Black Elephant Vintners and the Business of Remembering Customers

Black Elephant Vintners

Franschhoek, South Africa • Founded 2013 • Real wine, for real people

"The cellar door is where the relationship starts. Commerce7 is where we remember it."

— Kevin Swart, Co-founder and Chief Idiot, Black Elephant Vintners

Real Wine for Real People

Franschhoek is one of the most famous wine valleys in the world. It's the kind of place known for historic estates, long wine lists, and tasting notes that sometimes require a dictionary.

Black Elephant Vintners is not that winery.

Kevin Swart co-founded Black Elephant on January 1, 2013, with a clear philosophy: build a wine brand centered on people, not prestige. Not a collector's cellar. Not a label designed to impress. A winery for real people — the kind who open a bottle because they want to slow down, sit across from someone, and make the moment better than it was an hour ago.

That idea shapes everything Black Elephant does. The tasting room, the wine club, the loyalty program, and even the emails customers receive months after a visit all exist to keep that invitation open.

For Black Elephant, direct-to-consumer sales are about more than revenue. They're about relationships.

The Problem With Patchwork

Around 2020, Black Elephant began focusing seriously on growing its online business. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and South Africa's alcohol sales ban brought wine sales to a standstill.

When restrictions were lifted, one thing became immediately clear: the business needed stronger digital infrastructure.

At the time, Black Elephant's ecommerce operation was built on WordPress and WooCommerce, supported by a collection of third-party plugins that required constant maintenance. Every update introduced risk. Every integration demanded attention.

Most importantly, there was no wine club at all. For a winery built around long-term customer relationships, that wasn't just a technology problem — it was a business problem.

"Now, the wine club is the oxygen of our business," Kevin explains. "If you service it properly, that means consistent, predictable revenue coming in every single month."

It's a common challenge across the industry. Top-performing wineries in North America generate roughly 40% of their revenue through wine clubs, making recurring revenue one of the strongest drivers of long-term growth.

Without recurring club revenue, growth was difficult to predict and even harder to scale.

Building a Business Around Customer Relationships

Black Elephant migrated to Commerce7 with three clear goals:

• Build a successful wine club
• Create predictable recurring revenue
• Own the customer relationship rather than handing it off to wholesalers

The financial benefits of DTC were important. Better margins and greater control always matter. For example, a bottle that costs roughly R80 ($4.50 USD) to produce might sell to a wholesaler for around R120 ($6.75 USD), but sell direct-to-consumer for closer to R280 ($15.75 USD). For wineries, every customer relationship moved from wholesale to DTC can have a meaningful impact on profitability.

But the larger opportunity was gaining a complete view of the customer journey.

With Commerce7, Black Elephant could finally see who their customers were, what they purchased, how they discovered the winery, and how they engaged over time. Today, the wine club accounts for roughly 20% of total revenue — a number Kevin and his team are actively working to double as they continue building out the program.

That visibility is particularly valuable in the Western Cape, where fires, floods, droughts, and seasonal disruptions can impact tasting room traffic. When visitors can't make it to the cellar door, the winery's digital relationships become even more important.

Commerce7 became the system that helps Black Elephant remember every customer long after they leave Franschhoek.

How It Works

A club for every kind of customer

Black Elephant offers both traditional wine club shipments and modern subscription options.

Subscription commerce is still relatively new in South Africa, so rather than forcing customers into a single model, the winery allows members to engage however they're most comfortable. Customers can adopt subscription habits at their own pace while still enjoying the benefits of membership.

Loyalty beyond the wine club

Not every customer is ready to join a club, but many still want to feel connected to the brand.

Using Commerce7's loyalty capabilities, Black Elephant created tiered rewards based on customer spend. Members earn points and unlock benefits without committing to a formal wine club.

Regular points campaigns encourage redemption and re-engagement, helping casual buyers become repeat customers.

As Kevin puts it, the goal is simple: "Catch everybody and offer something for everyone."

Extending the tasting room experience

Every visitor interaction matters.

At the cellar door, the team captures customer information and applies tags based on purchases, interests, and acquisition sources. That data flows seamlessly into Klaviyo, where personalised communication continues long after guests return home.

Over the past year, Black Elephant has captured roughly 15% of tasting room visitors into its customer database — a number the team is working to grow. Each percentage point matters: nurtured customers are worth approximately 2.8x more over their lifetime, making customer capture and personalisation a key part of Black Elephant's growth strategy.

The tools behind the experience

Black Elephant uses Commerce7 to power:

• Flexible wine club and subscription management
• Loyalty tiers and points-based engagement
• Customer tagging and segmentation
• Personalised ecommerce experiences
• Direct-to-consumer sales and reporting
• Klaviyo integration for lifecycle marketing

"Data doesn't prevent every mistake, but it gives us the immediate insights needed to act wisely and pivot quickly."

— Kevin Swart

What Has Changed

Today, Black Elephant has a stable foundation of recurring revenue driven by its wine club and loyalty ecosystem.

Repeat customers continue to grow. Members introduce friends. Visitors who once stopped by for a single tasting are now part of an ongoing customer journey.

The business still faces the realities of running a winery. Inventory remains complex. Nature remains unpredictable. DTC still requires commitment, consistency, and operational discipline.

But Commerce7 has given the team something they didn't have before: visibility, confidence, and a platform capable of supporting long-term growth.

For a lean team managing multiple sales channels, that clarity matters.

The Relationship Continues

Black Elephant Vintners was founded on a simple belief: wine brings people together.

Everything they've built since then — the club, the loyalty program, the tasting room experience, and the digital customer journey that follows — exists to extend that connection.

The cellar door may be where the relationship starts, but Commerce7 is what helps Black Elephant Vintners keep it going.