To say that Naked Wines has had a good year would be quite the understatement.
And, well…it kinda makes sense that an online wine retailer would benefit from an ongoing global lockdown.
(This isn’t to say the company took advantage of such an awful situation. In fact, Naked Wines stood firm in their support of winemakers around the world throughout the pandemic.)
At any rate, the last year was quite the year for Naked Wines, with the company reporting:
- A 53% rise in customer numbers
- A 68% increase in sales (78% in the US)
- £340.2 million in revenues for Q1 2021
Of course, none of this would have happened had Naked Wines not already been a success in the first place. The fact is, the company has been growing steadily ever since its inception back in 2008.
That said, we’re going to take a look back at the evolution of Naked Wines’ website to show how the online retailer has continued to deliver value to its growing audience over time.
2008: The Start of Something New
If you’ve been following along with our Wayback series for a while, you’ll notice that Naked Wines is the “youngest” company we’ve featured thus far.
So, while the other companies we’ve discussed adopted ecommerce into their operations as the technology emerged, Naked Wines is actually a product of the ecommerce world as it existed back in 2008.
But, I digress…
Naked Wines exploded onto the ecommerce scene with an immersive website experience for their initial customer base.
From the homepage, visitors have a number of options as to how to proceed. With just a few mouse clicks, they can…
- Browse the company’s wine collection, along with accompanying product info
- Check out promotional offers and featured products
- Join online groups to connect with other wine lovers around the globe
Navigation is pretty straightforward, with standard headers and footers allowing visitors to quickly complete the task or find the information they’re looking for.
One area where Naked Wines has thrived from the get-go is their content.
This includes product-centric content:
Information about featured winemakers:
And details of the company’s overall vision:
Then, there are the on-site branded experiences offered by Naked Wines. This includes the aforementioned internal social media network, along with a section focused on facilitating auctions. The site also provided info on upcoming wine tastings in different areas of the UK.
What more could a customer ask for, back in 2008? Well, maybe some more customer-, and not product-centric content. But that’s getting ahead of ourselves.
Anyhow, it’s clear that from the start, Nakedwines.com was never just a site to buy wine from. Rather, it’s always been a digital spot for wine lovers to immerse themselves in their favorite hobby. As you can expect from a brand that was born into the post-Facebook age of the internet.
2010: Tweaking to Perfection
By the end of 2010, the Naked Wines team had already begun making improvements to their website.
Overall, the homepage didn’t change too much throughout these first few years — but improvements were definitely made.
Perhaps most noticeably, there’s better use of background color and shading to separate specific parts of the page. This allows visitors to browse with more purpose, and to quickly find the part of the site they’re looking for.
Speaking of purposeful browsing, Naked Wines again provides clear direction for new and current customers alike. The clear prompt to “Start Here” ensures new visitors get on the fast-track to their first purchase — while experienced customers can use the header tabs to get where they need to be.
The site also makes it easy for customers to find the best wine for a given occasion.
Both product and product category pages include:
- Product description and highlights
- Product rating and/or reviews
- Product pricing and promotional info
That’s what a product-centric site looks like. Which is age-appropriate when we’re talking about 11 years ago.
Users can also filter by type, price, and country of origin, then sort the results by price, rating, or popularity. Pretty standard, to be sure — but certainly a plus for both those who know what they like and those who are still looking for the right wine for them.
On that note, visitors looking for a more open-ended experience also have a number of paths to choose from.
Whether looking for new releases, seasonal favorites, or best-sellers, the path to the next bottle of wine is crystal clear. The section on “what other people are saying” — complete with links to the wines they’re talking about — also effectively points visitors in the right direction.
Naked Wines further builds this sense of community in a few different ways throughout its website.
First, there’s the Marketplace:
Here, the community’s top winemakers are given the opportunity to promote new or popular wines in greater detail than elsewhere on the site. This allows winemakers and consumers to connect in a more authentic and meaningful way — with Naked Wines playing a critical role in forging said connections.
For a brand to be playing a role in creating human connections is Customer Marketing gold.
Wine consumers are also given the opportunity to provide financial assistance to the winemakers they’ve come to appreciate. Those who join Naked Wines’ “Angels” program also receive a number of discounts and perks.
Even without a customer-personalized experience, the good mix of community and product components can provide a good compensation (for as long as customers are not expecting the same personalized experience they have come to expect years later.)
One final thing to note is that, while Naked Wines focuses heavily on building a community directly on their website, they also understand the importance of promoting social sharing and creating an omnichannel presence off prolatform.
2016: A Refined Look
By 2016, Naked Wines had switched gears a bit, presenting a landing page as an “introduction” to the main site.
(Quick note: Unfortunately, there’s no way to get past the location verification on the archived version of the site.)
