The Central Otago wine industry has been selected as one of three business groups to participate in the two year pilot programme of the Digital Clusters Initiative led by BNZ and Zeald.
The initiative will build a bespoke digital marketplace to sell Central Otago Wines, both domestically and internationally.
The new marketplace will provide a new sales channel that can integrate with wineries existing sales infrastructure while helping to open up untapped markets and unlock the potential of digital technology.
Central Otago Winegrowers General Manager, Jake Tipler says after a rocky couple of years due to COVID, the Digital Clusters Initiative brings some much needed good news to the wine region.
“The marketplace has excellent potential to boost direct-to-consumer sales nationally and internationally, which can help grow brand recognition and profit margins and ensure the long viability of our wineries,” he says.
More than 40 Central Otago wineries have already expressed interest in the pilot.
Starting with a two-and-a-half year pilot programme, the Digital Clusters Initiative will partner with three business groups to build them into digitally-advanced “clusters” to show what’s possible when state-of-the-art ecommerce and digital collaboration tools are put at the heart of Kiwi business communities.
The next stage of the project will see Zeald working with Central Otago Winegrowers to produce a marketing and branding plan for the marketplace, while onboarding each of the wineries and loading up their products.
The Marketplace is scheduled to launch in September.
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