributed the exposure to being a cultural or familial practice, 2 were exposed at parties, and 1 was influenced by the show Game of Thrones. Everyone involved was able to pick out a specific type of wine that they enjoyed the most, however, not everyone had a brand they were loyal to. Those who said wine was popular attributed this to restaurants that have a focus on wine, living near a vineyard, and establishments advertising or giving incentive to those who purchase wine from their wares.
Insights
With price being taken into consideration by all of the participants, 6 out of the 7 expressed interest in purchasing a membership. The 1 who was not interested in the membership explained she was concerned about the pricing. Customers may be more inclined to sign up if they see how much they would be saving on average, instead of only seeing the discount they gain per bottle. Another membership/pricing option should be established for those who aren’t excessive wine drinkers, but would still like to use the service. There is currently only a singular, 6 question quiz available, and it seems to be only specific to those who are unsure of what flavours they are interested in. A separate quiz may be helpful in order for those who are experienced and are seeking new wines based on their known preferences. Suggesting wines that other customers have reviewed as being high quality may not be helpful to those wanting to find wines that are similar to their taste.
Takeaway
My overall takeaway from these interviews is that, at the very least, most customers have a general idea of what type of wine they would like to buy, as well as how much money they limit themselves to spending on it. Saving money while getting a good quality wine -- or at least one they will enjoy -- is the biggest priority. Information regarding taste notes, types of grapes and barrels used, as well as location are all, on average, considered important tidbits that should be included in wine descriptions. In regards to the ordering process, the majority expressed a desire for efficient delivery time and strong efforts with communication.
Personas
Below are personas created based on the two user types identified through the interview process.
The Experienced Wine Drinker
The Inexperienced Wine Drinker
Competitive Analysis
Wine.com
Wine.com is a company that was established in 1998, and delivers wine directly to your door. They tout their inventory as having the world’s largest selection of wines with over 17,000 different bottles of wine in their stock and sell over 2 million of them to customers per year.
Digital landscape: This company offers their services through a website, as well as an app that is available for download in the Apple Appstore and on Google Play.
Feature set: The widest range of wines available to purchase in the world.
Experience:
Their website provides a popup chat window that offers help from a wine expert. Sadly, this chat box does not always close when the exit button is clicked, leaving a rather large portion of the bottom right-hand side of the website blocked from view.
They allow the user to look through categories consisting of: 42 red wine varietals, 55 white wine, bottle sizes, and 37 regions.
Their search filter options include:
Wines shipped the soonest
Wines out of stock
Varietals
Size and type
Fine wines
Vintages
Region
Rating and price
Specific reviewers
The tabs for “Varietal”, “Region”, and “Discover” take the user to the same page.
Their gifts consist of wine bundles, baskets, and bags to put the wine in.
Above “add to cart”, the website displays when the bottle will be shipped by if ordered at that moment.
Currently, there is a beta membership option where wine experts will pick wine for you.
The quiz that is required to be taken includes 8 questions with the following:
The user’s “place in wine journey” ex. Novice, intermediate, and advanced.
What specific wines the user already likes?
A text box where the user can provide any additional information regarding their preferences or concerns ex. dietary restrictions.
The pick of three delivery frequency options: every month, every 2 months, or every 3 months.
The desired price range of their wine boxes.
Unable to search by taste notes or types of wine making (low sugar, organic, vegan) in the search filter.
Those restricted to diets will struggle to find new, appropriate wines from brands they don’t already know of.
The website has a learning & discovery section that includes links to:
Virtual wine tastings
Guides and articles
Wine tasting sets
Tips: food and wine pairing
Quiz: Find your wine style
This quiz consists of 6 questions concerning only varietals, instead of preferred taste notes
Whether the user picks the “novice” or “advanced” options, the questions remain the same
The results are emailed to the user, instead of shown then and there
Overall, the main page has a lot of banners for discounts, memberships and wines available, each in lines, one on top of another.
The navigation bar reappears when the user scrolls upward even only slightly, making for easy access.
Social media presence: Wine.com has a few social media outlets to reach out to potential or current customers:
Instagram
14.3k followers
Active
Not verified
A blog
Last updated in late 2018
Twitter
21.6k followers
Active
Not verified
Facebook
70k followers
Active, but does not receive many interactions with posts
Pinterest
3k followers
114.4k monthly viewers
Competitive advantage: Their advantage would largely lie in their inventory having the largest selection in the world. They also include free shipping if you pay $49 a year for a membership called StewardShip.
