The e-commercesectoris currently seeing some very exciting developments, indicative of the growth and evolution of the industry. The latest news to come out of Cape Town is a partnership between two e-commerce giants, Quicket and Cybercellar.com. As of November 2016, Cybercellar.com aims to become the ticketing destination for all wine, beer and spirit related festivals and events.
Customers purchasing tickets for their favourite wine and alcohol events can now visit the vino and liquor giant, Cybercellar, and through an effortless process, purchase their tickets and even add a bottle of their favourite beverage to go with it.
The initiative comes as both companies are experiencing a period of immense growth and developing strong brand presence in the country. Cybercellar.com is South Africa’s oldest e-commerce site and has been in operation since 1997. It has since experienced unprecedented growth and over the last few years has become the dominant go-to site to purchase alcoholic beverages online. The past two years have seen the company extend to non-alcoholic beverages as well as accessories. The move to include alcohol-related ticket sales was simply the next logical step. Quicket entered into the South African market in September 2011 as the first self-managed ticketing system in the country. It has since transformed into one of the largest event ticketing sites in SA.
Now, for the first time ever, the country is seeing two e-commerce sites partnering strategically to integrate two platforms into one streamlined experience; history in the making for South African e-commerce. James Hedley, Co-Founder of Quicket had the following to say:”We feel this partnership has the potential to create a lot of value for our event organisers in terms of brand exposure, extra sales and the ability to seamlessly upsell a range of products with tickets.”
The latest exciting development for the partnership is the addition of the popular inner city wine tasting adventure, Tuning the Vine. Richard Mills, CEO of Tuning the Vine,commented that the move to Cybercellar was strategic, creating the opportunity for greater exposure and wine sales for producers signing up to be a part of the Tuning the Vine #InnerCityWineRoute experience. Popular estates like Thelema, Zevenwacht, and Vergenoegd are familiar faces at the event and are strong brands on the Cybercellar.com site. It makes sense to bring it all together to move the whole industry forward andcreate a strong brand presence for all involved.
Gavin Forsyth, Chief Marketing Officer of Cybercellar says that he is excited by the future of the new venture. “Wine is one of the few truly lifestyle FMCG products out there. This means that brand affinity isn’t just created by the product itself, but also by the environment in which it is consumed. It therefore makes sense to incorporate events with wine, allowing us to provide customers with a complementary service to enhance their Cybercellar.com experience.”
So, next time you are purchasing your tickets for a beer festival or wine evening, get over to Cybercellar.com and have the tickets popped to your inbox in a few minutes.
