Calgary, Alberta, Canada: May 7, 2013 – BlackSquare Inc., maker of Blackboxx, the market leading wine ecommerce application, has added an Australian wine industry veteran to its management team.

Ross Wood has been appointed as BlackSquare’s Sales Director for Australia. Based in Sydney, Wood will drive company sales in Australia and New Zealand and will support Asian initiatives.

Wood brings wine industry depth and business development experience to BlackSquare’s international expansion. Most recently, he spent eight years in senior sales management roles at De Bortoli Wines, Australia’s top family wine company, and second largest volume wine brand. Previously, Wood had a decade of operational and sales experience in national accounts management for Australia’s supermarket chains.

“Ross brings invaluable perspective and business development opportunities to our Australian market growth,” said BlackSquare CEO, Matthew Protti

“Profitable, recurring ecommerce isn’t simply a website or an ecommerce cart; it’s a whole new line of business. Ross understands how important this innovation is to Australian wine brands.” Protti added.

“With Australia adopting digital faster than most, and online wine buying in its infancy, BlackSquare’s upside and ‘first mover’ advantage for brands is enormous” said Ross Wood

Wood added, “Innovative wineries and retailers are seeing that direct-to-consumer ecommerce is a more effective, profitable way to protect price and brand, and more direct brand engagement with consumers.”

Protti explained “The wine industry lags in ecommerce innovation and cloud computing adoption. We expect global wine industry players to rapidly switch to cloud-hosted ecommerce. Traditional vendors have been slow to change, opening up a large market opportunity for BlackSquare.”

Conventionally, wineries incur high capital costs for minimal ecommerce capability, and significant ongoing costs and complexity. Blackboxx’s cloud computing, SaaS-based platform is uniquely tailored to the wine industry, offering low-stress ‘in the box’ capabilities and modest fees in lockstep with ecommerce success, aligning interests of winery and supplier.

About BlackSquare Inc.

Headquartered in Canada, BlackSquare is powering an ecommerce revolution for the global wine and spirits industry.  BlackSquare combined deep wine industry expertise with advanced cloud-computing technology to produce Blackboxx, the most powerful ecommerce platform available, designed for global wineries, wine clubs and distributors. www.blackboxx.biz

BlackSquare also owns WineCollective.ca (Canada’s largest monthly wine club) and Tannic.ca (Canada’s first flash-sale website, providing exceptional wines to discerning members), the most innovative ways to buy wine online in Canada.

BlackSquare Contacts:  

                   
Matthew Protti – CEO
In N. America – 403.648.9094 or 1.855.772.5225       
In Australia – +61 2 8607 8988         
GMT – 6H

Ross Wood 
Sales Director – Australia
ross@blacksquare.ca
In Australia – 0438.228.155

View original press release

This is a full-time position located at our offices in the Beltline, close to public transit.

We’re looking for well-rounded developers that will write code, help influence architecture decisions and really have the chance to shape our technology going forward. There is lots of opportunity for advancement with this position – we’re still small but growing quickly!

An ideal candidate:

• Is an intermediate or senior web developer who’s had experience building web apps, and is passionate about software development.
• Has English language fluency with professional quality written and oral communication skills.
• Is able to hit tight deadlines and work in a fast paced environment.

Some of the technology we use:

• Ruby
• PHP
• Several flavours of Linux
• Git

Benefits:

• Competitive compensation; compensation is dependent on experience and is negotiable.
• Awesome working environment in Calgary’s Beltline, close to restaurants and shops.
• Opportunity to “get in on the ground floor” with an exciting technology company including enrollment in our options program.
• Free to choose your own development environment.
• Lots of wine to sample and expand your palate – we hold weekly tastings.
• Flex-time.

If you fit the profile, please submit your resume/LinkedIn, Twitter handle and compensation expectations to jobs@blacksquare.ca.

Tannic is a leader in the provision of an exceptional range of wines to a group of discerning members. The product set is presented conveniently and effectively through a sophisticated web presence and utilizing the Blackboxx technology also made by BlackSquare. Northcore provided a complementary platform to deliver a hand-picked selection of wines through a compelling online format where prices descended as the event proceeded.

