Jason & Scot Show Episode 163 Digital Alcohol with Diageo and Drizly

A weekly podcast with the latest e-commerce news and events. Episode 163 is a deep dive into the digital alcohol market with Diageo and Drizly.

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Jason & Scot will be podcasting live from the eTail West which is held Feb 19-22 in sunny Palm Springs, CA. As a special gift to listeners, you can use the code JASONSCOT for 20% off.

This episode is a deep dive into the digital alcohol market with Diageo and Drizly.

Taylor Burton (@TBurton86) is the VP of Strategic Partnerships at Drizly, the world’s largest alcohol marketplace to shop beer, wine and spirits, currently available in 95 cities.

Wayne Blum (@waynegblum) is is the Director, U.S eCommerce strategy and partnerships at Diageo,  A global leader in beverage alcohol, with over 200+ brands.

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Episode 163 of the Jason & Scot show was recorded on Monday, February 11th, 2019.

Join your hosts Jason “Retailgeek” Goldberg, Chief Commerce Strategy Officer and Scot Wingo, CEO of GetSpiffy and Executive Chairman of Channel Advisor as they discuss the latest news and trends in the world of e-commerce and digital shopper marketing.

New beta feature – Google Automated Transcription of the show:

Transcript

Jason:
[0:24] Welcome to the Jason and Scott show this is episode 163 being recorded on Monday February 11th
2019 I’m your host Jason retailgeek Goldberg and as usual I’m here with your co-host Scot Wingo.

Scot:
[0:39] Hey Jason and welcome back Jason Scott show listeners as a reminder we are going to be at etail West and as a special gift to listeners you can use the code Jason Scott that’s Jason Scott on Scott for 20% off
but that’s next week and let’s talk about today long time listener to the show will know that we have been talking about Brands going direct or direct consumer as a strategy for a very long time since I think 2016 started.
And you also know we are huge fans of the digital native vertical brand Trend as well,
so today on the show we are going to take a deep dive into a huge segment of the beverage industry the spirits your space one of Jason’s favorite second only maybe the coffee will find out that will be a question.

Jason:
[1:27] Yep that you don’t have to keep those two separate.

Scot:
[1:29] I’ll turn it up down up down
understand the space and what’s going on we are excited to have the rare to guest on the show
so Crown Royal Johnnie Walker Smirnoff
my personal favorites Guinness for strength what do all these brands have in common that have a single parent company
they’re one of the largest global spear companies and that’s just some of the highlights that I picked out there Brands there were so many that the show would have gone long if we covered all the brands we’re excited to have on the show
Wayne Blum who is the director of e-commerce strategy and Partnerships with Diageo.

Wayne:
[2:13] Thank you guys I appreciate it and I am excited to be here because the e-commerce space is one in which I’m super passionate about and figuring it out for.
Beverage alcohol is is an incredible opportunity for Diageo so excited to be here thank you.

Scot:
[2:31] Great happy and as listeners also know I am a big believer in the on-demand economy and one of the top companies in that space that intersects with the alcohol Spirits world is drizly.
And they provide on-demand Spirits so join us some drizly we have Taylor Burton and he is the VP of strategic Partnerships welcome to the show Taylor.

Taylor:
[2:51] Hey guys long time listener first-time got Russia have me on today.

Jason:
[2:55] The awesome to have you here Taylor
appreciate you both taking time out to educate our listeners about this exciting and I would say somewhat emerging space
for those of you that haven’t listened to the show before we always like to get things started with a brief background about how you
came to the space so maybe Wayne you want to give us your sort of a path to Diageo.

Wayne:
[3:19] So I just ruined the audio 2017 to.
Take on this econ strategy Partnerships real but prior to Diageo I had worked for Nestle focused on.
Direct-to-consumer and was running e-commerce digital operations and and platform.
Abilities for either largest GDP in the beverage segments and you know I really kind of chart to figure out.
You know what is the future of consumer goods through econ and particularly how the last mile,
play and so that’s kind of been formed by thinking is I started to focus out that out,
and then before Nestle I was with American Express for quite some time and that was either really where I learned a lot about,
digital working with consumer data for Target in optimization loyalty like I value CRM,
what is a fundamental tools of understanding e-commerce promotional Marketing in the digit in the landscape today.

Scot:
[4:27] Brickell so when I went from chocolate to Spirits Taylor did you have an interesting of a background as as winded.

Taylor:
[4:35] Did not come from chocolate and spirits
company timer spaceship part of my last three years leading the charge in the partnership. Drizly on eBay,
I’m working on the gator products specifically helping Merchants great offers within the platform to Target see how users based off their purchase history
the great opportunity for me to come over I’m a check to apply that to what is the relatively new space.

Scot:
[5:09] Causes of vintage Meg Whitman Dara eBay PayPal.

Taylor:
[5:13] A little bit after her I started there about six and a half years ago about 3 and then jump.

Scot:
[5:23] What’s at the Bay Area kind of side of things or did you get it from.

