William Grant & Sons launches Clink e-commerce platform

William Grant & Sons has launched a new global e-commerce platform, Clink.

The website will give consumers direct access to the company's portfolio of spirits brands, which includes Grant's, Glenfiddich, The Balvenie, Hendrick's and Sailor Jerry.

William Grant & Sons says it has used the company's global experience in the spirits industry and buying habits to build Clink as an end-to-end education, selection, purchasing and fulfilment platform. It has been designed to be responsive to trends in purchasing.

Dominic Parfitt, head of e-commerce at William Grant & Sons, said: "The Clink platform will be adapted based on our understanding of consumers' interests, needs and choices. This means that the range of brands, information and content will remain topical, relevant and personalised to specific moments, eventually including the ingredients for customers' drink and cocktail needs available in one transaction.

"The continuing lessons we learn about consumers’ tastes and buying patterns will help us design and develop new products, exclusive launches, events, partnerships and behind-the-scenes access to our distilleries, plus tastings hosted by our brand ambassador teams. These insights and innovations will benefit our retail eco-system as we continue to build advocacy for our premium luxury spirits brands, strengthening consumer loyalty and purchase intent."

He continued: "The decision to develop Clink was based on data and insights around the shifts we are experiencing in consumer behaviour. This has been further highlighted by the sharp increases in the proportion of our revenue coming through e-commerce; periodically in certain priority markets online sales have accounted for 15 per cent of our total business. This new offering will form a key part of our digital transformation and e-commerce journey, which will enable us to become a more consumer centric business for generations to come."

Following its initial launch in July, Clink - which has been developed in collaboration with THG Ingenuity - will continue to be optimised over the next few months in preparation for a full consumer launch later in the year.

30 July 2021 - Bethany Whymark