“At BlackSquare, we deliver the world’s most advanced wine ecommerce platform to global clients and we’re always looking for new technology,” said Matthew Protti, CEO of BlackSquare Inc. “Combining Northcore’s innovative auction software with our Tannic.ca flash sale site enables the kind of technical magic our clients expect from us as we continue to revolutionize the wine ecommerce industry.”

The web site and more information can be found at http://www.Tannic.ca/.

“It is exciting to be working with an industry leader like BlackSquare and their property Tannic.ca on this groundbreaking project,” said Amit Monga, CEO of Northcore Technologies. “Our proprietary and patent protected, Dutch Auction process is a natural fit for the wine and spirits industries and we expect this partnership to continue to yield positive results for both parties.”

Further information on Northcore’s Dutch Auction intellectual property can be found at http://northcore.com/downloads/overviewarticles/overview-ip-dutch-01.pdf.

Northcore develops solutions to support the evolving needs of industry and provides comprehensive platforms for the management of capital equipment and the implementation of Social Commerce business models. These products are proven, effective and in use by some of the world’s most successful corporations.

Companies interested in effective software solutions should contact Northcore at 416-640-0400 or 1-888-287-7467, extension 395 or via email atSales@northcore.com.

About Northcore Technologies Inc.

Northcore Technologies provides enterprise level software products and services that enable its customers to purchase, manage and dispose of capital equipment. Utilizing award-winning, multi-patented technology, as well as powerful, holistic Social Commerce tools, Northcore’s solutions support customers throughout the entire asset lifecycle.

Northcore’s portfolio companies include Envision Online Media Inc., a specialist in the delivery of content management solutions and Kuklamoo, a family information web destination and national daily deal site targeting families with kids.

Northcore owns 50 percent of GE Asset Manager, LLC, a joint business venture with GE and holds a substantial intellectual property portfolio.

For more information, visit www.northcore.com.

About BlackSquare Inc.

“BlackSquare is revolutionizing ecommerce for the global wine and spirits industry. (http://blacksquare.ca) Based in Calgary, Canada, BlackSquare ownswww.WineCollective.ca (Canada’s largest monthly wine club) and www.Tannic.ca (Canada’s first flash-sale wine website).

View Original Press Release

We are seeking an experienced and enthusiastic. This full time, commissioned sales position is located at our offices in the Beltline, close to public transit.

We’re looking for team members who enjoy dealing with customers and who love to make them happy, as well as someone who is organized, efficient and excited about being part of a tech start-up company. There is lots of opportunity for advancement with this position – we’re still small but growing quickly!

An Ideal Candidate

• Has English language fluency with professional quality written and oral communication.
• Maintains productivity and quality standards.
• Leads communications, conflict resolution, and compliance questions with partner wineries about adopting our proprietary technology.
• Will work closely with our wine curator team and technology team to understand winery requirements for recurring e-commerce sales.
• Ensure all processes and procedures are completed to bring on board partner wineries in a professional and efficient manner.
• Answers messages in phone and email queues from customer wineries.

Skills Needed

• Experience working under pressure in a high-volume environment, consistently meeting standards for productivity and quality.
• Strong problem solving and communication skills.
• Extreme attention to detail.
• Background or experience with wine and wineries is a large plus.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.

Benefits

• Extremely attractive recurring based commission.
• Opportunity to “get in on the ground floor” with an exciting technology company, which includes company options & incentives.
• Lots of wine to sample and expand your palate – we hold weekly tastings
• Invitations to trade tasting events to try even more wine and represent the company.
• Flex-time is available around our regular (8am – 4pm) office hours.

If you fit the profile above, please submit your resume and monthly compensation expectations to jobs@blacksquare.ca.

We have a front-row seat to such business theatre now: watch how the B.C. wine industry’s players handle regulatory changes around the flow of Canadian wine.

Most people have been shocked of late to learn that, until June, free trade of wine across Canada was illegal.

Major trade barriers – erected during 1920s Prohibition to regulate alcohol – ensured that 13 liquor monopolies could extract maximum revenue from consumers’ wallets, while restricting their access to Canadian products.

By amending archaic laws, Bill C-311 decriminalized interprovincial wine sales for personal consumption. The bill will receive Senate approval in time for the busy summer vineyard season, and the Canadian wine industry will join the 21st century.

