Do you like the business model and do you think that Cork’d has a real opportunity that will make them money?
Cork’d business model is focused on getting more users to sign in for free. For me this is a weakness for the company because it reduces the sources of revenue. At the same time it is a business that concentrates on the costumer, which is the main reason for its success.
I think that the company has a real opportunity that will make them money: Gary has a celebrity status, which should continue to be used to increase his customer base but it should mainly be utilized to attract more wineries that would create an account with them, given that the wineries are the company’s main source of revenue.
Are there things that could be incorporated into their business model to help them generate revenue?
There are two things that we can incorporate to Cork’ds business model to help them generate revenue: One of the greatest successes Cork’d had was when the company re-launched and recruited 14 wineries. So, I think they should host regularly big wine festivals as they did when they re-launched the website in order to obtain the membership of participating wineries, who are their primary sources of revenue. They could also concentrate more on the shopping experience, allowing their customers to compare prices between vendors or having pop-ups with promotions on wines.
How is Cork’d different from the competitors Smooth and Cellartracker and Vinquire?
Cork’s differentiates itself from its competitors by focusing in the costumer. They host events, they provide incentives to keep new users engaged, they would have guest writers that would post on the website and customers could also actively engage with wineries. But the main thing that differentiates them from the competitors is that Cork’d educates its users on wine with their database of grape profiles, winery profiles and articles about various wine topics.
What should Cork’d do next?
One of the big mistakes that I think that The CEO, Lindsay Ronga, made was to create an advertisement-free website. I think that the site should have wine related advertisements that could cover the site’s day-to-day costs, including salaries. They could also have “premium users” who would pay a prescription per year. This premium customer would have the privilege of attending special wine testing events and receiving newsletters for example. Finally as we said before Cork’d should host wine festivals,` in order to attract more wineries as well as more users.