Taylor:
[5:26] I work out of New York.
A lot of them and partner drive if they stopped here on the east coast and actually started off
I do. She purchased by PayPal surround advertising.

Jason:
[5:45] That’s cool so and I don’t want to say anything about it it feels like you are falling all of the traditional vices so I have some theories about what what your next step in your career going to be.

Wayne:
[5:54] I’ll be interested to hear that but maybe that’s one for after the podcast.

Jason:
[5:59] Exactly maybe we’ll do that offline.

Scot:
[6:02] Vaping vaping and cannabis are hot.

Jason:
[6:06] Yeah yes we careful in this category bringing up the whole cannabis things to work we’re not going to go there
but when I do feel like regular e-commerce is maybe a little bit too easy and so I I suspect there are some unique challenges around regulation in the distribution model in the alcohol and Spirits category am I right and can you tell us a little bit about,
about that how that changes the business.

Wayne:
[6:31] Yeah so just lay the regulatory environment means that we have to think about things differently right so the US has this three-tiered system that,
essentially says Diageo is going to fill Brands and create these these great products and then,
working at we’re going to sell those products through to a distributor who then sells them through to retailers and so across the street to your system we essentially by law go the traditional router.
Selling a product directly to a retailer putting it into their warehouse and then having him the fill out for retail distribution or.
Corporate direct Chef when were looking at beverage alcohol 3 Commerce in the regulatory environment do we play with it at most effectively.
And if you like it what’s happening with last-mile this is this is essentially our opportunity particularly for beer and spirits and in my opinion so.
The products being close to Consumers and then the Retailer’s learning how to fill them compliantly as you need to do for beverage alcohol she doesn’t understand,
that presents the opportunity for for this type of Orissa expanded econ shop.

Jason:
[7:48] Fair enough so in like a general merchandise you used to have two prevalent models you have you know,
a direct-to-consumer model where you know you have tons of Brands launching their own website selling their own Goods direct to the consumer so that’s.
Caspar Warby Parker bonobos never give retailers that own the goods and sell those goods direct to the consumer like at Target and then of course she have these really prevalent Marketplace models like Amazon and Alibaba,
where where did you lie you’re just kind of introducing the buyer to the seller and that the.
The seller actually you know who owns the transaction because of that that regulation and.
Turn of the locality and fragment of nature that relationship it seems.
Way more likely that we won’t or or won’t see as quickly any of those sort of direct-to-consumer models.
In in alcohol and that that you know maybe more of the momentum is on the marketplace I am I reading that right or is that an oversimplification.

Wayne:
[8:54] No that’s that’s exactly that’s so the momentum is going to come from the likes of a walmart.com who scales are grocery business,
and has the beverage alcohol category available to add to the basket or it’s going to come from.
Some played some small instances like wine who asked of a trustee Wisin who does ability to go direct to Consumer and Wineries and stand up their own web site in and build a brand that goes to.
When were thinking beer and Spirits were really thinking about the last mile either through direct retailer or the Emmys.
That operate like a three-piece up like a dress.

Jason:
[9:41] Yep like the two of the things that they feel like they are super important in this faced so if you’re an alcoholic if you’re a licensed seller of alcohol you take on a bunch of obligations when you sell that alcohol to a consumer or Aids verification,
you know potentially some liability around over-serving and some of these things and so have you if you have a liquor license and you sell online,
you still have those same obligations and so it it maybe makes things.
More risky or more messy to Outsource some of that last mile to a third party because you still have those,
does liabilities attached in you could potentially you know be at risk for significant regulatory fines or even the loss of your liquor license.

Wayne:
[10:22] You guys are assholes they correct their neither is there is definitely a there’s definitely additional levels of compliance and complexity that retailers,
do I dress when they are essentially sending this product off to the consumer enough you know that’s what I.
The challenge to the product teams to solve that the challenge for their compliance group to figure out how they navigate the right way of implementing checks and balances but
we’ve actually seen some some really great innovation in this space you know
think I think of companies like an instacart who do hand off the product and they do have the ability to AJ
at the front end so they present the terms and conditions and ask the conservative,
that they hate that they’re within the compliant age to purchase but then they also can scan you know a handoff to the consumer on something like a phone invalidate.
This is their driver’s license to actually seem really good progress in the DH dating in the the product management,
side of this business so retailers can start testing and expand into this category.

Jason:
[11:32] Awesome I’m excited you’re more about that and then one other follow-up it also seems to me like,
as with any new product category like consumer demand and in sort of the you know smart marketers are maybe ahead of the the regulatory bodies a little bit and so it’s
it’s not always 100% black and white what is or isn’t permissible in any locality and so it’s it’s it’s not even as simple as,
here’s the rules that you have to follow up on when you’ll be fine
every provider has to sort of make their own determination as to their level of risk in whether they’re being completely compliance or not right and so you can imagine,
big companies are at more to lose and therefore are more risk-averse than maybe some you know super small startups that aren’t well-funded or those. Is that is that also true or my imagining that.

