‘We’ve spent £700,000 developing the app’: Virgin Wines bets on mobile retail
Why does this matter?
Virgin Wines' £700k investment in AI-powered mobile commerce demonstrates how beverage retailers are leveraging personalization tech and mobile-first strategies to compete in DTC wine sales.
Highlights
Virgin Wines has launched its first mobile app, marking a significant development in the company’s digital strategy, backed by significant investment. James Bayley speaks to CEO Jay Wright about the app's impact on the business and implications for the wider wine trade. Available on both iOS and Android, the platform offers a simplified way to browse, discover and purchase wines from the retailer’s portfolio. While the core buying functionality mirrors the company’s website, the app introduces a more personalised environment through features such as a digital wine cellar, enhanced recommendations and targeted offers delivered through notifications. The decision to invest in a dedicated mobile platform reflects broader shifts in how consumers interact with retail. According to CEO Jay Wright, the idea has been under consideration for several years as mobile behaviour has become increasingly central to everyday digital life. “We've been thinking about developing one for a couple of years,” he tells the drinks business. “When you look at the way digitalisation has gone over recent years, younger people engage much more often using apps. Because we want to expand our customer base and attract younger customers while keeping our existing customers loyal for years to come, we felt a mobile app would help with that.” The growth of mobile usage across all demographics also influenced the decision. Wright believes a purpose-built app allows Virgin Wines to create a simpler and more intuitive buying experience than traditional online channels. “We felt that we could give a smarter, easier way for customers to buy wine using a mobile app than we could through maybe more traditional methods.” Investment and customer demand Virgin Wines invested around £700,000 and nearly a year of development work to bring the app to market. Wright acknowledges that building the platform required a significant commitment but said the company wanted to ensure the final result delivered a high standard of functionality. “To do this really well isn't cheap,” he says. “We've spent £700,000 developing the app and it's taken us the best part of a year to get to where we are now.” The decision to move forward also reflected feedback from customers who had repeatedly asked the retailer to introduce a mobile platform. “We definitely get customers saying, 'Why haven't you got an app yet?'”, Wright says. Artificial intelligence and taste matching Personalisation plays a central role in the app’s functionality, supported by an artificial intelligence engine called Preferabli. The system analyses wines that customers browse, purchase or rate and gradually builds a detailed picture of their stylistic preferences. “What Preferabli does is look at anything a customer browses, rates or buys and builds up an understanding of their favourite stylistic preferences,” Wright says. The technology relies on a substantial dataset compiled by three masters of wine who evaluated every wine within the Virgin Wines portfolio. Each wine was mapped using a wide range of stylistic attributes. “We've had three Masters of Wine taste all of our wines and they've listed huge amounts of stylistic information about them,” Wright says. “Some wines have up to 300 stylistic markers associated with them.” Those markers include tannins, residual sugar, body, grape variety, and region. By analysing those attributes rather than simply matching grape varieties or appellations, the system can introduce customers to wines that share stylistic similarities even if they come from entirely different regions. “So rather than saying you bought a Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough, so here is another Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, we might say you bought this wine from Marlborough but here's an amazing Albariño from Portugal that matches the stylistic cues of that wine,” Wright explains. “That allows us to guide people towards wines we know they are going to love.” Creating a digital wine cellar At the centre of the app sits a feature called the wine cellar, which allows customers to build a personalised record of the wines they have bought and tasted. Rather than relying on memory or external notes, users can log their purchases directly within the platform, write tasting impressions, rate bottles and store favourites for future orders. Over time, this builds what Wright describes as a personal wine library that reflects each customer’s individual journey through the Virgin Wines range. “There’s a wine cellar in there where customers can write their own tasting notes about the wines they've bought,” he explains. “It logs all the different wines customers have bought. You can save wines for the future, reorder favourites, rate your wines and have your own wine library.” The company believes this feature will appeal particularly to drinkers who enjoy learning about wine as much as drinking it. “Lots of our customers treat wine as a hobby as well as something they enjoy drinking in the evening,” Wright says. “They like to learn about wine, regions and grape varieties. Making that information available in an easy format hopefully means people will enjoy using the app even more.” Simplifying the wine-buying experience Virgin Wines also hopes the app will help demystify the process of choosing wine, particularly for consumers who find traditional retail environments overwhelming. Supermarket shelves often present hundreds of bottles with limited explanation, which can leave buyers uncertain about what to select. Wright believes personalised recommendations and accessible information within the app can reduce that uncertainty. “Wine can be very confusing, particularly in a retail environment where you see lots and lots of bottles lined up on the shelves and you're not quite sure which is the right one for you,” he says. Most wine purchases in the UK still take place in supermarkets, where specialist advice may not always be available. “If you ask someone in a supermarket about a particular wine you might not get much information about it,” Wright adds. Personalisation and customer insight Virgin Wines already benefits from extensive customer data through its e-commerce operations, but the app provides an additional layer of behavioural insight that can refine personalisation further. By analysing interactions within the platform, the company can better understand what styles of wine resonate with each customer and tailor recommendations accordingly. “Understanding the stylistic preferences customers have allows us to be much more relevant in the wines we offer them,” Wright says. “We're already very lucky as an e-commerce business because we have huge amounts of rich data about our customers. Our ability to personalise and be more relevant ultimately gives customers a much better experience.” The platform also enables the retailer to communicate directly with users through push notifications featuring limited-time promotions and exclusive deals, while purchases continue to earn Virgin Points. Differentiation in the wine retail app market Wine retail apps already exist, though Wright believes Virgin Wines has created something more comprehensive through its integration of personal tasting records and detailed recommendation technology. “I don't think any wine retailer has the full wine cellar functionality that we have,” he says. “Customers can write personal tasting notes, create their own wine library, reorder favourites and receive recommendations through a system that allows us to match wines very specifically to people's tastes.” “I don't believe there is any app in the market that does that right now.” Future development and community potential Looking ahead, Virgin Wines expects the app to evolve significantly as it gathers feedback from users and identifies opportunities to expand its functionality. “We will learn from our customers about what they like and what they'd like more of,” Wright says. One direction under consideration involves developing more social features that allow wine drinkers to discuss bottles and share experiences. “I love the idea of community among wine drinkers,” he says. “Wine is such a social thing. People love talking about the wines they've enjoyed.” The company is also exploring practical tools, such as allowing users to scan wine labels with their phone camera and store them in their digital cellar for future reference and recommendations. The company believes the final product will justify the wait. “We're very proud of what it does. We wanted to make sure that whatever we launched was best in class and we believe that's what we've done.” “Hopefully the customers who have been asking for an app will be delighted when they see it.”
The Drinks Business
