November 12, 2010
By the ZippyCart Shopping Cart Reviews Content Team

There’s a little area tucked away in the hills of the world wide web that offers the most delectable wines and gourmet products at prices 30-50% off retail. It’s a place called Lot18 and was created by Philip James, founder of Snooth.com, and former CEO of Quigo, Kevin Fortuna. It is an online private sales club that will enable members to purchase fine wines straight from their producers.

Lot18, a membership by invitation only website, was developed with a couple of basic goals in mind:  helps bring recognition to producers who have difficulty generating a consumer following, while bringing consumers a selection of fine wines available in small quantities and limited runs at discounted prices. Prices range from $19.99-$59.99 discounted from of $35.00-$125.00, respectively.

On staff is a group of wine experts who write detailed descriptions of the wines and their vineyard, which may entice consumers to go outside their realm of preferred vineyards and sample wines they may have never heard of or tasted.

Lot18 has already partnered up with wineries such as Cornerstone Winery, Boisset Family Estates, Foley Family Estates, and, of course, Snooth.com. They’ve recently  landed a $3 million Series A round of funding from venture capitalist firm FirstMark Captial. Other investors include Quigo, Time Inc., AOL, Ziff Davis, Bankrate and Experian, along with some returning unnamed investors.

“Wine e-commerce done smartly is a tremendous market opportunity,” said Amish Jani, Managing Director at FirstMark Capital. “The U.S. is the world’s largest wine market at more than $30 billion in annual sales, but with only $2 billion sold online. Lot18′s approach is innovative because it matches interested consumers directly with top wineries across the country by creating close partnerships that allow the producers to really showcase their wine. The team’s experience and expertise in wine and technology gives them the background to create this exciting new platform.”

Few wine makers take to the Internet to sell their spirits, mainly because shipping and tax laws vary by state when it comes to alcohol.  This makes it very difficult to take advantage of all that selling online has to offer.  This is why some hosted shopping cart companies are focusing more on this niche of merchants, in a way to make things easier on them.  Most notably, Nexternal is an ecommerce solution that has the wine market cornered, as they make selling online extremely easy for any wine maker in any state.

H. Bloom, an online floral delivery service that offers floral subscription plans at affordable prices, has recently raised $2.1 million Series A round of funding, led by Battery Ventures in seed funding.

The New York based startup has created a new niche by offering the unique service of online only floral delivery service.  Earlier this year H. Bloom was able to captured the interest of several angels in New York and raised $1.1 million, bringing the company’s total funding to $3.2 million.

H. Bloom is able to offer flowers at great discounts because they cut out the middle man.  By not having a physical storefront to maintain and working directly with growers,  H. Bloom can offer professionally designed boutique-style arrangements for 70% off their normal retail price.

“The flower industry is saddled with unnecessary cost,” said H. Bloom co-founder and CEO, Bryan Burkhart.  “Retailers have to pay for expensive store-fronts and an overwhelming percentage of flowers that spoil before a customer can purchase them. With no retail footprint and the predictability of subscriptions, we know exactly what flowers to order and can pass on the savings to our customers.”

With the subscription customers are able to select the type of arrangement they want ($35-$85), whether they want their flowers delivered weekly, biweekly, or monthly, and how long they want to maintain the subscription (1-12 months or ongoing).

If a customer is not ready to commit to a subscription, H. Bloom does offer a one-time purchase option, at a higher price.  The company also offers weekly deals and customized corporate services.

H. Bloom plans to use it freshly acquired capital to continue to build a first class team, invest in sales and marketing to introduce its service to more customers, and to expand to a second market.

Currently, H. Bloom services Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn, Long Island City, NY, and Hoboken and Jersey City in New Jersey. The company plans to launch in Washington, D.C. later this year.