Wayne:
[12:25] No I think it I think solutely correct.
I seen a lot of of what I would stay out of ambiguity and some of the language around what what are and aren’t the rules.

[12:38] Looking in this business everything is kind of driven down to the local the state level or even in some cases the local level you have.
Tri Counties for example that you know someone like a shipt or instacart may need to solve a 4 in terms of family make this product available in this ZIP code.
And if someone order bring it outside the zip code you know what are the rules of,
using various types of digital media that were never thought about when you know these laws and regulations put into place many years ago so.
We’re definitely in a bit of Uncharted water orgone sort of unmapped territory to some extent but.
At the same time I think consumers are are voting with their wallets shoveling that.
Baby love the aspect of convenience.
And they want to be able to take what they traditionally purchased an r and an in-store traditional retail environment and replicate that for.

[13:44] Full basket delivery and so we think that if you follow the rules if you understand the local laws and then you get creative around how you,
you find new ways to serve the consumer that you know some of the stuff will become more clear and and you know what the category will find its way there,
just like every other complicated category has found its way to to the digital or eCommerce Channel over time.

Scot:
[14:13] Taylor now that Wayne’s given us this good overview of of kind of the three-tier system.
Tell us news how does drizly inject into their so it got the bread man’s distributors in retail where do you guys fit in I saw the site you’re in 101 cities so I’d love to know more about how you skill so quickly all those kinds of questions I look.

Taylor:
[14:33] Yeah well you first start off by saying it and it wasn’t as quick as we would have liked to be there we’ve been at this for over 6 years at this point and I think cautious.
I’m in control broke is really what you see not to buy,
I think it’s important that you know players in our position specifically a category leader in the early early to the space,
are really asking for permission before going to head and diving in and doing things that might be in a regulatory gray area large parts.
Drizly business days but also the Retail Partners on our platform as well as the state and local level of been taking phone orders need an online orders for a long time,
you’re making and executing and purchase an app like drizly,
it’s really no different from a compliance perspective then it is a you know a person walk into a store and showing an ID so all of this being rules will still apply you’re looking at a market that software lawyer,
did it simply allowing a customer to shop for that commodity good in this case alcohol level.

[15:41] And what we basically do with integrate with the Retailer’s TLX you leverage Braintree at the back end to take the credit card payment from archers Lee consumer
actual retard South and then the retailer is actually the one making the Fulfillment though,
it appeared at the W-2 employee of a retailer in some states worth compliant we have third-party integration set up at the retailer Postmates or doordash or whoever might be,
I’m in the future and eventually their consumer is owned by drizly and then the actual ending of the alcohol and in-store housing and ultimately shipping of y’all called.
That answer your question.

Scot:
[16:24] It does so imagine you’ve got in a great to the point of sale system is that is that so you can pull inventory and then.
Is this point of sale systems as instacart is kind of painfully found out grocery stores they are pretty archaic and they don’t even have like graphics and army images.
Consumer-friendly descriptions how heavy of a lift is it for a seller to implement drizly.

Taylor:
[16:48] It’s not happy with that used to be for the actual Stellar I’m wearing a gray didn’t know what you wanted different POS system anything from an analog all the way up to your yard when its tail system,
I’m to the roadmap there and we can onboard a new retail partner and that’s 24 hours a day system,
you should be a big challenge but yeah we done the groundwork again over the last six years to make that process as painless as possible for our partners,
but the reason why we do not really require that integration is because when a customer shopping in the product and cart that product and then go to the.
Not a great weekend breaks chains to get to the end of the journey and say hey you know what bye sorry there’s no Captain Morgan available for you because your story doesn’t currently have,
I’m having that really clean crisp integration on the POS side absolutely Akita.

Scot:
[17:42] Cool and then so give us some characteristics of these sellers are they restaurants their convenience stores there
here in North Carolina become ABC Stores so there’s like this legal I have retail for certain Spirits what’s the profile of the stores on the.

Taylor:
[18:00] I’m putting a lot of local retailers great so that the poster typically competing with with the larger chain with that said we do have quite a few men size regionals on the platform,
I’m in a strictly scaled over the last two years especially we start to see larger partners jump on the platform,
I’m primarily because of the amount of volume that you’re through the platform is driven and really that we kind of angered ourselves as if we go to Spotify and Shop alcohol online.
Can we start the profile to ship a little bit as we continue to grow and scale,
and that’s really what keeps our Marketplace model moving right the more,
the more selection we can offer our consumers the wife’s grave price and ultimately delivery method is going to make that shopping experience just that much better for an end consumer.
And at the end of the day that the best shopping experience typically will win and that’s what I think would be great if you’re at replay.

Scot:
[19:03] What are the things that I’m a big instacart user one of things they’ve kind of had a nursing challenge with his price shopping so let’s say I’m looking for the cheapest Coke Zero and I
make it very hard kind of like switch between stores to do that because they don’t.
I’ll have you know if you have any stores with the same SKU how do you handle that that experience.

