Interview with Andrea Antinori, co-founder of Winelivery, a digital delivery platform in the context of beverage.
Our era is a period in which everything moves quickly and frantically, in fact has changed the perception of the “time of the loisir”, that is, the time we dedicate to ourselves. For this reason, delivery services in food & beverage have somehow become “anchors of salvation” to trust when the sofa becomes the only thing coveted after a day of commitments and work. Ordering food online has become a custom that is difficult to give up, a trend that exploded even more during the pandemic period.
But if it is true that we are used to ordering food via app, can you say it is the same for drinking? Andrea Antinori , founder of Winelivery, will answer this question today, talking about the first digital platform for “Cheering/Toasting at home”. Before reading Andrea’s words, however, we give you some little info about this fantastic project.
What is Winelivery
Winelivery, as the name of the brand says, is the App for drinking that offers delivery services in the beverage sector. The easiest way to describe what this platform does, is to make a practical example. Imagine yourself at home on a typical winter evening full of rain and cold. You want a glass of wine but your home’s cellar or fridge is empty. The options are two: renounce this desire or wear a jacket and scarf and reach your favorite club. Which one do you choose? Probably the third one:) And the third option is called Winelivery, the app that will bring you that blessed glass of wine directly to your home!
How Winelivery works
Using Winelivery is very simple. Just download the app, or access the website, enter your address, choose what to drink and set the timer to 30 minutes. This is the time it takes to make the drop and to have at your disposal your beverage at the right temperature,ready to be consumed.
The platform can be accessed both via website and app:
Download App Winelivery Android
What you can order on Winelivery
On Winelivery you can find high quality DOC and DOCG wines, selected by expert sommeliers; foreign, organic, natural and even vegan wines. In addition to wine you can also choose from a wide selection of craft beers and ready-to-drink beverages. And if you feel “a bit like a bartender”, you can also buy the kit to prepare your favorite cocktail! Winelivery is active in more than 60 Italian cities, have you already seen if the service covers your area? We invite you to do it now 🙂
We leave the floor now to Andrea Antinori who through the interview will explain this service.
Hi Andrea, nice to meet you and thank you for your time. Winelivery: will you tell us in your own words?
You know that moment, when you come back home at night after work and you just want to relax, maybe on the couch, with a good glass of wine to start the evening chasing away the thoughts of the day? Winelivery is the best friend of that moment. Winelivery is that magic wand that, when you forgot to buy a birthday gift for your best friend or fiance, saves you by delivering a nice cold bottle, ready to uncork, maybe even with a dedication that takes your breath away. And what can I say, it is also a great solution when you are invited to dinner with friends but you don’t have time to buy the wine! … just open the App!
How and when was the idea of Winelivery born?
Winelivery was born as an idea at the beginning of 2015 when in the middle of a dinner with friends, in my house, we found ourselves without bottles of wine… knowing that in Milan had already arrived many playes of delivery (foodora, just eat…) we turned to Google and after typing “home delivery wine” a halo of discouragement descended on the diners: there was no way to order any drink, and bom, in a minute, the party was over! But it was the starting point for our adventure: in Milan, and in Italy in general, there was no way to order a good bottle of wine from home and receive it in a short time. We could remedy this problem. Francesco Magro and Giovanni Roberto, my two founding partners, at the time worked in consulting and also dealt with research and development so, after a study on foreign markets we found that Overseas services like what we had imagined were already active, worked well and, above all, raised a lot of capital: it was therefore a bet that had to be done! And so we decided to offer, first in Milan and then to the rest of the Bel Paese, the first express drink delivery service, that would offer drinks at the right temperature. Because if the white wine arrives at your doorstep, it must arrive…. cold!
How long did it take to shape the project?
From the idea to the first delivery, approximately 10 months, spent in order to set up all the organizational and logistic parts,as well as the site and all the corporate parts. Then 2016 comes and Winelivery takes its first steps: it’s January, in Milan it’s cold and the first delivery of the App to drink is successful!
Claudia is waiting for us at the door and when we deliver her nice cold beers, she welcomes us with a big smile: already at the first delivery we understand that the road is the right one. We started with express delivery in 30 minutes and at the tasting temperature, then we began to serve the B2B market offering companies support for gifts or for the organization of catering… Until we reach a complete immersion in the world of wine: today you can book via app real experiences in wineries throughout Italy, and for those who want to learn more about wine, there is also an online tasting course. Growing up we have become a media: with over a million downloads the Winelivery app is now a communication tool, through which brands and manufacturers can tell their products and distribute them at the same time through a privileged channel. Finally, we have developed our research center, thanks to which we can study data relating to consumption of drinks, in terms of quantity, type but also consumption time and preferences for each city.
How is the market responding?
Winelivery has always been an attractive service, the fact of being able to receive your favorite wine, beer or drink directly at home and ready to be uncorked immediately attracted the attention of the market and has allowed us to create a loyal clientele. The data confirms it. The App for drinks at your doorstep boasts exponential growth year after year, since opening in Milan, and in 6 years we arrived throughout Italy offering the service in over 60 cities.
Technology, especially during the pandemic period, was of great help to us. How much can a platform like this help rediscover all the excellence of our producers and brewers?
For some the labels are never enough, for others they are too many: for those who can’t decide, the Drinking App has dedicated three tests to find out what to toast with, one dedicated to wine lovers, one to gin and one to whiskey. In all cases a sophisticated system of algorithms is able to suggest the perfect bottle through simple questions, just like being in a wine bar. On our platform you can not only choose what to drink, but you can then discover many new labels, told directly by the producers. So it’s easy to choose from the thousands of labels offered which ones to taste or discover without leaving the house.
How did you launch your project? Did you use crowdfunding campaigns?
The first year of activity was supported only by our finances , as it is said in the startupper’s jargon “bootstrapping”. 2017 was instead the year of our first Crowdfunding that ended with great success in overfunding. This way of raising capital has been very functional for the growth of our company, in total we have done 3 campaigns collecting almost 2 MLNs. The added value of a crowdfunding campaign is not only in raising funds, it allows you also to raise a large number of investors who become your fans too, and it is also a very noticeable operation which is easy to follow up on the national newspapers.
The future: the platform is aimed at the Italian territory, do you want to spread the business outside Italy?
Winelievry was born as a reality to be scaled, in Italy we are active in all major cities and soon we will further extend the distribution network with a hybrid model of wine bar with delivery to serve even the most modest locations. Outside of Italy? Surely, 2022 will be the year of our first foreign opening!
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