Case study | E-tasting
Turning a seasonal holiday range into a sustainable growth engine
- Client: E-tasting, an online store specialising in wine tasting sets for education and wine-related accessories
- Market: Online retail
- Challenge: Capturing peak festive demand by expanding the catalogue with differentiating products
- Solution: Rebottling wines into 2 to 5 cl Vinottes® with custom labels (QR codes, scratch-off labels) to power a range of Advent calendars and gift sets
- Nature of collaboration: A seasonal initiative turned into an annual partnership
The client
E-tasting is a niche online store specialising in wine and spirits sample tasting sets, notably designed to support wine education (such as WSET). Its offering extends to a variety of wine-related merchandise and accessories, from Le Nez du Vin aroma kits to vineyard maps and apparel.
Positioned across a market of wine and spirits students, enthusiasts, and curious consumers, E-tasting continuously seeks to refresh its catalogue, differentiate its offer, and deliver innovative tasting experiences to its customers.
The context
For an online store, the festive end-of-year period is crucial. The final quarter drives a major portion of annual revenue, and the holiday gifting season opens a growth window that cannot be missed.
- Key trend: Advent calendars
Each year in November, average monthly search volumes for the term “Advent calendar” reach:- 1.2 to 1.8 million searches in France
- 2.5 to 3.5 million searches in Germany
- 1.5 to 2.2 million searches in the United Kingdom
Now an essential festive gift, Advent calendars have naturally expanded into the world of wine and spirits.
- The need to innovate and stand out
In a competitive marketplace, enriching a catalogue with original, themed products that deliver a true sensory experience is essential to standing out and attracting new shoppers. - The need to test without taking risks
Launching a new product line requires validating customer demand and collecting initial feedback before committing heavier investments, all while avoiding burdensome in-house production and logistics.
The challenge
E-tasting wanted to seize the holiday sales opportunity by launching a festive, distinctive product range: Advent calendars and themed gift boxes (food & wine pairings, 100% organic, blind tasting wines of the world, a curated selection endorsed by their partner Vivino, etc.).
This project required bringing together multiple wine references in a compact format at controlled costs, integrating an experiential and interactive touch (scratch-off labels, QR codes linking to video content), and launching the line as a test run.
The Vinovae solution
To solve this challenge, we provided a 100% turnkey, bespoke solution. Thanks to our patented inert-atmosphere rebottling process, La Vinotte® faithfully preserves every organoleptic quality of the original full bottle. E-tasting’s customers thus enjoy an optimal, true-to-the-bottle tasting experience.
Implementation
Following the selection and procurement of wines by E-tasting, the full bottles were delivered to our production site. Our teams handled the entire supply chain: printing calendar boxes using artwork supplied by the client, inert-atmosphere rebottling, labelling, final box assembly, and dispatching outer-packed parcels.
The initial campaign served as a pilot phase, featuring 4 Advent calendars (including 3 dedicated exclusively to wine and a gourmet calendar pairing wine with artisanal cured meats) and 2 themed gift sets (containing 6 and 12 wines).
These new products made it possible to evaluate market response and collect initial customer reviews while minimising financial exposure.
Driven by these excellent results, E-tasting renewed the initiative the following year with a refreshed selection. The range was also expanded with two new additions: a 100% world rums tasting box developed alongside a leading partner, and an edition dedicated to wine and cheese pairings.
Key benefits
A richer, distinctive catalogue:
This new festive range accounted for nearly 30% of the newly added items in E-tasting’s catalogue, positioning the online store on strong market trends and high experiential value products.
Measurable growth:
Year over year, E-tasting achieved a 65% increase in turnover and a 49% increase in total units sold, driven primarily by the rollout of this festive range.
A significant traffic surge:
Over the final quarter of the year, from October to December, web traffic surged by 377%, reflecting the strong commercial pull of these new seasonal products.
A low-risk rollout:
By testing the concept on smaller formats before scaling up, the strategy mitigated financial exposure and confidently supported the decision to renew and broaden the offering.
A memorable experience:
Blind tastings with scratch-off reveals, QR codes linking to digital content, key elements that turn a tasting box into an interactive, engaging unboxing experience perfectly suited for online retail.
End-to-end support:
Rebottling, labelling, and packaging were fully managed by Vinovae, freeing up E-tasting to focus entirely on wine curation, marketing, and commercial sales.
Client testimonial
“Thanks to Vinovae’s Vinottes®, we turned our festive holiday offering into a sustainable growth engine. Furthermore, the tasting quality of the wine was never once questioned by our customers. It has become an unmissable seasonal highlight and a tremendous performance driver for our online store.“
In summary
By facilitating the launch of multiple themed gift boxes, Vinovae’s Vinottes® enabled E-tasting to turn the festive period into a strategic lever for sustainable growth. What started out as a test quickly established itself as an annual fixture, renewed and expanded year after year.
What this collaboration demonstrates applies to any online store: a sample format engineered for sensory quality and customer experience can become a powerful driver of differentiation, web traffic, and sales, season after season.