This is the first article in a five part series covering the process of building an allocation offer in Offset Commerce.
These articles are summarized in a webinar we recorded on 7/25/24, which can be viewed here: Creating an Allocation Offer Webinar
Table Of Contents
What is a Wine Allocation? When the demand for your wine is high, the allocation model allows you to segment customers into purchasing groups where they can gain access to a curated selection of wines. A wine allocation allows a brand to reach a broader audience while still rewarding its best customers. It is usually offered for a limited time and has enforced purchase limits that reflect customer loyalty. When the allocation is available for customers to make purchases, this is often referred to as an Offer or Offering. Customers will get an announcement of the offer so they can log into the website and purchase their allocation before it ends or sells out.
We will cover many settings here to ensure your Wine Products are prepared for an allocation. Settings will be covered in order of appearance on the product page. While there are many settings, this article will focus on ones that will get you up and running during an allocation. Make sure to save your settings frequently to avoid losing any of your work.
Any wine you wish to offer in your Allocation needs to be set up as a product. Whether selling 750mL bottles, 3.0L bottles, or 3-Pack Boxes, you must create a new product or duplicate and update an existing vintage of your product. Before you start, ensure you have an alphanumeric SKU and gather any bottle shots or image files. You will also want to obtain any tasting notes or other information you want to present with your products.
DEFINITION: SKU is an abbreviation for Stock Keeping Unit which is a unique, alphanumeric code assigned to each product. Having a unique SKU helps you identify and track your products for inventory, fulfillment, compliance, etc.
Get started by going to the Products tab.
A. Creating a New Wine Product
If you are creating a brand-new Wine Product from scratch, this is where you will start. If you are duplicating an existing product, skip to section b.
Click on Products
Click on + New Product
Select Wine from the Product Type options
Enter your Product Title
IMPORTANT: This is the Title that will appear on your printed or emailed receipts. Avoid using any special characters like straight quotes as they can cause display issues.
Enter your SKU
REQUIREMENT: Your SKU should be an alpha-numeric. The only special character that is allowed is a "-" and all others will be replaced with the dash after entry.
IMPORTANT: Make sure to use the SKU that is the same across all your integrations and fulfillment locations. Some examples of places to check would be ShipCompliant or FORT Systems.
Enter your Price
Enter the amount of initial Inventory you want to sell in bottles
IMPORTANT: In Offset, your inventory number should reflect the total amount you want to sell, NOT the total inventory available. You will want to subtract any library wine, reship/breakage wine, or wine reserved for other sales channels from the amount you enter into offset. So if you have 1,008 total bottles, and you want to save 144 bottles for other channels, enter 864 into Offset.
Click on Create Product
B. Duplicate an Existing Wine Product
If you have the same product set up from a previous year, you can duplicate the product and update the settings to save time.
Click on the Product you want to duplicate
Click on the Actions dropdown
Click on Duplicate Product
Update the Product Title for the new vintage year
Create a new SKU for the latest vintage
Click the Duplicate Product button
IMPORTANT: Once you duplicate the product, review ALL the fields in the Product settings to ensure everything is up to date.
C. Update Inventory Levels
Select the number under CURRENT STOCK
Add notes in the Reason for adjustment to SKU: 21YOURSKU750 field
Enter the quantity for each INVENTORY LOCATION in the field under the ADJUST header using + or - to adjust the numbers up or down
Select the Adjust Inventory button to save and update your quantities.
NOTE: Most wineries will have one default inventory location. For information about whether multiple inventory locations would be right for you, please contact the Client Experience team.
D. Adding Your Product Image
Prepare your image for upload.
We recommend a square image for most setups with a size of 600x600px, 800x800px, or 1000x1000px.
Adjust the image file size to below 1MB or smaller to ensure faster load times across devices.
If the image is vertical 600x800, then you can add some transparent horizontal space to increase the image canvas size.
If you have multiple images, size them all to the same specifications so they will display consistently.
REQUIREMENT: Adjusting the image size will require outside photo editing software. You can also reach out to the agency that provided your photos; they may assist you with sizing the image to these requirements.
NOTE: While the site is optimized for square images, if you want to try vertical images, please contact our Support Team and we can adjust your site for vertical checkout imagery.
Go to Product Images > Image 1
Select the button to upload Image 1
This is where you will upload Image 1
NOTE: Only one image can be used for display in an allocation, so you only need to upload it to Image 1. Any additional images you add to the subsequent slots will only display on an open cart “store” page.
E. Configuring Your Product Details
Scroll Down and select Product Details
Select the Display Status dropdown and choose Visible
Turn the For Sale toggle On
Turn the Website toggle to On
Select the Product Type dropdown and choose Wine
Adjust the text in your Product Title if you need to make any changes.
NOTE: This is the title that appears on your email or printed receipts
Add text to the Label (Display Only)
IMPORTANT REQUIREMENT: The name in this field is the title that appears with your product on your allocation page. You can simply copy and paste the Product Title into this field, or choose an alternate name.