“We’re ending a 1928 Prohibition law that everyone knows is ridiculous and doesn’t serve us anymore,” said Dan Albas, Okanagan-Thompson MP and architect of the member’s bill.

This sits badly with provincial liquor boards, which all derive major tax revenue by controlling wine flow and enjoy 40% net return on operations.

Sure, governments need tax revenue for our collective good, but this bloated pig was overdue for slaughter. Extortionate taxes and liquor markups mean that Canucks pay the sixth highest domestic wine prices in the world.

Consumers understandably balk at the grossly inflated prices inherent in our strangled Canadian wine trade, justifiably choosing cheaper offerings from South America, Australia and Europe.

Sadly, Ottawa has downloaded the issue to the provinces, and in Canadian tradition, the provinces won’t agree to co-operate.

Though C-311 has passed, there’s so much loot involved that provinces are sinking in their protectionist hooks and hampering private enterprises from doing the job faster, cheaper and better.

Outrage from consumers and the wine industry has been swift and fierce.

Clearly, the wave of change is unstoppable.

Consider this: if your business was suddenly freed of market constraints and opened to six times the addressable market, would you change your approach? You’d think so.

Yet, despite the momentum, most of B.C.’s 204 licensed wineries will almost certainly prefer to “wait and see” before seizing this market opportunity. Those who downplay the regulatory change’s impact are missing the point. The hidden treasure is people really want to buy differently. Recent changes were forced by consumer interest in high-quality, small-production wineries that don’t produce the high volumes needed to be sold at provincial liquor stores.

The opportunity goes beyond more sales volume. It’s about selling better to loyal customers in a profitable way that they value.

Clever Internet technology now allows the smallest wineries to sell on a par with their larger counterparts. All can “touch” loyal customers anywhere and extend the in-person winery experience online.

Internet-enabled “mass customization” to consumer preferences and needs is doing away with clumsy web stores, buggy online shopping and poor sales fulfilment that resulted from earlier e-commerce efforts.

Wineries can attune their marketing, packaging and fulfilment so it all aligns with their brand “feel,” delivering a rich user experience that (hopefully) stimulates online sales.

Noted Okanagan winemaker Bill Eggert of Fairview Cellars said that, along with refreshed business thinking, wineries need great e-commerce tools to sell directly to their best customers. “Wineries have to invest to let our fans buy online. We need to talk to customers, automate our sales desks and let customers easily place orders.”

Oh, and be ready to pour some B.C. wine, of course.

Source: Business in Vancouver 

The likely success in mobile commerce for direct to consumer wine sellers (whether retailer or winery) won’t make all mobile channels equal winners. Currently, there are two major sales channels for mobile transactions – via a custom built app or via a mobile enable website. There are smaller channels such as Facebook commerce which have yielded so little traction up to this point that we can ignore them from this discussion.

Let’s look at making a purchase via either one of these channels as a consumer.

Via a custom mobile app:

• Customer identifies retailer/winery that they’d like to purchase from (via website, Google or in-person)
• Customer is informed that there is an app available in an app-store (iPhone or Android)
• Customer searches for app
• Customer downloads app
• Customer browses store within app
• Customer purchases (ad-hoc or recurring)
• Customer receives purchase confirmation either in the app or via email

Via a mobile enabled website:

• Customer identifies retailer/winery that they’d like to purchase from (via website, Google or in-person)
• Customer purchases (ad-hoc or recurring)
• Customer receives purchase confirmation via the website or via email

The major difference here is the discovery of an ecommerce enabled portal. For an app, you need to inform the potential customer of its existence and then encourage them to download it. That is a huge problem. How do you resolve it?

• Marketing – spend money to tell people about your app
• Misdirection – direct mobile users who try to visit your website to your app

Either one isn’t a great user experience. If you spend marketing dollars to tell people about your app, the likelihood that you will break-even on the channel goes down. With misdirection consumers can actually get turned off your product. If your customer tries to visit your website via their phone or tablet and get directed to your “purchase only mobile app” it is an extremely effective way to ensure they won’t return. Perhaps the customer wanted directions to your location, or food pairing information on their already purchased bottle, a push directly to commerce will discourage them.

While mobile payments are undoubtedly going to be a huge part of our ecommerce future it is much less certain that users will be using custom built apps.  Even successful custom built apps, such as those by HauteLook are driven from their web-based store and aren’t stand-alone apps.

