Building the Ultimate Tech Stack for Growth at Your Brewery
Running a brewery is becoming more complex. There are so many moving pieces—managing staff, balancing finances, keeping track of inventory, nurturing customer relationships, staying compliant, and, of course, brewing.
Craft brewers need to find a way to differentiate themselves and elevate their brands, run operations more efficiently, and serve more customers. Many breweries are turning to technology to help streamline their processes. When owners have a good understanding of their key metrics, they can make better decisions and are more likely to succeed.
Technology plays a crucial role in every area of a brewery. This article explores the recommended solutions and the considerations you need to make when building a brewery tech stack to grow your brewery.
Use Best-in-Class Systems
At VineSpring, our approach to building an optimal brewery tech stack is to look for best-in-class technology that integrates well with your other systems. There are all-in-one solutions out there that promise to do it all. But the reality is, if you try to do everything, you’ll accomplish very little. There will always be weak spots in those who promise to solve all of your problems.
It’s better to combine best-in-class solutions that integrate easily to create the ultimate tech stack.
Choose the Right POS for Your Brewery
At VineSpring, we know the ins and outs of brewery eCommerce, allocations, and club management. But, we recognize that a critical part of your business is the sales that happen in your brewery.
When looking for the right point-of-sale (POS) system, keep these factors in mind:
Initial set up cost
Payment processing costs (What is the percentage cost per transaction?)
Monthly fees (chargeback fees or PCI-compliance fees)
Equipment costs
Ability to accept chip cards or NFC payments (contactless cards and apps)
Ease of use
Ability to integrate with current systems
A trusted solution used by both major corporations and small businesses
Available customer support
Ability to store customer data safely
When it comes to POS, we knew we needed to integrate with a software that provides a quick and easy set-up and an intuitive interface to provide customers with a super simple checkout process. It was also important to us that whatever system we chose, it would be one that brewery staff can easily use on multiple devices, and if trouble arose, that there would be excellent customer support.
The right POS will store all purchases and customer information in a central location, automate things like digital receipts, and collect feedback that can help you make important business decisions.
A lot depends on your POS, so keeping it simple and organized is essential for the short term and the long term. Square shares the VineSpring simplicity pledge and is upfront about their commitment to keeping their system easy for businesses and their customers.
Square is also widely used by breweries and other businesses in the US, especially among small- to medium-sized businesses. A 2020 report by Ekos found that 36 percent of breweries in the US use Square as their POS system. The familiarity with the system will instill confidence and trust among your customers.
Leverage Software to Stay Connected with Customers
Connection to customers is vital. Building a relationship with your customers differentiates your brand, builds loyalty, and fosters brand advocates. It’s easy to create a connection when someone is sitting right in front of you, sipping your latest IPA or Saison. But how do you nurture that connection? Especially during the pandemic?
We believe that every communication is an opportunity to build a relationship and email is an essential tool. Although it’s not a complete replacement for face-to-face interactions, email marketing allows you to connect directly with your customers.
When looking for an email provider, we highly recommend that you make simplicity a priority. We’ve put a lot of thought into making VineSpring intuitive and easy to use, and we wanted an email vendor that also valued those principles.
We went out looking for a world-class email system that also valued simplicity. MailChimp rose to the top as an easy-to-use platform with dedicated support, a commitment to learning and improving, and a painless set-up.
You and your team won’t need to spend time and energy learning complicated software. Instead, you can send professional-looking emails that deliver your message and nurture your customers. There’s no need to be a designer or software engineer, and whenever you do need help, their support team can step in.
Another great tool to connect with customers is Calendly. Learn more about how you can use this tool for virtual tastings, curbside pick-ups and in-person experiences.
Grow Your Brewery with Clubs and Allocations
Clubs and allocations aren’t just for wineries anymore. Recurring revenue stabilizes your business and opens the door for sustainable growth. If you want to launch a membership program, a software solution can help you stay organized, keep customer data safe, and make it easy to scale.
VineSpring was born to support the club and allocations process. We lay the groundwork so that breweries can craft and launch modern club programs and allocations. Whether you’re looking for a multi-level club and allocation option or want to satisfy beer connoisseurs with custom club options, our solutions create an easy path-to-purchase to grow your business.
Make Buying Online Simple
While direct shipping is limited for breweries, options for pickup are becoming more popular, and hopefully, the beer industry’s DTC landscape will look similar to wine’s one day. Selling beer online opens up more opportunities.
eCommerce needs to be frictionless for the customer and easy-to-use for the craft producer. You want your eCommerce store to be accessible on any device and integrate seamlessly into your website. You also need a safe checkout process since customers are sharing important information online.
VineSpring powers an eCommerce platform based on simplicity. You can quickly upload and organize products on your eCommerce site. Plus, we’ve created the most stable checkout in the industry.
Want to customize the experience? No problem. We have SDK and API solutions to allow you to build on top of the VineSpring platform. Your customers will enjoy a seamless and frictionless experience as they move from your site to the store to the shopping cart, whether it’s on a desktop, mobile, or tablet.
Listen in on a discussion between industry experts about how DTC is evolving for breweries, distilleries, and retailers. Register and watch this recorded webinar: DTC from distilleries, breweries, and retailers: What to expect in 2021.
Get Your Numbers Right
Breweries have some unique accounting challenges. Inventory and assets need to be handled differently in a brewery than in a more traditional business. Many related expenses need to be tracked for each beer, and it takes a lot of attention-to-detail to correctly allocate production costs.
With these issues, you need to make sure your accounting software is not adding to the complexity. One of the most important characteristics of accounting software should be simplicity. Even if you aren’t a numbers wiz, you should be able to navigate around your bookkeeping system and ensure proper allocation intuitively. We found that QuickBooks shares our dedication to simplicity.
Quickbooks is the overwhelming choice of breweries for a good reason. As business and technology evolve, the supporting software needs to keep pace and remain flexible.
Identify the Right Compliance Solution
Beverage alcohol compliance is multilayered. Regulations and tax rules exist at the federal, state, county, and city levels—with little or no consistency between jurisdictions. It is possible for smaller breweries to manage compliance internally. But for those who have more complex compliance situations or prefer to leave it to the professionals, there are several excellent options.
A compliance partner can automatically calculate tax rates, obtain and renew licenses, register products at federal and state levels, and generate shipment reports and tax returns on your behalf.
Make sure you choose a solution that integrates with your other software, is easy to use, and offers support. The right partner will help you avoid compliance mistakes that risk fines, losses, and unwanted scrutiny. Our favorite solutions are Sovos ShipCompliant and Avalara.
Put it All Together
As you evaluate different solutions, make sure you are looking at simplicity, ease-of-use, trustworthiness, and the ability to integrate with other systems.
With the right tech stack, all integrated to give you enhanced visibility, your brewery is set up for success. If you want to talk more about the technology options for your brewery, contact us!
