Cocreating new experiences for a wine club subscription

A new subscription model for Wine.com.br that continued shaping the business years later

Year: 2018

Role: Service designer/Researcher

Discipline: Service design

Industry: Consumer services

Background

Wine.com.br is a wine online commerce that also offers a subscription service. The subscribers receive a wine box every month according to their preferences and to Wine's curatorship.

Goal

By the time Wine asked Accenture Song help to improve their conversion rates of their subscription club, I was part of a team of 3 (one UI designer and another Service Designer) as a Service Designer and Researcher.

Wine wanted to reinvent their club offers by delivering new experiences to subscribers. It was our role to understand what were current customers and potential customers needs and expectations for the club.

Methods

1. Ideation Workshop: I started the project with a client workshop where we used ideation techniques (brainwriting with "What If" scenarios) to co-create new ideas for the wine club, according to their business goals and hypothesis. Participants produced concept cards and then prioritized the main concepts based on dot voting.

2. Research: I conducted 16 interviews with subscribers and non-subscribers (all wine lovers). During the interviews, we explored their drinking habits and routine. I also conducted a concept cards activity by asking them to evaluate the concepts that were created in the workshop based on their preference.

3. Analysis: using affinity mapping, we analysed all information from the Research phase and prepared a diagnose to present to the client so they could understand the users' needs, pain points and preferred concepts.

4. Prototyping: I prototyped the best evaluated concepts. The prototypes consisted of storyboards and mockups of new experiences/services concepts. Our UI designer also prototyped a new landing page for the website, using a new visual concept that aggregates all the ideas into a holistic solution where all the new experiences proposed for the subscription club could coexist harmoniously.

Images from the project, 2018. Participants gave consent for the image use.

Outcomes

Following the research, Wine.com.br implemented several of the concepts we proposed for their subscription experience. One of the main outcomes was a shift from generic subscription plans toward themed and preference-based wine journeys, allowing subscribers to choose curated “wine boxes” built around specific themes, tastes, and storytelling concepts.

This reframing expanded the subscription catalog and created a more personalized experience aligned with different user profiles and motivations identified during the research. The initiative also introduced new engagement experiences, including themed tracks and events designed to strengthen customer connection with the brand.

The project was presented at a Service Design Network event in São Paulo in 2018.

The themed subscription model developed from this work continued to be part of Wine’s offering through 2025, demonstrating the long-term impact of the research and service design strategy.

Screenshot from May, 2025.