Themes from customer reviews: The Google Play app has an average of 4.7 stars and 975 reviews in total. The App Store application has an average of 4.8 stars and 46.7k reviews in total. Collectively, the reviews praise good prices, easy and intuitive user experience, occasional slowness, and discounts are not easy to apply.
General notes: Wine.com’s social media vs Winc’s:
Instagram: Wine.com has 113.4k less followers
Wine.com has a blog, though it has been inactive for ~2 years
Twitter: Wine.com has 13.6k more followers
Facebook: Wine.com has 70k followers, while Winc’s account is not linked properly on their website, making a user forced to search it manually on Facebook
Pinterest: Wine.com’s pinterest has 3k less followers and 92.6k less monthly views, despite Winc not having their account linked anywhere other than on their youtube account (which isn’t very active)
Winc has no app on Google Play, and their App Store app has 2 less stars than Wine.com, with only 51 reviews, most of which take issue with the UI and pricing
Bright Cellars
Bright Cellars describes themselves as “. . .a Milwaukee based wine subscription service that sends personalized wine matches direct to your doorstep. Founded by two MIT grads in 2014, Bright Cellars uses an advanced learning algorithm to define individual taste profiles to create a customized journey through the wine world.” They also claim to focus on finding wines from small vineyards around the world that fit a specific user’s taste. They request $90 for a membership.
Digital landscape: They have a website and no apps.
Feature set: Bright Cellars offers an algorithm, touted as being very accurate in picking wines for users based on both their results of a 7 question quiz and ratings of wines sent to them over a period of time.
Experience:
The website is fairly simple and lacking in the content of other companies. This is due to the fact that they do not allow users the ability to view their inventory.
At the bottom of the page, they have contact information:
Text
Phone
E-mail
If a user scrolls down far enough, the website shows encouragement to review the wines sent to them, as it helps their algorithm choose more accurately for future matches.
In the middle of scrolling down the main page, they show an example of the information they provide a customer with regarding a bottle of wine:
Name
Varietal
Vintage
A brief description of the taste
Images of the 4 main taste notes
Alcohol content
Body/profile
Serving temperature
Food pairings
Region
They offer a monthly, bimonthly, and quarterly delivery option
In order to set this up, you need to reach out to their Wine Concierge team after making the purchase of your first box.
In order to switch out matches or get a replacement for a bottle a user did not like, they must contact the WC team.
Their quiz:
7 questions
1st 4 questions are about food and drink taste preferences
5th is about what activities the user likes to do while drinking wine
No explanation as to why this would impact choice
6th question asks about the user’s adventurousness regarding trying new wines
7th question asks about red vs white preference
Results are shown then and there (after logging in)
If any of the 6 bottles do not interest the user, they can replace them by clicking “change”
The website holds the results/6 choices for 10 minutes until check out
Check out:
There is no option to cancel the order
Both the original and discounted prices are shown, as well as a grand total of discounts you received with the purchase
Instead of an inventory or search option, there is a tab for learning about those on the Bright Cellars team
Each department is listed, as well as images, titles, and little blurbs about each employee
The only gifts available are to gift someone a box or pay an amount (chosen by the user) to apply to a box.
Those being gifted the box are sent a link to the quiz in order for their box to be tailored to their tastes
Presumably, the user must contact the WC team in order to relay any dietary or other restrictions they have for wine.
In order to reach the navigation tab, you must scroll all the way back to the top of the page.
Social media presence:
Instagram:
Verified
67.4k followers
Active
Share product images sent in by customers
Facebook:
Verified
52.1k followers
Active
Twitter:
Verified
30.5k followers
Active
Pinterest:
30k followers
51.2k monthly views
Competitive advantage: They have more exposure due to Youtube content creators promoting their services, as well as giving their viewers a code to use for a discount in checkout.
Themes from customer reviews: On Site Jabber (the review site shown when the company is Googled), they have 2.65 stars and 103 reviews. Common complaints were:
Being double charged after users cancelled their subscription
The quality of the wines are not worth the price
If searched in other markets, the same wines can be found for lower prices
Orders not being delivered on time or at all
Poor customer service (no responses, late responses, money not being refunded)
Positive reviews claimed not to have issues with service, only that bottles were a bit expensive.
Google’s reviews gives the company 4.5 stars, with 909 reviews. Most positive reviews praised the wine selections. The complaints were, again, regarding not getting refunds and struggles with cancelling accounts and still being charged. A few have also mentioned you only receive 6 bottles the first month, and 4 afterwards (with an average price of $100). This was not mentioned on their website.
General notes: Bright Cellars’ social media vs Winc’s:
Instagram: Bright Cellars has 67.6k less followers, nearly half of Winc’s.