Taylor:
[19:27] We’re going to show them all right you want to leave that choice ultimately Yang consumer but it’s not just price that we found our consumers or shopping they stop.
What type of rating does the retail store that’s providing that price provide.
They have a higher score a lower score I’m in that also other factors like store hours Etc are going to fix a plan for that ultimate collection.
And we’ve also found a lot of our you know local consumers will you know how to store that they like to shop to maybe they go there in person,
they want to continue doing business with that’s or whether that’s in person or online the number of factors
you’re the point that you’re heading on the difference between the way instacart running their modeling and what we are doing dinner at Wrigley is really offering a wide array of choices selection and I’m really not trying to funnel use.

Scot:
[20:19] One thing I’ve noticed on the platform is most of sellers advertise 1 hour delivery which is which is pretty impressive is that is that the market at work or set a guideline you guys to give them that kind of the standard in infant.

Taylor:
[20:31] I think it’s a great question you said really shy away from saying when I was delivering we didn’t want to be bumped into this just yearly on demand.
It’s something that you come in Table Steaks right product is for media consumption and we understood that that we actually took,
yeah I really data analytics approach to understanding what’s causing our consumers to hit check out,
I’m a huge factor in that was the immediacy write the how fast can I get that when you look in the market like New York know what would you guys guess the average delivery time here is.
Stop the top of your head.

Scot:
[21:06] York this fast so I’m going to go 30 minutes.

Taylor:
[21:10] Yes it’s 30 minutes or less right you know I don’t know what the exact exact but it’s probably closer to 20 minutes.
But it it’s super fast almost right,
but that posted something with the New York Market is very used to write deliveries always been a thing here put laundry or Chinese food on that consumer expects that quick and then meet you
if you’re in New York is your delivery fees don’t lie there just like Amazon’s going to great job of training computer the new Prime delivery should be free,
I knew your contemporary it seems it’s free delivery to me actually don’t even talk on a delivery fee here in New York like we wouldn’t them other states so you’ll have to understand what is that local market condition and how can you make sure you’re checking all the boxes in decision tree,
a person might think through as their healing check out.

Jason:
[21:58] Interesting a lot of my agency colleagues are based in New York and I can’t speak for everyone in New York but for them I can say not only the delivery fast but the consumption is probably really fast.

Taylor:
[22:08] Absolutely let me know when you’re looking at,
you know you’re really seeing people put time and effort and energy into sending just the folks I think that’s something you know that we really brings to the table is Bilal
I’m trying to offer unique experiences not some of the stuff that we don’t know,
you know companies like Diageo on the building how to get the experience in trying to offer something special.

Jason:
[22:38] Awesome and that that’s a great point.
Can a throwback to Wayne Wayne mother thinks it’s interesting to me is again going back to kind of General e-commerce you have this tension between like traditional cpgs that you know where houses are brands
and these new did we need a vertical brands
that sort of reinvented the product and the customer experience for this newer digital enabled consumer and is week we talked about in the top of the show it seems because of the regulatory climate is probably unlikely Diageo is going to launch a bunch of new,
direct-to-consumer spirits but I am curious if
these digital enable consumers in the fact that people are you no more likely to place an order from drizly than they they were six years ago and that is changing how you think about.
Product Innovation and building Brands like you know are there brands that are more digitally friendly in the Diageo portfolio than others or could we expect to see,
more in the future like had you guys think about that.

Wayne:
[23:41] No yes I mean you are 100% correct about that so so it’s true we will never have what sort of digitally native heritage.
Foreign brands that have a direct-to-consumer proposition but we absolutely do have is a category that I like to say consumerist.
Find Conquest,
it’s not it’s not like we’re going to create a breast and that I’ll put in the warehouse and ship it out and say this is a direct consumer brand but we arguing,
is understanding like what is most culturally culturally relevant and then using front of the reaching power digital to to get that message out for consumers,
and I won’t be seeing in on the back of that if people trying to Conquest the stuff online to find it so,
what are the best examples I could come up with was Diageo released a limited edition,
Game of Thrones 8 houses to align 3 8 houses in the show set of single-malt scotches so you got you know it Oban Night’s Watch it.
What we realized by looking at things like Google search.
It was that this is this is where people go first and foremost to find something that they want to understand where it’s at and how much it’s going to cost when you don’t have you know what station.

[25:01] Commerce Ave Warehouse stop in the mix right now that can say OK Google you don’t want to buy Google Search terms.
Guys that have the product understand out of Market at online in essentially starts a go to match up with those consumers.
To essentially find what they’re looking for a joke telling that brand story digitally the comes the opportunity and then.

[25:30] Retailers partnering with companies like.
Drizly to help bring that stuff to life on life online and it’s actually close the loop on placing that final order.
Becomes what I would say the closest thing we have to digitally native Brad and.
Because because the category is just so engaging for consumers and somebody where is it so much for thought-out purchase,
they want to understand how to use it where they want understand the story behind the brand,
I definitely think building brands in digital is is a great strategy to think about or this guy too gory and then starting to get creative and how we essentially
close the loop on the purchase side becomes the next step in that cuss words.

