Groups allow you to segment and tier your customers to provide them with specific allocation offers, discounts, or free shipping. You can use Groups to manage different wine releases, organize customer tiers, or separate mailing list subscribers from active buyers.
Types of Groups
Standard Groups
Standard Groups allow you to offer a discount and/or free shipping to a segment of your customers. These are useful for organizing customers who don't need access to an allocation, such as employees, trade accounts, or a general mailing list.
Allocation Groups
Allocation Groups are the primary tool of the Allocation sales model. These Groups allow you to designate different wines, quantities, messaging, and date ranges for the people in each group, in addition to the discount and shipping functionality available in Standard Groups.
IMPORTANT: Customers should only be in one active Allocation Group at a time. When a customer is in multiple Allocation Groups, they will see blended offers and messaging when they access their allocation, which creates a confusing experience. When reassigning customers, use the Move to Group action (rather than Add to Group) to ensure they are removed from their previous Allocation Group.
NOTE: Changing a customer's Group assignment is an internal action and does not send any notification or email to the customer.
Groups and Email Segmentation
If you are using Campaign Monitor through Offset, you can sync your customer list to Campaign Monitor based on Group. This allows for time-saving processes when building email segments for your releases. For best results, use distinct, unique Group names (e.g., "Premier" and "Foundation" rather than "Tier 1" and "Tier 2") so that Campaign Monitor segments using the "contains" rule can accurately target the right customers.
For more information on Campaign Monitor segmentation with Groups, see Campaign Monitor - Segment rules using "contains" or "matches exactly".
Adding Customers to a Default Group
In Settings > Customers, you can designate which Group new customers are automatically assigned to when they create an account or sign up for your mailing list. You must create your Group on the Groups page before it will appear as an option.
There are two default Group settings:
During Standard Signup: When a customer visits your website and submits the signup form, or when an admin creates a new customer, they will be added to the Group you select here. Whether you have an Allocation Group or a general mailing list, we recommend setting a default Group. You can use a name like "Mailing List," "New Sign Ups," or even a tier level. This will help with customer segmentation in the future.
During Club Signup: When a new or existing customer joins a club, you can choose whether they are added to the Club Assigned Group Only or the Club Assigned Group + Default Group. You can configure the Club Assigned Group within each club's settings. For more information, see Clubs Overview.
NOTE: If you have an active allocation available for the default Group, new customers will gain access to that allocation upon signup. This can be used intentionally to create a "Welcome Offer" for new signups, or you can temporarily change the default during a seasonal release to give new customers immediate access.
Organizing Your Customers Into Groups
Groups can be set up in a number of ways, depending on how your organization segments customers. Some clients base Group assignments on total lifetime spend, some on recent purchases or specific SKUs, and others use a combination. Many of our clients have a single Group, whereas others have dozens with different wines, messaging, time frames, and purchase limits.
When creating a new Group, use the Internal Description field to note the criteria that define the customers in that Group (e.g., "LTV = $5,000+, purchased within last 12 months"). Group names and descriptions are not visible to customers, so use names that are clear and distinct for your internal team.
To learn how to move customers between Groups in bulk, see Bulk Shifting Customers Among Groups.