Case Study: US Merchant/Broker

A US-based merchant and broker, has been a member of Liv-ex since 2020. Besides sourcing fine wine, inventory and shipping are major parts of their business.

Before LWIN

Purchasing large collections used to be time-intensive, partially due to the lack of a common naming convention for wine. As with most, they found it difficult to catalogue and price wine accurately, particularly with wines from Burgundy, where subtle differences exist between names of appellations that alter the value of each wine significantly (e.g., Meursault and Meursault – Perrieres are very different wines.)

”"If we do not accurately identify a wine to determine purchase price or sale price, there may be large financial consequences."
Director of Client ServicesMerchant/Broker

Mistakes would result in disappointed customers; sellers receiving an offensively low offer, buyers overpaying, or getting a wine different from the one they were expecting.

They wanted a way to create consistency across their inventory system, in a more time-efficient manner.

The Solution

LWIN is the common language for the wine industry. Acting as a unique identifier, it standardises a naming convention for wine and spirits.

At first, they adopted LWIN in parallel with their own numbering system. Using Wine Matcher, our online matching tool, they could easily connect the LWIN Number IDs to the 17,000 wines on their inventory list.

LWIN allows them to get consistent and accurate product names, in a similar configuration to the most well-known wine resources in the industry including pricing resources, ratings, and reviews.

The Results

According to one of their directors, LWIN also saves them a serious amount of executive time: it allows them to be accurate – without having to do a “ton of research”

”"An accurate database is absolutely necessary for confidence, and for mistake-free inventory. Real-time inventory with accurate pricing leads to satisfied customers."
Director of Client ServicesMerchant/Broker

They also use Wine Matcher to pull ABVs for their wines.

“If I have ABVs in my database, I can create an international commercial invoice and packing slip empowering the customs agent to verify my shipment with ease and efficiency, which is huge.”

Besides LWIN and Wine Matcher, they also use the Liv-ex exchange platform to buy and sell with other reputable wine businesses.

“Liv-ex has a thorough vetting process. They deal with legitimate wine businesses, and as a result, have expanded our audience”

Download the LWIN database for free here – or book a demo below to understand how we can help your business achieve consistency, accuracy, and efficiency – and accelerate growth.

This case study was based on a interview with the Director of Client Services, who prefers to remain anonymous.