Briar Ridge Vineyards has been making award-winning wine in Australia’s Hunter Valley since 1972, with a loyal wine club community built over decades. When Jade Duff joined the team in January as Briar Ridge’s new Executive Support Officer, the winery was in the process of evaluating its technology, looking for a single platform that could keep pace with the business and its growing club.
While exploring their options, Jade identified a risk that would shape the decision: under their previous setup, Briar Ridge would not have been able to retain customer payment information if they ever needed to change providers in the future. It was a risk Jade wasn’t willing to leave unaddressed, and one that pointed clearly toward the need for a platform built around full data ownership, where club continuity never depends on a third party holding onto a customer’s card details.
Commerce7 offered exactly that. Club, reservations, point of sale, and ecommerce now run from a single platform with one unified guest record, giving the Briar Ridge team a level of visibility and control they hadn’t had before. Tags, queries, and segmented campaigns let the team group and reach members based on real behavior, while promotions and coupons run natively without needing a separate tool bolted on. As part of the move, Briar Ridge also retired a standalone reservations subscription that had cost roughly A$269 per month, simplifying both their workflow and their costs in one step.
Jade led the migration herself, just weeks into her new role and while simultaneously managing separate transitions for the winery’s accounting and warehousing systems. It was a demanding stretch by any measure. “It was challenging, as I was managing multiple system migrations at the same time,” she says. But she credits Commerce7’s support team with making the transition manageable. “I felt very supported by the C7 team throughout the process. The academy and setup guide were fantastic.” Her experience reflects a broader pattern across the Briar Ridge team, with other members describing Commerce7’s support as “thorough, friendly and timely,” and responses that are consistently “quick and helpful.”
“It was challenging, as I was managing multiple system migrations at the same time. I felt very supported by the C7 team throughout the process. The academy and setup guide were fantastic.”
Jade Duff, Executive Support Officer | Briar Ridge
That support translated into results immediately. Despite the system being entirely new to the team, Briar Ridge ran its first wine club run on Commerce7 within their very first month live, a fast turnaround by any standard. “The club processing functions worked seamlessly, and the overall experience was far smoother than what we had been used to previously,” Jade says.
Since launch, the team has continued to be impressed by how intuitive day-to-day operations have become. “The team picked it up quickly, and the intuitive design has made day-to-day tasks and club management much simpler than we anticipated,” Jade says. With club, reservations, and point of sale all built on one guest record, frontline staff can see a member’s full history the moment they walk in, rather than piecing it together across systems.
Jade also highlights the platform’s pace of development as a clear differentiator. “We’ve been impressed by the ongoing system improvements and enhancements being released, which show a real commitment to continually evolving the platform and responding to customer needs.”
For Jade, the case for Commerce7 is now unambiguous. “I’d tell other wineries it’s a no-brainer,” she says. “Commerce7 is a true one-stop shop that has saved us a considerable amount of money while eliminating the risks and inefficiencies of managing multiple systems. It’s user-friendly, intuitive, and the support is incredible.”
She puts the stakes even more bluntly. “Why would any winery want to put its club at risk by being forced to ask members for their credit card details again if they ever need to change platforms?”
For Briar Ridge, it comes down to something simple: not an app plugged into an app, plugged into another app, but one platform that works, built specifically for wine, and built around knowing the customer.
Learn more about Commerce7’s full suite of solutions, or request your personalized demo with a member of the Commerce7 team.
