The Record - Issue 20: Spring 2021

134 www. t e c h n o l o g y r e c o r d . c om P ROF I L ED : S T E . M I CHE L L E WI NE E S TAT E S L ike many companies in the retail and hospi- tality sector, Ste. Michelle Wine Estates had to put two of its key revenue drivers – on-site wine tastings and concert events – on hold in 2020 due to Covid-19. This was a big change for one of the largest premium wine companies in the USA, which typically welcomes hundreds of thousands of visitors at its 30,000-acre chateau each year. With customers stuck at home, Ste. Michelle doubled down on its e-commerce and sub- scription business to continue delivering a high-quality customer experience online. To fill the gaps, the organisation implemented new methods such as kerbside pickup and contactless point-of-sale (POS) terminals. Not content with simply compensating for on-site business, Ste. Michelle capitalised on the opportunity to grow by expanding into newmar- kets and channels, implementing innovations like digital wallets or QR codes, and continuing to offer more international payment methods. All of these ambitions had to be supported by the technology, insights, and real-time visibility from its unified commerce payments platform. “We knew we needed to innovate and change, and I think we just luckily timed it right,” says Eric Johnson, director of consumer engagement technology at Ste. Michelle. “It’s something we were lacking in our website, the ability for us to engage with our customers online, so we pushed that hard. And then of course, Covid- 19 hit and everything went there anyway. So, we were ready for it.” Ste. Michelle enlisted the help of Microsoft partner and payments platform provider Adyen to ensure it had all the right technology in place to allow it to view the complete purchase history for every consumer across all its channels. This allowed the organisation to see the gaps and spikes in demand and find new ways to personalise and improve the end-to-end customer experience. “Adyen was the right choice as payment partner for Ste. Michelle Wine Estates,” says Francois van Splunder, senior product marketing manager for Dynamics 365 Commerce at Microsoft. “Not only because of the direct integration via our Core con- nector with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Commerce that made implementation seamless, but also the knowledge that together we could enhance author- isation rates and improve the customer experience.” The seamless integration between Dynamics 365 and Adyen allows Ste. Michelle to see across the entire business and quickly pinpoint areas that need to be optimised. In addition, the Adyen platform allows the business to accept payments in any currency. “We can see a POS transaction on the same system that we can see a web or a call centre Covid-19 shut down Ste. Michelle Wine Estates’ on-site business in 2020, but it was able to offer new digital customer experiences with Adyen and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Commerce A perfect pairing: great wine and unified commerce “Adyen was the right choice as payment partner for Ste. Michelle Wine Estates” FRANCOI S VAN SPLUNDER , MI CROSOF T