Case Study · eCommerce & Retail
Du Sol Wines
A custom direct-to-consumer wine store for a boutique Stellenbosch estate, built from the ground up rather than assembled from an off-the-shelf template.
Client
Du Sol Wines, Stellenbosch
Industry
eCommerce & Retail (Wine)
What we did
eCommerce Development, Custom Software
The Challenge
Selling wine online is not a plug-in
Du Sol Wines is a boutique estate in Stellenbosch, founded by Solly Moeng, producing handcrafted wines from a single vineyard on decomposed granite soils. To sell directly to consumers online, the estate needed more than a shop button. It needed age-gate verification for compliance, a considered way to present a small premium range, subscriptions for harvest releases, a wholesale path for trade buyers, and a stockist locator for in-person sales. Holding all of that together in an off-the-shelf template would have meant compromise at every step.
[PLACEHOLDER: add the specific starting point the client described - what they had before, what was not working, and why a bespoke build was the right call.]
Our Approach
Understand the business first, choose the technology second
We started with how Du Sol actually sells, who buys, and what compliance and brand standards the store had to meet. From that we designed the customer journey, built the storefront and backend alongside the estate, and stayed involved through launch. The result is a store the team can run, not a template they have to fight.
What We Built
A bespoke store, end to end
Custom storefront
A wine catalogue, product pages, cart and checkout built around a small, premium range rather than a generic template.
Age-gate compliance
Age verification on entry and responsible-drinking messaging throughout, as required for selling alcohol online in South Africa.
Subscriptions and updates
Email capture for harvest updates and new-release announcements, turning first-time visitors into a returning audience.
Wholesale enquiries
A dedicated path for trade, restaurant and stockist buyers to enquire about bulk and wholesale orders.
Find Du Sol
A stockist and venue locator so customers can find where to buy and taste Du Sol in person.
Cellar Notes
A winemaker blog for dispatches from the vineyard, giving the brand a voice and the site fresh, ownable content.
Custom backend
Behind the storefront sits a bespoke backend managing products, orders and content, deployed on managed cloud infrastructure, so the estate is not locked into a third-party platform’s limits or fees.
The Technology
A custom build, not a template
The store is a bespoke build: a custom front end paired with a custom backend and API, deployed on managed cloud infrastructure.
[PLACEHOLDER: confirm the exact stack - front-end framework, backend and runtime, database, hosting, and payment gateway.]
Outcomes
The result
Du Sol Wines now runs a live direct-to-consumer store it owns end to end.
TBC
Online orders / month
TBC
Subscriber sign-ups
Live
DTC channel, owned end to end
[PLACEHOLDER: confirm results with the client. Suggested metrics to capture - online orders per month, revenue through the DTC channel, subscriber sign-ups, average page load time, and time from brief to launch.]
[PLACEHOLDER: client testimonial, to be supplied by Solly Moeng.]
Solly Moeng
Founder, Du Sol Wines
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