Underground Cellar is an eCommerce wine platform that tries to redefine the value of premium wine through randomized upgrades rather than discounts. Underground Cellar gamifies the experience of buying wine by enabling consumers to buy wine within their price range and thereafter upgrade a few to higher quality wines. This offers wine lovers not just an interesting new method of experiencing premium wines, but also maintains a winery’s status and their pricing structure.
With this gamification technology, Underground Cellar has now reinvented the wine industry. For social status sake, most consumers have preferred high-valued wine brands to the lower-priced ones, and once they have tasted a high-end brand, there is always the need to try other high-priced brands that, in most instances, exceed their financial abilities. However, thanks to Underground Cellar, consumers can now find and learn about wine, as well as buy bottles at their price point while also getting to level up and experience bottles they might not have otherwise had access to. In addition to cooperating with prestigious wineries, the company includes a panel of wine experts who curate wine collections by region, varietal, or theme.
How does it work?
Every week, the platform posts different offers which are only exclusive to its members. Each offer consists of a few identical wines of various price ranges. Members then pay for the bottle with the lowest price in an offer, which gives them a chance to be upgraded to the higher-priced bottles. All most all their deals are direct from the wine companies meaning that a member will receive the purchased bottle directly from the winery itself. Also, by introducing friends and participating in discussions with other users, the members can upgrade to a higher bottle.
The platform also lowers the entry restriction to wine collection by allowing its active members to store purchased bottles in their temperature-controlled wine cellar called the CloudCellar, which is located in Nepa Valley, California. A member can keep up to 500 bottles from various wineries at this cellar and order bottles to be shipped to them when they are ready. Another advantage is that a member will only pay the shipping fee when the package is delivered. joining the platforming is easy and free.