How Virgin Wines Uses AI For Customer Personalisation

Virgin Wines, one of the UK's largest online wine retailers, has entered into a partnership with Preferabli, a software company specialising in AI-driven product discovery. This collaboration is set to integrate an advanced AI platform into the retailer’s digital channels to provide customers with highly personalised wine recommendations.

By implementing Preferabli's technology, Virgin Wines aims to gain a deeper understanding of each customer's unique taste profile. The objective is to guide consumers more effectively towards wines they are likely to enjoy, thereby creating a more intuitive shopping environment.

“Our ambition is to create a shopping journey that feels personal, intelligent and uniquely supportive of each customer’s tastes,” says Danny Cooper, Chief Information and Digital Officer at Virgin Wines.

Deconstructing taste with sensorial AI

The technology powering this initiative is sensorial AI, a system designed to understand and model human preferences for taste, aroma and texture.

In the context of wine, this process involves breaking down each bottle into its core sensory attributes, which are then tagged for classification. These attributes include characteristics such as acidity, sweetness, tannin structure, body and distinct flavour profiles.

Using this detailed data, advanced machine learning systems can then categorise wines based on how they actually taste.

Preferabli’s platform delivers personalised recommendations to consumers by using a proprietary sensorial AI model that cross-references its large inventory dataset with individual user signals.

These signals are captured through guided questionnaires, specific search requests and analysis of purchase, rating and search histories.

Cooper explains that: “Preferabli’s industry-leading, machine-learning technology enables Virgin Wines to deliver a more intuitive, relevant and confidence-building experience at every touchpoint.”

Personalisation as a digital strategy

The initial phase of this long-term digital transformation strategy at Virgin Wines will focus on personalised email campaigns. These will be directed at Virgin Wines’ WineBank customers, offering selections of wine based on their individual flavour profiles.

This move represents a step towards leveraging customer data to provide tangible value and a more curated service.

The plan is to scale this functionality across the entire digital presence of Virgin Wines, including its upcoming mobile app and website.

“Preferabli’s machine-learning platform gives us the capability to do that at scale,” Danny says.

This highlights the importance of the technology's ability to handle personalisation for a large customer base.

Pam Dillon, Co-Founder and CEO of Preferabli, explains: “We’re imagining a world shaped by individual preferences, using machine intelligence with human touch.”

AI advantage in the wine market

In a market as intricate and varied as wine, consumers can often experience decision fatigue when presented with overwhelmingly several options.

AI-powered tools such as Preferabli’s could help mitigate this issue by simplifying the discovery process and making it more aligned with personal taste.

Danny believes the platform is uniquely suited to the ambition of Virgin Wines to modernise wine discovery and create a more engaging journey for its customers. This partnership reflects a strategic focus on creating personalised digital experiences.

“We’re very excited to be partnering with Virgin Wines, which is truly leading thinking on what it means to create personalised, vibrant digital experiences,” sayPam says.

By shifting from broad market segments to individual sensory preferences, the integration of this AI could offer a distinct advantage, fostering customer confidence and building loyalty through a more intuitive and responsive service.