Taylor:
[26:17] One of the things that I think that’s a good point there when you get in the Game of Thrones example that was a new product release.
When that product is released it’s important that you know when they’re on the Fireside they’re launching these products are making sure that drizly in the other.
Have the correct.
Collateral right do we have the right product images do we have the right bottle facts you all these things in an e-commerce consumer expects to see before or right at watch let’s that’s another thing to think about as you’re going down that brand building.

Jason:
[26:52] Yeah I know that makes total sense when I would imagine a new skills for a company with this been around as long as Diageo I have to have,
read digital merchandising the support drizzly & Company but I’m even assuming your traditional wholesale Partners you know there’s a there’s a lot more buy online pickup in-store than they used to be so I think,
the Total Wines in bed most of the world are probably doing more of that and then you have all this grocery pickup in Walmart and Kroger like you know I’ll bet you.
Digital marketing and digital Shopper marketing shops are becoming a much higher priority across the board at the auto show.

Wayne:
[27:29] Yeah and I think that’s that’s part of the Mandate of our team so when we where we are.
I’m just over a year ago a lot of it was just going after some of the low-hanging fruit stuff so.
Do we have an internal audit the images we have if we don’t have 400 and some odd you know brand of Fruit Products job descriptions ready to go,
do we use an in-house supplier or do we Outsource the production work to get that stuff set up,
you know who is R&R syndicating partner can we try and build something internally you two weeks ago.

[28:02] The likes of us ossify which ultimately we end up doing to distribute the content.
We were elastic just showing up in the most fundamental ways was incredibly important for us in the in the sort of phase 1 of this journey.
Once we got that in place then you’re absolutely right and starts to become the,
more ideated space of how do we think about marketing on the back of this content now that we know we can trust,
not the content is of a certain caliber and quality to Syndicate to the retailer.
You know it’s not an easy conversation to have with with any national retailer any Regional guy if you will if if they come back into you and say something like we don’t even have product images and descriptions for your brand so I don’t really,
really know what we can start to do for e-commerce year and,
you know that that’s been the journey for rusted Dave and that’s you know and I think that’s a similar journey to most of what she could she’d companies in Centreville.

[29:06] You want it you want to do something aspirational and you want to go big but there’s just a ton of work to do when it comes to establishing the brand presents online
correctly effectively and then a scale so you know you look as good with the walmart.com or an Amazon as you do with you Noah Kroger a liar and Albertsons and anywhere else your products are available.
In some type of online chatting format.

Scot:
[29:33] Taylor on the drizly side I saw you guys recently raised around of 35 million that was good hopefully you got up your fair share of that and then that’s according to crunchbase that that says you guys are up to 79 total,
clearly must be grown very quickly to to get that much venture capital and there’s demand for your service we had to wait on the show several times talking about what they called the bifurcation wear,
u.s. split into Canada.
Surprised by some of the things we’ve seen there I’m sure it would have you guys seen you think about your I guess it’s your sellers customer but I’m sure you guys see you.
Updated.

Taylor:
[30:20] Identity of the consumer is a drizly consumer to be clear the war doing all the work on addition excetera to drive the volumes for a local Retail Partners that value layers be provided outside of the software,
I think what we’re seeing is a more receptive consumer to buying alcohol online if he did that was one of the big hurdle that we really overcome in the last year and a half or so is.
The majority of the folks that were shopping kind of more by accident but still felt like they were doing something that might be considered illegal or On The Fringe but we’ve done a really good job and making sure that are messaging we are in,
they were putting the retailer out front.
When you shop with the New Jersey experience you’re seeing which local retailer you’re actually shopping from and that’s crystal clear to Consumer on our platform I think that’s been a big piece of it.
Bill you lagging the general you don’t match grocery e-commerce percentage still we’re still looking at below 2%.
I told you nobody by building groups and Biagio like Wayne and his team is done
I think of that kind of shows the importance from a category perspective of where alcohol e-commerce is headed
that makes sense when I start to look across the ecosystem of know who’s going to be a quarters the consumer consumer probably go shopping or do most of their shopping online,
that’s really who’s coming to the shop you’re just like.

Scot:
[31:50] And then any resting time Trends is this kind of is there a peak time from liking it.

Taylor:
[31:59] Yeah and it’s exactly what you think you’re seeing a lot of stock application,
no happening later in the week you know Monday Tuesday Wednesday that’s more for searching and sorting and complaining if you will
and then as you start to Rolling the Wednesday night Thursday night Friday night that’s Morgan start the peak gallop and then obviously just Saturdays
Dagon in anytime if there’s a holiday that has any celebratory finish to it you’re going to see an uptick in orders,
we have to think New Year’s Eve Super Bowl Saint Patrick’s Day.

Scot:
[32:34] What was interesting and often struggled with this is a lot of the on-demand guys they go app only because it.
It’s easy to measure the metrics but I know what you guys also have web you have a great out but you also have kind of a web transaction model.

