Designing a Compliant US Wine Fulfilment Process for Cross-Border D2C
Client
Premium UK Retailer | Wines and Food | Cross-Border D2C
The Situation
The business had growing demand from US customers for wine products, but existing fulfilment processes could not support alcohol shipments compliantly.
State-level regulations, age-verification requirements and split-basket fulfilment complexity created operational and legal risk, with no documented customer journey or process framework in place.
What We Did
Designed an end-to-end customer and operational journey covering eligibility checks, restricted-item validation, customs handling and age verification
Introduced an in-country US handling partner to support compliant fulfilment
Defined split-shipment rules, customer communication architecture and operational handoff points
Delivered the process as a fully documented implementation-ready workflow
Results
End-to-end fulfilment process mapped across seven customer-facing days and approximately ten operational stages
Process scoped and delivered within 2–4 weeks
Previously blocked wine sales capability unlocked ahead of wider US infrastructure investment
New fulfilment route established without disrupting the wider customer proposition
Beyond the Numbers
The project embedded compliance directly into the customer journey rather than treating it as a back-office operational problem.
More importantly, it created a commercially viable way for the business to unlock revenue immediately, without waiting for a larger long-term fulfilment transformation.
