Kroger, Drinks expand Kroger Wine service

The Kroger Co. has expanded its Kroger Wine online wine store by bringing the service to more states and adding a "build-your-own pack" feature.

Kroger and technology partner Drinks said Wednesday that the build-your-own pack functionality enables shoppers to personalize their packs by picking out each bottle of wine. Overall, the service offers more than 45 wines, which the companies said are selected by winemakers and sommeliers for their quality, value and flavor profiles.

Kroger Wine launched last October in 13 states and the District of Columbia. Kroger said earlier this year the program was expanded to customers in Illinois, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey. Today’s announcement extended the service to millions more customers in Arizona, according to the Cincinnati-based grocery retailer.

The Kroger Wine online store offers more than 45 wines, which are selected by winemakers and sommeliers for their quality, value and flavor profiles.

Overall, Kroger Wine is available to 58 million households in 19 states and Washington D.C., which Kroger noted includes customers “both inside and outside” its brick-and-mortar footprint of almost 2,800 food retail stores. 

"Kroger is continuously broadening how customers can engage with us no matter what their needs are. Our mission is to serve our customers anything, anytime, anywhere, and Kroger Wine represents an additional way our customers can shop with us," Jody Kalmbach, group vice president of product experience at Kroger, said in a statement.

Related:Kroger online wine store makes debut

"With the new build-your-own pack feature, Kroger has brought its industry-leading convenience and personalization to the online wine-buying experience and expanded our leadership in the wine category.”

To make a purchase via Kroger Wine, shoppers go online to wine.kroger.com and confirm their delivery state and legal drinking age. They then can search a curated wine assortment and create a custom pack or join a quarterly membership club. Wines range in price from $10 to $16 per bottle. No extra shipping fees are charged for home delivery.

Under a new Kroger Wine promotion for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, customers can use the code “CYBER50” for $50 off all 12-pack wine collections, excluding Discovery and Winter White packs. The offer, running Nov. 25 to Dec. 9, translates to a discount of as low as $8.50 a bottle, with shipping included, the companies said.

Los Angeles-based Drinks Holding Inc. describes itself as “the nation's only wine-as-a-service platform.” The company noted that Kroger Wine, which merged online grocery with wine e-commerce, made Kroger as the first grocery retailer to launch a ship-to-home wine service.

Related:Grocery poised to grow online alcohol sales

"We are proud of our partnership with Kroger, which achieves the vision of making great wine accessible to more American households in the way consumers are increasingly shopping: online,” stated Zac Brandenberg, co-founder and CEO of Drinks. "By leveraging our scalable platform, Kroger became the first grocery retailer of its kind to offer a ship-to-home wine program that brings the flexibility, convenience and personalization of e-commerce to the wine shopping experience. We are excited to work with Kroger to uniquely meet the tastes and needs of consumers around the United States."