Here, Naked Wines has taken much of the information that had previously been presented on separate pages, and placed it on the landing page. This allows new customers to get a quick rundown of what the company’s “all about” right from the start of their visit.
Unfortunately, things surprisingly get a bit disappointing after clicking “Start Here”. Here, users are presented with a quick survey that…doesn’t serve much purpose.
While this could have been a great opportunity for Naked Wines to learn more about their new customers’ tastes and preferences, it’s really nothing more than a cheeky way of promoting the brand’s selling points.
(At least you get a discount for filling out the “survey”, I guess…)
Anyway, upon completing the survey (or simply clicking “Enter Main Site” on the landing page), you’re brought to the actual homepage.
The content and info presented hasn’t changed much — but it’s much easier to digest at this point. The scrollable nature of the homepage, coupled with a more strategic use of white space, makes for a streamlined browsing experience for all visitors.
This more refined look and feel can be felt throughout the website:
In addition to a more user-friendly appearance, these sections of the site also provide more in-depth information and engaging content for visitors to digest. Again, much of this content focuses on bringing the Naked Wines community together to create valuable experiences for all involved.
2019: A Product-Centric Shift
This next iteration of Naked Wines’ website followed the previous version’s tactic of starting visitors off on an informational landing page.
It’s the culmination of a decade-plus of learning what works best for their audience — and making specific improvements to their website as necessary.
From the landing page alone, we’ve got:
- A modern, fresh aesthetic appearance
- Info on how the service works (from all angles)
- Quotes from current customers as social proof
…and more!
Sadly, the introductory quiz is still rather gimmicky, and is perhaps the one area of the site that doesn’t add much value to the overall branded experience.
(But hey, it’s at least presented in a more modern, user-friendly way this time…)
Skipping ahead to the main site, you’ll immediately notice a difference here:
That’s right:
At this point, Naked Wines’ homepage had become fully product-centric. Instead of having visitors click through to separate product category pages, the site immediately presents new releases, best sellers, and seasonal favorites for customers to browse at their leisure.
Today, for example, users are much more sensitive for this kind of presentation and react better to a more personalized, customer-centric approach.
The use of carousels further enables a streamlined shopping experience, while not creating clutter on the main page of the site.
As for the actual product pages, well…take a look:
Each page is chock-full of info to ensure customers make the right choice — and can enjoy their purchase to the fullest.
While the site does now have a more product-centric feel, it still includes the vital information included in previous iterations. From a comprehensive About Us page to a helpful FAQ section — and more — Naked Wines gives visitors all the info they need to move forward in their journey.
2021: Like a Fine Wine…
The most recent version of NakedWines.com essentially takes all of the positives from past iterations and doubles down on it all.
Not much has changed since 2019 in terms of the site still being product-focused, with in-depth and engaging product pages to boot.
That said, Naked Wines has clearly gone to great lengths to become more transparent, and to continue strengthening its tightly-knit community.
Simply put:
Naked Wines leaves no stone unturned when it comes to keeping customers engaged (by the power of community) and informed (by the power of INFORMATION. And lots of it).
That said, there are two things that’s a bit odd about Naked Wines’ website:
- There’s no blog!
- It never took the leap into a fully personalized experience, worthy of the zeitgeist of late 2021.
Regarding the blog, the brand does have a standalone site (dubbed “The Naked Truth”). And this site does operate as most traditional company blogs do.
But, this blog operates completely separate from Naked Wines’ actual website. And, while the blog includes links to the main site, there doesn’t seem to be a way to get directly from the main site to the blog.
Still, the wealth of helpful, informational, and useful product-based content distributed throughout Naked Wines’ website all but makes up for the lack of a “traditional” blog. Whether visitors are looking to learn more about the Naked Wine team, the causes they support, or the wine they sell, it’s all just a few clicks away.
It’s just that it’s all too “technical,” perhaps, and lacks a personal vibe. Which, again, is not surprising as the entire site seems to neglect the fact these are completely different human beings who visit it.
What’s Next for Naked Wines?
If the future holds more of the same for Naked Wines, then that’s not a bad thing.
But, it’s not perfect.
Coming off a banner year, Naked Wines will almost certainly continue to grow both vertically and horizontally. More locations served, plus more products offered, will almost certainly lead to big things for the online retailer.
More than just expanding their reach, the Naked Wines team will also likely be looking to connect with community members on an even deeper level. Especially coming off such an uncertain time period for winemakers and other small businesses, we’re bound to see Naked Wines pull out all the stops to help get their community back on its feet.
But not taking a sharp turn into customer-centric, personalized upgrade could be something that the soon-to-be-legally-allowed-to-drink visitors would not appreciate too much.