Bright Cellars have been able to reach many customers due to brand deals with YouTube content creators. Many of them have written reviews (mainly negative).
Twitter: Bright Cellars has 22k more followers.
Pinterest: Bright Cellars pinterest has 24k more followers but 155.8k less monthly views.
Having no app likely diminishes the chance of having more customers.
They have no options for advanced drinkers and their preferences, nor for those who drink wine based on sweet vs dry.
Their prices don’t seem to be very transparent to the customer.
Firstleaf
Firstleaf is a wine delivery company -- presumably established in 2015 -- that touts itself as being one to sell the best wines with the most rewards, at the best/most affordable prices. Like others, they also use an algorithm to curate your wine choices based on a 13 question quiz. The company is based in Napa, California and owned/founded by a man named Phillip James.
Digital landscape: Firstleaf only has a website and does not currently have any apps available for use.
Feature set: The company prides itself on their vast array of award winning wine options.
Experience:
The navigation menu remains visible no matter how far down you scroll.
A lot of scrolling is involved on each page.
The bottom of each page has quick help options, such as:
Their phone number
Email
Hours of availability
Their satisfaction guarantee is also at the bottom of all the pages.
The information page that discusses the owner and the company itself is difficult to find, as it’s not linked in the “about” tab on the navigation bar.
“Wine School” is not a true school, simply a library of resource articles detailing specific varietals and providing in-depth information on them.
None of their social media is linked on the website.
Their online store shows images of the bottles very clearly and presented in a uniform way. These previews display:
A series of award medals above the bottle’s image
The vintage
Price
Quantity input buttons
View more
In view more/the full page of a bottle, they include:
The discounted price ($13) for those that are club members
Information about the wine (mainly just who reviewed/awarded it)
Region
Flavour profile
Body
Acidity
Sweetness
Tannin
Pairs well with
Tasting notes
Pairs well with blurb (again)
A brief description of the taste
2 separate sections containing the awards it has won (presented as two different sections)
About the brand
The informational blurb says little to nothing about how the company makes the wine or their vineyard’s history
A recommendation for another similar wine
The overall pages for each wine consist of a lot of scrolling, but a lack of the expected information to be provided if one were to scroll for that long.
There is a small, attempted table of contents that only link to 2 of the 7 categories shown on the page.
When searching for specific wines, the filter options available are:
Colour
Region
Grape (varietal)
The checkout cart is available to be clicked on in order to view what is inside in a small box on the right-hand side of the screen.
Below the “continue to checkout” button, it shows two options for discounts:
12 bottles for free shipping (if not a member)
6 bottles for members that will be discounted.
This is not shown anywhere else on the website, aside from the “how it works” section. Furthermore, the price shown there is $15, not $13, per bottle.
Their quiz has 13 questions that cover a wider variety of subject matter to be questioned upon in regards to one’s personal wine preferences:
Preference in colour
Preference in sweetness
Liked/disliked varietals
The user’s level of adventurousness when trying new wines
Level of experience
Liked/disliked brands
Liked/disliked food and drink
Liked/disliked taste notes
How many bottles drank a month
Social media presence:
Instagram:
Verified
20.6k followers
Active
Share product images sent in by customers
Openly advertise partnerships with influencers
Facebook:
Verified
142k followers
Active
Pinterest:
Unverified
23 followers
624.8k monthly views
Blog:
Unable to determine activity, however, their posts garner few interactions
Competitive advantage: They have a 100% satisfaction guarantee with all purchases in their 6 bottle bundle.
Themes from customer reviews: On TheUnbox.com, many complaints are focused around how unintuitive the cancellation process is. These irritations stem from an unclear step by step process to confirm the cancellation did in fact go through, as well as no general link to guidance to where to cancel a membership in the first place. Another issue was about refunds, as the company does not return the customer’s money, but gives them a store credit instead.
General notes: Firstleaf’s social media vs Winc’s:
Instagram: Bright Cellars has 114.4k less followers than Winc.
While Firstleaf has partnerships with a few influencers, the realm of influence is tied solely to one platform -- Instagram -- instead of on multiple.
Pinterest: Firstleaf’s pinterest is unverified, and has 5.9k less followers but 417.8k more monthly views.
Having no app likely diminishes the chance of having more customers.
One reviewer mentioned their website also not being mobile friendly and requested an app be developed for ease of use.
Their website is tedious to scroll through and focuses on images, instead of information.
Membership rules and requirements for purchases don’t seem to be very transparent for those signing up.
An easier means of cancelling -- or interacting with customer service in general -- is needed.