Taylor:
[32:55] The majority of our orders do you happen within the app experience and then iOS specifically but with that said it’s important to shop and then that experiences,
you know a good experience right we don’t want to create an MVP if you will we want to create an MLP if we want to meet him all lovable product,
and I think that’s something that we take him very seriously beginning. I personally shop on the website when I’m shopping around Ridley,
typically playing together a little bit larger basket sizes in order,
no. My favorites into the favorite thing,
you know across the app and she just looks like a full bottle of wine she’s looking for for for bachelor night with with the girls and she’s off on her way so I’m really trying to meet all of our consumers where they are.
I’ll take about you that our corporate anybody got a couple.

Scot:
[34:00] Speaking of corporate consumers as cooking around your site and saw some pretty nursing seems like you guys have done some interesting things there are audience maybe how that came to be in some of the programs you have for corporate.

Taylor:
[34:12] Yeah yeah if we we’ve got a green head of corporate over at drizly
Amazon a phenomenal job of building that practice out for us it’s an area that it actually took a little bit longer to really take a deep dive and we’ve always had corporate customers
yo
would show that we really cared and corporate until released on this latest round of funding so I think it will be tried to do today that’s really white blood that service for a corporate customer.
You’re a larger order on there’s more Logistics involved whether it’s coming through a Docking Bay or whatever it might be in typically when you’re also ordering for that or you’re not,
scheduling it for an hour later you find a little bit of it and you want to make sure that you really get that delivery window because when I,
my happy hour and office is taking place at 6:30 they mean 6:30 they don’t mean 7:30,
those are all important factors I think they mentioned that you’re chatting
fire but no we also have taken the opportunity to make some Partnerships with some other folks out there yet mentioned the Buddy fridge power that on the back end,
you know what you did great Bay for offices that have the cooler unit within their office to automatically reorder their favorite beers online.
Doing a lot more in that space and I think that for me and Gracie perspective you can expect to see more and more of that stuff happen as Jersey becomes against Anonymous and alcoholics.

Scot:
[35:35] I think it’s obvious but anyone that had the title Chief strategy digital marketing Revenue officer would definitely have to have a smart alcohol fridge.
A b a b shot if Jason doesn’t.

Taylor:
[35:49] No greater no greater.

Jason:
[35:52] You think you’re mocking me but I feel like we have a full-time team at boob assistants dedicated to our in office alcohol consumption technology.
So there I literally think we have tags in our office that are on Twitter and tell you when there’s a when they’ve been tapped and and all that sort of stuff.

Wayne:
[36:13] The route to the reorder part of that cycle in and drizly can deliver.

Taylor:
[36:20] She’s she’s phenomenal.

Jason:
[36:24] I do want to go back to tell your little bit about some of the differences between how you and your wife shop the leveraging of the using of list and and that’s one of the mixed blessings with
digital shopping for a lot of these categories I can in grocery
on the one hand it it makes reorder and it is much easier in an improved convenience and and all these things that consumers are demanding more than ever.
The flip side is there’s less opportunities for serendipitous discovery of new brands and things like that and so I’ve noticed like in the grocery space,
you’re saying some new interesting Partnerships and opportunities that the marketplaces are inventing so you know interesting promotional units from instacart or interesting data partnership with Marketplace
shares data back with the flowers that they can use to create new experiences like are you guys.
Seeing that in the alcohol space as well and is there are there any interesting Serta brand Marketplace Partnerships that.

Taylor:
[37:23] Yeah yeah we’re doing a lot up there and we talked with a lot of what we consider not endemic partner so you know a recent one Netflix just wants to show called Final Table partnership with them where you know it is essentially,
yeah they’re answer to a food show type contest,
where we basically paired wines that correspond with each of the different episode when we actually went through some of our Retail Partners and created in Thor display so taking online and offline,
a creating a little bit of Piper on the show and then about some of the wines that are brought up in,
it really looks at all aspects of the ordering process but also like what people are ordering at a local level write a report with Neil Finn in the past I think the biggest.
Unlearning to be at our people really care about what’s being made at a local level on a product.
And we write a logo on it to 10% increase of sales for that product,
English forget that the various craft breweries I’m really like to highlight that fact that he’s around the corner from you.

Jason:
[38:48] And I feel like a glove just came off now.

Wayne:
[38:52] Well I mean we don’t have as many local badges because I think some of our best stuff happens to be made in Scotland but I would argue that we also have some awesome brands that are local to the US.
I wish you’d have local badges on them too and I know we actually do tell her.

Taylor:
[39:12] Yeah Ugg you got the badges think about you,
you know when you’re serving up something a consumer you mentioned earlier,
I think that’s an area where you going to see drizly and backed up in the next 6 to 12 months have only in and making sure they were putting right in front of the right consumer at the right time specially given you the the way it is
you know that e-commerce World works today you’re very limited Chopper and
right thing in their basket you’re so does the better we can do it helping push products at the browse grid.
Are consumers to purchase the more likely they are to check out and continue in the shop with our platform.