Finally, there needs to be a discussion about why consumers want to purchase via their phone or tablet. In the wine world, there generally isn’t a need for “fast” transaction like HauteLook or Gilt, unless you’re talking about some of the forward thinking Flash Sale wine websites like Lot18, Tannic or Wines Til Sold Out. Most purchases which are done by mobile commerce in the wine world will tend to skew towards tablets where the user experience is much more akin to those on a computer versus those on a phone. For those Flash Sale sites a mobile phone centric app makes sense. For retailers or wineries that focus on ad-hoc or recurring sales, the business model for custom app creation simply isn’t there.

Why spend the money to create a custom app when a mobile enabled website will accomplish most of the same goals? Other than time-sensitive sales, we can’t think of a good reason.

We have done considerable research into wine club purchaser intentions and have found that people enjoy receiving smaller amounts of wine more often, rather than large shipments infrequently. Why then do wineries still ship out a case twice per year? Simply because it is easier for wineries, and not necessarily what their customers want!

Also, if you chose to ship out once or twice per year (even 4x per year) your gift market will be a fraction of the size of a monthly club when gifts can make up 0.5x – 1x of subscriptions.

Small Winery

If you are a small winery with 2 – 8 skus we would suggest:

• Shipping out quarterly
• 2 – 4 bottles per package
• A special “gift” sample package which can be sent out at any time (monthly), or during the holidays which could be 4 – 6 bottles.

An example of a package:

Package A

Q1: 2x sku A, 2x sku B

Q2: 2x sku C, 2x sku D

Q3: 2x sku E, 2x sku F

Q4: 2x sku G, 2x sku H

Medium Winery

If you are a larger winery with 8 – 16 skus we would suggest:

• Shipping out monthly or bi monthly
• 2 – 4 -6 bottles per package
• A special “gift” sample package which can be sent out at any time (monthly), or during the holidays which could be 4 – 6 bottles.

Large Winery

If you are a larger winery with 15 – 30+ skus we would suggest:

• Shipping out monthly
• 4 – 6 bottles per package
• Each package being able to be sent out as a gift package for a pre-determined number of months

CALGARY, ALBERTA, CANADA-(July 31, 2012) - BlackSquare Inc., maker of Blackboxx, the market leading recurring wine ecommerce application, released details of its entry into the Australian wine market today.

BlackSquare now powers wine ecommerce for such Australian companies as Gemtree Vineyards (McLaren Vale), Vinterloper (Adelaide) and The Tasting Bench (Adelaide) with many others currently in development.

“Blackboxx is a natural choice for recurring Australian wine ecommerce”, said BlackSquare’s President & CTO, David Gluzman, “Australia has favourable regulations, mature direct-to-consumer practices, a tradition of wine clubs and the world’s most dynamic wine market after the U.S.”

Gemtree Vineyards chose Blackboxx to power their domestic Australian ecommerce and Asian expansion without adding cost or staff.  Jenny West, Cellar Door Manager at Gemtree Vineyards said, “Blackboxx wine club is a powerful way to build our brand, to connect with our customers, and to duplicate the experience they enjoy in person at our cellar door.”

BlackSquare is riding a wave of improvement in Australia’s $5 billion wine industry.  For five years, the world’s fourth largest wine exporter suffered major price drops due to a strong Australian dollar and global wine oversupply.

Now, national marketing agency Wine Australia reports a rebound, with solid domestic sales, steady North American growth, and strong demand from Asia’s swelling middle class.  Sustained increases are forecast due to smaller harvests overseas, aggressive marketing, and a trend of quality over quantity.

“Australian wineries recognize that direct-to-consumer is the best way to retail.” Gluzman explained.  “But profitable, recurring ecommerce isn’t simply a website or an ecommerce cart; it’s a whole new line of business.  Blackboxx’s innovation lies in delivering no-stress, ‘in the box’ ecommerce, from marketing to fulfilment, from shipping to logistics, with back-end analytics on every sale and customer interaction.”

About BlackSquare Inc.

