Naked launches ‘text for wine’ service

Naked Wines has launched a “text for wine” service for its customers – the “first of its kind” in the trade.

CEO of Majestic Wine, Rowan Gormley, in Majestic’s Mayfair store

The online wine retailer, which was bought by Majestic in April for £70 million, is now offering its 150,000 customers, known as “Angels”, the chance to order a case of wine by sending a text, with no charge other than the cost of a standard text.

This idea for the scheme was generated by a Naked Wines employee and will be rolled out to Naked Wines US and Australian operations if this pilot run is successful.

“Access to Naked’s digital marketing skills was a clear benefit for Majestic following the acquisition, and the launch of “Text for Wine” is a fantastic demonstration of these skills in action”, said Rowan Gormley, CEO of Majestic. “The fact that the idea came from an employee is testament to Naked’s strong entrepreneurial culture, which we are working on bringing across to Majestic.”

The announcement follow the launch of a new click and collect service at 22 Majestic stores for Naked Wines customers, with Naked taking advantage of its owner’s extensive distribution network to help overcome delivery costs.

Eamon FitzGerald, Naked Wines’ UK managing director,  added: “Initial uptake has been very encouraging and it’s easy to see this service being particularly useful for busy customers who don’t have time or access to the website.”

If successful, the service will be rolled out to all 211 Majestic stores in the UK.