The Wine Community: A 50-Year Legacy Building for the Future with StoreConnect

For over 50 years, The Wine Community has been the trusted hub for Australian wine lovers to connect, discover, and share exceptional drops.

What began with a handful of passionate advisors and a card file of recommendations has evolved into a modern, online-first business — without ever losing its soul.

We sat down with Matt Carr, National Marketing & Events Manager, to hear how — with the help of their partner Swan Technology Solutions — they finally brought their digital experience in line with their 50-year legacy.

The Challenge: From Paper Cards to Digital Chaos

The Wine Community has never been afraid to invest in the right technology at the right time.

But systems chosen in the 80s and 90s eventually hit their use-by date. Siloed data, manual hand-offs between platforms, and constant human intervention created friction for both customers and staff.

They had already replaced their legacy ERP and paired it with Salesforce — creating a powerful, unified back-end.

The problem? Their Shopify store didn’t talk properly to Salesforce.

“The communication line wasn’t direct… it created too much chaos for us to really drive traffic to the website with any confidence.”

— Matt Carr, National Marketing & Events Manager, The Wine Community

The fallout was real:

• Products sold over the phone still showed as available online → risk of overselling finite vintages
• Double-handling of every order between two platforms
• New ideas (subscriptions, event ticketing) were either impossible or prohibitively expensive

“The main thing we needed to resolve was the dual management nightmare — an eCommerce store over here and Salesforce over there.”

— Matt Carr, National Marketing & Events Manager, The Wine Community

The StoreConnect Solution: One Source of Truth

Guided by Jo Swadling at Swan Technology Solutions, the answer was clear: StoreConnect — a full eCommerce platform that lives entirely inside Salesforce.

Suddenly, product info, stock levels, pricing, and customer data all came from the same single source.

A bottle sold online instantly updates inventory in Salesforce. A phone sale does the same for the website. No more overselling. No more fear.

“I expected setting things up to take half a day and a pile of help docs. I dived in… and it was so much easier than I thought.”

— Matt Carr, National Marketing & Events Manager, The Wine Community

The Benefits: Time, Simplicity, and Confidence to Grow

The impact was immediate and dramatic:

• Time savings of over 80% on eCommerce tasks
• Orders now go from website → warehouse with one click — no manual re-entry
• Subscriptions and single-ticket event sales are live and selling faster than ever

“We’ve gone live with our first two events on the new site. Both sold out weeks earlier than usual — that’s down to a dramatically better user experience.”

— Matt Carr, National Marketing & Events Manager, The Wine Community

“Before, every order required a whole manual process of data entry and cross-checking. Now our Financial Director just hits a button and it’s in the warehouse.”

— Matt Carr, National Marketing & Events Manager, The Wine Community

Advice from Matt to Other Businesses

“If you’re a small team with big ambitions, don’t choose a platform that adds complexity. Choose one that centralises everything and lets you achieve more with the people you already have.”

— Matt Carr, National Marketing & Events Manager, The Wine Community

And his final word on StoreConnect + Salesforce?

“For us there was no other option. If you’re already on Salesforce, it just makes complete sense to run your entire commerce operation on StoreConnect.”

— Matt Carr, National Marketing & Events Manager, The Wine Community

Looking Ahead

With the technical foundation now rock-solid, The Wine Community is finally free to turn the marketing taps on full — confident that every click, every sale, and every bottle will be handled flawlessly.

After 50 years of building trust one recommendation at a time, their digital presence finally matches the excellence of the wine in the glass.

Here’s to the next 50 years. 🥂