NOTE: Many wineries take their winery name out of the Product Title when choosing the text for the Label (Display Only). For example, “2022 Offset Winery Syrah” could instead be listed in a shorter format like “2022 Syrah”
Choose your bottle size by selecting the Bottle Size (Display Only) dropdown and choosing the size you want customers to see in your allocation.
NOTE: The Bottle Size (Display Only) size setting only controls the format that customers will see when they view the product in the allocation. Many people set the Bottle Size (Display Only) and Bottle Size (Shipping) to the same size. These two settings can be different sizes if you want customers to see one size in the allocation and a different one during checkout. For Example, your Bottle Size (Display Only) can be set to 750mL for a 3-pack of 750mL wines to simplify the display and you can show or describe that it is a 3-pack in your Product Image, Label (Display Only), or Description. but you may set up your Bottle Size (Shipping) to 750mL-3-Bottle-Giftbox because you have a special rate.
(Optional) If you want each product to display separately, with its own image and description, then skip to step 10. To sell multiple sizes of the same product in the same offer and display them as options for a product rather than separate products, you can use the Variant of SKU feature to consolidate your product display. For formats of 1.5L or larger, set the Variant of SKU by copying and pasting the SKU from the 750mL bottle into this field of the 1.5L product. This will show the 1.5L bottle as a “child” SKU within the display of the 750mL “parent” SKU as pictured below.
This is how these product settings appear when you log into an Allocation
A Variant of SKU display when logged into an allocation
REQUIREMENT: Only a 750mL bottle format can be a “parent” SKU.
NOTE: You can have multiple “child” SKUs if you sell the same product in two or more bottle sizes. The Label (Display Only) name and Product Description you see in a variant setup come from the 750mL “parent.” If you want to update the description to include info about the larger sizes, then you can add it to the Product Details of the 750mL parent SKU.
F. Choose Your Channel Availibility
Scroll down to Channel Availability
Set the Channel Availability to Allocation.
IMPORTANT: The most common setup for allocated brands is to set the Channel Availability to Allocation. This will ensure that the product can only be purchased when logged into an allocation and limit the ability to purchase the product in other channels such as Open Cart. You will also want to remove the product from any Categories that would show on a Store page in a hybrid Open Cart setup even when limiting channel availability.
G. Set your Pricing and Taxes
Scroll down and select Pricing and Taxes (USD) and set your Product Price.
Scroll down and select Website Description and Notes
Enter any product information you want customers to see in the Product Description field.
Note: Include as little information here as possible so shoppers don’t get held up reading during the checkout process. Most clients add tasting notes in this field and add little bits of info like how many cases were produced.
(Optional) Use the Additional Description field for additional details or technical information you want to add to the product. This will generate a “Read More” button below the description that customers can click on if they want to see additional information as a pop-up modal.
Scroll down, select Product Counts, and set your Sell in Increments dropdown to 1
NOTE: This is the most common setup for brands that want to sell individual bottles or packs, but you can adjust it to your preference. Setting the Sell in Increments drop down to 3 would mean that when customers select the quantity they want to purchase during checkout, it would only allow them to purchase 3, 6, or 9 bottles, etc.
IMPORTANT: Leave the Minimum Purchase Quantity and Max Purchase Quantity fields blank. Limits should be set in the Groups to avoid any conflicting settings.
Scroll down and select Shipping
Set your Bottle Size (Shipping) to the appropriate bottle size and this will determine which Shipping rate table applies to this product.
NOTE: If the bottle size you need is not showing in the dropdown, go to the Settings > Fulfillment Method and Rates tab. Scroll down to Bottle Sizes & Cubing, check the box for the size you need, and select the Update button.
IMPORTANT: After adding a bottle size, make sure to update your Shipping Rates for the new bottle size covered in part 3. Update and Review Your Settings for an Allocation
Set your Shipping Grid Bottle Count to 1 for most setups.
NOTE: This setting determines which line a product would charge on the Rate grid. So if this is set to 1, and the customer buys one bottle, then it would charge based on the rates for 1 bottle. If it is set to 1 and the customer adds three bottles to their cart, then it would charge for 3 bottles on the grid and so on.
IMPORTANT: There may be certain scenarios where you would want to set the Grid Bottle Count to a larger number depending on your setup. If you are unsure about the best way to approach this, please contact the Client Success team for advice.
Row 1 of the shipping rate table
H. Create a Category for Your Release Products
(Optional) Scroll down to Categories
Select the Create a New Category button to create a new category for your release.
For example, Fall 2024 Release. This will create a new category for you to organize all the products for your release for quick access.
To the right of Select a Category check the box and choose the Fall 2024 Release category to assign this product to the new category.
Repeat this process for all your Fall 2024 Release products.
IMPORTANT: If your categories are visible on a store page, make sure that the category is set to Hidden by selecting the Products > Categories and choosing the category. Scroll down to Details and set the Website Visibility to Hidden.