BlackSquare is a leader in ecommerce for the global wine and spirits industry. Based in Calgary, Canada, BlackSquare sells in Canada, Australia and Hong Kong. www.blacksquare.ca

Blackboxx is BlackSquare’s ecommerce application designed for wineries, wine clubs, retail stores and distributors.  BlackSquare combines wine industry expertise with advanced technology to produce Blackboxx, the most powerful recurring-purchase commerce platform available.www.blackboxx.biz

BlackSquare also owns WineCollective.ca (Canada’s largest monthly wine club) and Tannic.ca (Canada’s first flash-sale wine website).

Matthew Protti – CEO
403.648.9094  / 1.855.772.5225
matthew@blacksquare.ca

Michael van der Sommen – Australia Sales
0448 241 172
michael@blacksquare.ca
michael@cellarconnect.com.au

Calgary, Alberta, Canada: June 21, 2012 – BlackSquare Inc., maker of Blackboxx, a market-leading wine ecommerce application, has completed a significant seed financing round and added an industry veteran to its senior management team.

The seven-figure financing from a small group of private investors will support the company’s market expansion.

These milestones in BlackSquare’s growth from wine club and  ecommerce provider to market-leading technology company are timely:  the passage this week of Bill C-311 in the Parliament of Canada removes interprovincial trade barriers for the Canadian wine industry, creating a single national market and fueling demand for winery ecommerce.

Key to BlackSquare’s future growth is the appointment of veteran technology marketer, Judy Bishop, as Chief Marketing Officer.  Bishop will drive the company’s market momentum and assist in international market development.

Bishop brings a wealth of management and marketing experience.  She co-founded three successful technology start-ups, provided marketing consultancy to many fast-growth companies, won two business leadership awards and was previously in a senior management position at KPMG LLP.

Bishop said “BlackSquare sits at the intersection of four areas where I have considerable experience:  technology marketing, international business, rapid growth and the wine industry.” She added, “There’s been major change in how the wine industry touches customers.  BlackSquare has a solid shot at leading market innovation for direct to consumer wine ecommerce globally.”

BlackSquare CEO Matthew Protti said “We’re enabling direct consumer sales by wineries, wine clubs, retailers and distributors with user-friendly technology, that’s uniquely paired to wine industry needs.”

“This financing allows us to accelerate our development and deliver innovation to the global wine and spirits industry” said Protti.  “Adding Judy’s depth to our strong team will help us achieve our goal of revolutionizing online direct to consumer wine sales.”

About BlackSquare Inc.

BlackSquare Inc. has established itself as a leader in ecommerce for the global wine and spirits industry.  Based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, BlackSquare has sales presence in Canada, Australia and Hong Kong.

Blackboxx is BlackSquare’s ecommerce application designed specifically for wineries, wine clubs, retail stores and distributors.  BlackSquare combined wine industry expertise with the most advanced technology available to produce Blackboxx, the most powerful recurring-purchase ecommerce platform available. www.blackboxx.biz

BlackSquare also owns WineCollective.ca one of Canada’s largest monthly wine clubs and Tannic.ca, Canada’s first flash sale website for wine.

Company contact:

Matthew Protti –  CEO
Office: 403.648.9094
Toll-Free: 1.855.772.5225

We define ad-hoc ecommerce shipments as those transactions that come through a public website for a random number of individual bottles. The purchaser has no previous connection to the brand or site and there is no confidence this user will purchase again in the future. This category of ecommerce makes up a massive majority of traditional ecommerce sites currently running but is responsible for less than 30% of overall online revenue in the industry.

Recurring ecommerce shipments (eg. wine club) are defined as those which happen monthly (or quarterly) for a set number of bottles (2, 4, 6, 12). The user has made a substantial commitment to the brand or site and there is high (95%+) confidence the user will purchase again in the future. This category of ecommerce makes up a tiny minority of existing websites but is responsible for between 50% and 70% of overall online revenue.

Targeted ecommerce shipments is a follow-on to recurring ecommerce shipments in that “ad-hoc” purchases which are made by “recurring” members are sent out monthly (or quarterly) with the batch shipments. This category of ecommerce is almost non-existent however can be up to 10 times as profitable (based on our internal numbers) on a per bottle basis as ad-hoc ecommerce. The higher profit margin is due to the batch shipping of orders once per period and shipments going to existing recurring members.

To understand why batch shipping is more profitable, take a look at our batch vs. manual shipment primer.