Jason:
[39:56] Wayne not necessary enticing you to throw me under the bus unless you want to but in general
like you guys feel like you’re you have access to enough data and enough promotional opportunities via all these new touch points to do the kind of marketing,
that you like to do or is there an opportunity for your partner’s to do more.

Wayne:
[40:18] I would say we’re getting there there’s always room for more but but we’ve realized through some of these what I’m.
Call Canada for spear of of the category the drizly.
Instacart the Postmates you don’t whole or the license are really always managed to put some of the product is that.
They do tend to know more about the consumers they serve than some of the traditional retailers and so the data we can get from them is is really interesting for us we get to understand
the notion of usage occasions but now we get to get into purchase occasion so,
you know we spent a lot of time for additionally learning about when people consumer Brands but,
knowing about when they buy them is also super interesting knowing about where they buy them is really interesting knowing about,
in a high price point low price point all the different stuff that you can see comments release these particular channel to partnership.
It’s all new data for for the category but it certainly data that I think in the form of our strategy in a whole new way going for it.

Scot:
[41:26] Well it wouldn’t be a Jason Scott show if we didn’t talk about Amazon so.
Can you sense Wayne with last do you know every startups worst nightmare has to go to build all this out and then Amazon says oh that’s an interesting space let’s go replicate what how do you guys answer.

Taylor:
[41:45] Yeah the Amazon car says everyone favorite.

[41:51] We be crazy not to think about Amazon right they only had faith in every e-commerce or Marketplace or otherwise I’m just because of how successful they’ve been,
I think it it honestly is it helpful to have them in the face and I don’t use the word oil but I will
because it helps build consumer confidence that your back to my earlier pointed you know you buying online went down the right way and with the right partner is a very legal transaction is something that you know makes the shopping.
I think they were we’ve got an advantage is really in our Marketplace rights or our ability to show.
And to your point of the 8 to 15 different retailers in a single location with that same commodity product,
and then allowing the consumer to shop based off of what characteristics of that retailer are the most important to them whether it’s Private Selection excetra
Jana and I think it will be both are really proven and it’s been one of our biggest most to is this is a highly regulated good
right and drizly was built in its core,
the handle does the supporting sale right from the software perspective other regulated
so I think that you’re just slapping on and alcohol category that’s why we haven’t
not the number. Of instacart and Postmates some of the other companies out there because it’s not just that right the very different shopping experience.

[43:17] I’m not talking about the bottle of wine they can run into a shopping cart that you know,
yeah I might drink half of and cook with half I’m talking about the alcohol specifically sale,
and I think that’s going to be our advantage now and in the dead moving or specially if you start to grow it our national retail.

Wayne:
[43:35] I mean Amazon is is testing this category and we we talked to them and then
you know they do have availability through Prime now in Seattle through fresh in Illinois through Prime now I believe in in Sacramento and Southern child coming from what we understand
we’re Amazon has an opportunity to get better to tellers point on this you can’t just add one more category and expect you to be successful,
the proposition that consumers looking for when they go to a liquor store in it’s obviously price is important but really selection and so.

[44:13] You’re the prime now facility were there for filling out of doesn’t always have all the space that I think they would need to represent a wide enough assortment,
including various sizes right some people want 175 some people want 375.
You know big bottle small bottle for Matt about to challenge logistically that that I think anyone needs to overcome including Amazon to really build out an interesting proposition for,
are spirits online particular at the marketplace model essentially lets me is the end user on the app.
Columbus ZIP code say I’m interested in Bourbon and essentially yet.
You know almost any bourbon you could think of from from the lowest price point all the way up to you know bottles that are approaching thousand $2,000 for.
You know brand like maybe a copy that anyone should be looking for when you have that proposition and you have it almost.

[45:15] Spell nationally this point it’s how you start to see a lot of opportunity for e-commerce to,
firstly when you’re operating a very local level like Amazon or most of the retailers all right now you’ve got to you’ve got to think through that how do you how do you essentially provide.
. assortment that people are looking for but also you know let people come into the top of the funnel at any sort of scale and sufficiency to to make this thing work like you could do or say or diapers or.
You know any of them more traditional Goods that are available ubiquitously everywhere.

Scot:
[45:53] Yen into the drizly point.
Example Amazon’s done like you have 200 friendly Integrations with point-of-sale systems and then like Amazon pay hasn’t had a lot of adoption with with retailers because it’s kind of like you know.
Hey at this feels really weird having Amazon kind some ways their scale.
I think you heard them because they’re not going to be very hard for me to build a network.

Wayne:
[46:21] Yeah I think I know you look on Prime now I think the experience for some of these third-party seller.
Optimize the way presented and then you know I know car category either there’s a lot of price for the disparity so I think consumers would expect someone to to see the price options but then also understand why,
you know there are these different prices presented to them so early a challenge that at Amazon,
I think we need to address her or think for a little bit more closely was they knows they look to scale and something like at 3 p.m. I’ll only agree with you.

