Social Networking Solution for the Wine Industry

Challenges

• Our client did not have the domain knowledge of creating an online marketplace.
• Being a startup, neither did they have access to huge funds for investing in expensive solutions or hiring consultants, nor did they have enough manpower to work on the project in a dedicated fashion.
• The client was looking for completing the project and going live in a short time span of 6-8 months.
• As the concept was unique and no wine marketplace existed in the market, we did not have any reference points for benchmarking and expectation setting. Hence, a lot of brainstorming sessions happened.

Solution

The social networking solution developed was called VintoVino. VintoVino is a dynamic, new social marketplace where wine enthusiasts meet online to discover, share and purchase fine wines, just like Expedia is to travel industry. Positioned as new sales and marketing channel for wine makers and retailers, it is highly effective in engaging the target audience. Vendors handle sales and shipping directly as the platform serves as the ‘one stop solution’ for all wine needs.

Technology

The solution developed was a mix of solutions developed using PHP, Laravel, HTML5, and Phonegap.

Features

VintoVino is an innovative offering in social space offering a host of features for end users and intermediaries.

Features for End Users

• Social Network Logins, Registration, Ask Friends to Join VintoVino
• Maintain profile page with cover photo and profile photo
• Posting on Timeline with photos, videos and posts & maintaining Photo Gallery, Video Gallery
• Search for friends, send & receive request for friend, accept friend, unfriend & block friend
• Follow fan page (winery page), listing of their feeds on wall
• Follow & unfollow friends, listing of their feed on wall
• Like, Share, comment with emoticons on post by winery page/ by friends
• Notification on message/ likes/ share/ Posting etc.
• Personal message sending like inbox/ outbox to friends/ winery page
• Chat with friends (1-1 chat with emoticons)
• News feed
• Search for Wine under Wineries in marketplace, listing wines under wineries, purchase wine from that winery
• Writing comments/ opinion on product, rating of products
• Option to select wine, view details of wine, add to cart and checkout with shipping address, and even as gift
• Order Management & Order Tracking

Features for wineries

• Registration with subscription
• Maintain company profile/ fan page with cover photo and profile photo
• Posting on fan page with photos, videos and posts & maintaining Photo Gallery, Video Gallery
• List of users who following fan page (count and view their profile names)
• Products Management like adding products, edit and update products, and to delete products
• Order Management and Reports

Benefits

Being industry experts and having delivered social networking solutions successfully across multiple industries, we developed the social networking solution in a time frame of just 5 months- well within the client’s expected project timeframe. Having said this, we offered the best price in the industry, the client having received quotes from other vendors in multiples of 3-4.

This positions Aalpha as an industry leader in delivering innovative solutions within timelines and to the client’s budget.