Bloom 2019 Highlights & What's to Come in 2020
So much has happened over the last year, so we want to share some highlights.
We hired two new employees! Aidan Fleischer, who is not only a software developer, but also has a degree in enology! And Josh Jacobson (yes, we now have two team members named Josh) who is our Director of Business Development. They are both making a huge impact on Bloom’s ability to grow while continuing to provide a quality service.
2019 was our year to gather feedback from our customers, reset our sights, and plan for the future. Bloom 1.0 is currently being designed and developed and we’re very excited about where it’s headed. The big news is that Bloom has been approved to be a Sales Channel on Shopify. This means Bloom 1.0 won’t be your standard app, but will be located on Shopify’s left navigation, right under your Online Store. There are too many benefits to list here so keep reading to learn more.
Our growth was very steady. Now, more than 70 Shopify stores have Bloom installed. We've experienced consistent growth in California and an exciting and unexpected amount in British Columbia, Canada. Our hope is to enter the European market this year.
We say that we can't do great work without great customers, so we thank all of them for our incredible year.
The Bloom team wishes everyone a healthy and prosperous 2020!
- Patrick, Josh, Mara, Evie, Aidan, and JJ (the other Josh)
2019 GROWTH RECAP
BLOOM WELCOMED OVER 40 NEW WINERIES
Word is spreading fast that the Shopify & Bloom make a legit team, and that our customer support is second-to-none. Surprisingly, the Okanogan region of British Columbia has become a Bloom hotspot. Wineries like Volcanic Hills, Mt. Boucherie, and Kitsch were on-boarded in 2019. As expected, California wineries showed steady growth. Check out Piedrasassi, McKinney Family Vineyards, and our bottle photography for Banjo Wines. We're planning to bring on more Washington wineries in 2020, as well as expanding into Europe.
2 NEW TEAM MEMBERS
Our team grew a lot in the past year! Help us welcome to the team Josh and Aidan!
JOSH (JJ)
Josh, or as we call him JJ, is our new Director of Business development. He’ll be leading the way on multiple fronts here at Bloom: educating and onboarding new clients and developing partnerships with other business to improve our platform. Read more about Josh
AIDAN
Aidan is the newest part of our Bloom software development team and is hard at work on the newest Bloom redesign & features. Read more about Aidan
BEST OF 2019 FEATURES
Club member-only wines
Wines can be set so only logged-in club members can purchase them. It also provides another place to promote the club.
Integrated carrier calculated shipping for Fedex and UPS
If you want to integrate your store and Bloom with FedEx or UPS, and use the shipping rates provided directly from the carrier, you can!
205 order/shipping report
These reports are used by many fulfillment warehouses and are organized so the entire order is on a single row in the spreadsheet.
Batches report
View memberships by batch! See their payment status, gateway message, and fulfillment type.
Additional wine options report
On the Selections report, Bloom will now display any additional options members have added in order to provide a more accurate count of committed inventory.
Send tags to Mailchimp
When you add or edit a member, they will be tagged with their club level and status. Groups and segments are still being used, so tags are just an addition to what was already there.
Club member information is now displayed in the POS checkout
The Shopify POS will now display membership information in the cart, without needing to use the three-dot icon. This will be a big time-saver for POS users. Just tap the "+" icon to add their discount to the cart.
Set a min and max for additional wine options
This has been a heavily requested feature from some of our wineries. Now when you add a collection to additional wines, each product will have a minimum and maximum field, giving you more control over your inventory.
Improved tax overrides
Bloom now provides more granular tax overrides for club orders, allowing you to target alcohol and no-alcohol products with different rates.
Archive batches
Batches can now be archived instead of just deleted. This allows the historical data to still be available in reports, while cleaning up your batches list.
Downloads can be added to wine specifications.
If you have tech sheets, tasting notes, bottle shots, or any other file type you want to provide as a download on your wine detail pages, you can now add them as part of your product specs. Give us a shout if you want to try out this new feature.
After completing extensive upgrades, Bloom was awarded Platinum Certification from Shipcompliant. This puts us in the top partner tier, where only a handful of vendors live.
GRAND PLANS FOR 2020
EXCITING REDESIGN
Bloom has been a grand experiment gone right! Initially, we weren't sure it would take off, or if the compliance hurdles would be too hard to overcome. Clearly, Bloom is a hit. We have learned a ton from our customers, from industry leaders, and from friends in the industry. Last week we launched version 0.42.0. We're actively working on version 1.0, which will be a complete overhaul of Bloom. What will change? Here is a short list:
- Bloom will become a Sales Channel instead of a standard app. This means it will appear under your Online Store in Shopify's left navigation.
- We're building a dedicated checkout, adding features like “pay with saved credit card” and “pick up” vs. “ship” addresses.
- True allocation style clubs, driven by complex business rules.
- Massive overhaul of how members can customize upcoming shipments.
- Bloom will improve the batching process, providing ways to preview orders, set shipping dates, and manage email automation as part of batching.
- Avalara partnership, providing an alternative to Shipcompliant for compliance.
SHOPIFY UPDATES
Shopify will also be launching major updates in the coming weeks and months:
- All new POS where the Bloom app will be in the forefront.
- "Sections Everywhere" feature that will allow us to better integrate Bloom into content sections, provide the ability to use existing sections on any page.
- Better fulfillment & delivery APIs so we can develop better shipping & tracking features.
We're looking forward to building more great relationships in 2020!