Scot:
[47:05] The big thing this happened in were,
more mature meaning higher adoption categories is now Amazon competing themselves with private label right and you guys worry over at the au jus about amazonbasics beer or an Amazon basic vodka.

Wayne:
[47:23] I don’t and I and the reason that I think we are we are not so concerned with something like that I digitally first private label brand with with someone like Amazon is that
one is technically speaking there is this this rest of Market wall with that off so you can’t necessarily create a,
Brandon not make it available now Costco does have some really good trip propositions with Kirkland brand of backyard Kirkland brand tequila but
you know I think when consumers are looking for Spirits in particular and beer,
I think I’m looking for that brand story they looking for that experience you know this is.
This is generally a more thought through purchasing you know that the price point is not that of your standard consumer guide and so.

[48:14] You know we we have trust in Our Brands and we we really see the strength of our friends has.
No fighting throw this in a potential disruption from private labeling and one in which I saw very very closely it play out where I was at.
It’s just it’s just not as easy to enter to win in a private label proposition.
Categories within the other category where you could directly Source manufacturer.
Any other thing with private labeling is essentially you do have to buy it back from the distributor you can.
Direct store so the various tax reform.

Taylor:
[48:54] Yeah and it’s a double down on Wayne’s plane really strongly believe the brand should one timeline you know they’ve done the brand building with the consumer
they brought him down the car I think that’s the kind of one big point to sit who is an e-commerce world as they need to continue to prove that value prop and buy that brand and that should be shot War.
Ecommerce consumer as well go get some of the traditional channels that have always work,
should be also augmented with coming to think that Wayne and his team are doing to really go about that Chopper and make sure that they end up being.

Jason:
[49:29] That’s going to be interesting to see how it plays out you know one of the things that’s always interesting to me in in
the market is still really early and it’s did you adoption curve like alcohol and Spirits is right now is that you can have a pretty fragmented market right so.
Obviously been a bunch of time talking about drizly here is one of my readers that there’s there’s a ton of players trying to,
when I a piece of the spacing and you know each with a slightly different go-to-market approach from your standpoint Lane do you have to,
participate with all of them do you make some big bets on the ones you think are going to win like you know what is your strategy like early on when there isn’t necessarily A.

Wayne:
[50:12] Yeah I mean we’re still in that building phase of e-commerce for sure and in a lot of our time or the last year is just understanding.
What’s happening across the market alcohol is in a lot of ways of Barry it’s early fragments as you said but it’s also.
Locally Tribbett so,
you know we we understand who is going to be the best strategic group to align with the New York but that might not also be this the best guys to figure out who the partner when is Texas in the West Coast,
the the play right now is continue to test and learn and I think that’s,
that’s really consistent with anything you here in anybody need Commerce is constantly test. Billy learning and you get ready to Pivot really quickly as things change.
But because there’s no sort of clear National front-runner right now in in the space we need to figure out how to win it at every light at every level a lot of those levels are are hyperlocal.

Taylor:
[51:18] Come on Rainbow National front runner.

Wayne:
[51:22] The closest thing to a national franchise and about right now is is Total Wine.
But even they don’t truly you know have a presence in all 50 states 00.
Yeah so we are we are definitely navigating the the ultra complex for sure.

Scot:
[51:44] Taylor have a start-up question for you if you guys have the school red bear as your logo I’m guessing why that’s there but I don’t want to make assumptions founding story about the drizly bear.

Taylor:
[51:55] I was why I was wondering when that question would come up you know that.
I can tell you the name drizly actually came from.
That is an option off the board as far as name goes and then very early on in life.
Get a branding agent has become in and give us some marketing tips and tricks and feedback excetera and one of the things that they came up with
shooting currently with this Presley
not a lot of thought went into it after the first logo iteration with the Jersey Devil is done and I think it’s something that deep down no one’s ever fully understood but at this point in our life is what were known for,
we’ve all become pretty pretty affectionate to the bear so the bear the bear will live on.

Jason:
[52:49] That that is awesome and is it works at that’s going to be a great place to end it because it’s happening again we’ve blown through all our allotted time but if folks have burning questions about the category let’s keep the conversation going on Facebook and Twitter
as always if you really enjoyed this episode we sure appreciate that that five star review on iTunes and as a reminder of you want me Jason and Scott in person in Palm Springs next week you can do it at you tell West and then it’ll be a promo code,
in the show notes for you but Wayne Taylor a real pleasure chatting with you and really grateful for your time today.

Wayne:
[53:27] Thank you guys just a lot of fun.

Scot:
[53:31] The end up before before we let you go if folks want to find you online are you guys realistic tweeters or snapchatters or instagrammers in any any business writing there that where people can find you.

Wayne:
[53:44] Can you find me an admin people on Twitter although I mostly just tweet about sports and things like that but what happened.

Taylor:
[53:54] When the big wings and I find him on LinkedIn meet me the same people in 86 on Twitter but we’re we’re LinkedIn.

Scot:
[54:02] Awesome we really appreciate guys taking time out of your busy day so join us on the show and.

Jason:
[54:07] Until next time happy comercing.