Sommsation curates sommelier-led tasting experiences and events, and is positioned to revitalize the wine industry by combining innovative technology, audacious strategy, and glamorous brand marketing.
WEST CHESTER, Pa., May 15, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Sommsation (www.sommsation.com), an online marketplace selling high-quality wines from a portfolio of independent wineries, continues to redefine the wine industry landscape. Sommsation curates sommelier-led tasting experiences and events, and is positioned to revitalize the wine industry by combining innovative technology, audacious strategy, and glamorous brand marketing. At this intersection, Sommsation delivers a direct and personalized buying experience for wine enthusiasts seeking the best-quality limited-production wines and elevated hospitality.
At its core, Sommsation is a platform that connects wine buyers and enthusiasts to both independent wineries and expert sommeliers. Here, the word "platform" is doing double duty, referring not only to the many-to-many structure of the independent-winery community, but also the digital foundation Sommsation has built to power that community.
"We build our technology to engage and delight our clients," explains Matt Hessinger, CTO and Co-Founder of Sommsation. "We're as bullish on AI and machine learning as anyone (and we were using AI well before its current popularity), but we focus less on tools for the tool's sake. Rather, we obsess on elevating the discovery and buying experiences for our clients. Our 'reach goal' is to make the experience so simple and seamless and pleasant–that they aren't even aware of the technology that is powering it."
The Sommsation Marketplace launched in the Fall of 2022, creating purpose-built proprietary technology to deliver one-of-a-kind experiences through a portfolio of independent wineries, for wine buyers looking to make new discoveries. As a platform business, Sommsation's technology is the foundation of all of the value that Sommsation is able to create and deliver to constituents across the wine ecosystem. Sommsation rolled out platform enhancements throughout 2023 and into 2024, enhancing all aspects of customer engagement and purchase conversion and amplifying the luxury brand's presence. Examples of innovative technology strategies the Company has deployed include:
- Advanced Search Capabilities. Deployed search capabilities that map closely to user intent, enabling Sommsation to automatically surface useful content about its portfolio of wines. Sommsation has sorted considerable information about its wineries and wines, and the website matches that information to search intent intuitively and in real time. For example, finding fuzzy matches like searching "primitivo" and presenting Zinfandels - which likely corresponds closely to the search intent.
- Automated Linking of Content. Sommsation is well into the process of developing cognitive automation that identifies connections between content and data and suggests deployment opportunities for the combined information. Sommsation has been automating the connection between its long form content and the key first party data it has gathered on the platform. This enables Sommsation to provide decision and writing support both to content authors writing new content, and the merchandising team putting new wineries into the portfolio.
- State-of-the-art Data Lakehouse. Sommsation built its data lakehouse for data analysis and for generating insights. Replicated data is necessary in order to run analytics at scale without putting a company's transaction-processing technology at risk. A data lakehouse is a hybrid between a data warehouse and a data lake–which is often superior to either. Sommsation's bespoke Data Lakehouse is the heart of how it synthesizes all data related to its customers, products and orders.
Having stood up the technology for its marketplace and events, Sommsation can now leverage that same platform technology to enable different flows-of-value. For instance, its recently launched Rebel Wine Club improves on the standard wine-club model by shipping select wines from a different independent winery every month. This provides considerably more variety and exploration than most wine clubs can, and clients can depend on Sommsation's technology solutions to facilitate it for them.
Similarly, none of the technology behind The Gift List concierge service seems excessively complicated, but it accomplishes a unique purpose reliably and delivers a smooth and pleasant customer experience. The Gift List experience enables clients to schedule-in-advance gifts of excellent wines to the VIPs in their personal or professional lives. The technology behind The Gift List makes it easy to make sure you don't forget to send gifts on important dates.
"When you look at The Gift List and the Rebel Wine Club you see our ability to quickly act on expanding product lines based on evolving buyer needs," Hessinger continues. "This leverages the foundation we've constructed to date - combining independent winemaker craft with sommelier expertise and delivering that to customers in the many ways they want."
What all this means for Sommsation's portfolio is expanded reach, connectivity, and convenience–with Sommsation providing advanced marketing, engagement, and ecommerce functionalities. Basically, Sommsation acting as a hub allows the independent wineries to focus on creating great wines rather than getting bogged down and financially exhausted by innumerable business tasks and requirements that have nothing to do with the wine. For Sommsation to handle these responsibilities excellently, everything starts with the technology underpinning the business.
"You don't see too many unicorns that can get to that level without a strong technical co-founder, and Matt is exceptionally positioned," says Danielle Diliberti, Sommsation CEO and Co-Founder (herself a former Chief Technology Officer at a different company). "Matt has written code in more than 30 different languages and is able to look at technology challenges from a variety of perspectives. And because he and I worked together for years before we started Sommsation, we can usually finish each other's sentences. This has allowed us to stand up a tech stack that has very little technical debt and is thoroughly integrated with our business strategy."
Looking deeper into 2024, Sommsation is poised to introduce enhancements to the digital experience, new products only available through Sommsation and expert experience delivery, building on its foundation of technological innovation and commitment to excellence.
About Sommsation
Sommsation is a state-of-the-art wine company connecting wine lovers to top independent wineries and esteemed sommeliers through their curated online wine shop and personalized tasting experiences. With a growing roster of 50+ independent wineries, over 300 wines and 120+ unique personal wine tasting experience, Sommsation also offers personalized, unique team engagement events, corporate gifting opportunities, and bespoke corporate events. Experience the extraordinary at sommsation.com.
Media Contact
Kevin Jurrens, Sommsation, 1 6093066418, [email protected], http://www.sommsation.com/
SOURCE Sommsation
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