PJF Wines brings home E-Commerce - Food & Beverage win at HKB Technology Excellence Awards 2022

Powered by an integrated eCommerce ecosystem, the fine wine marketplace makes the process of selling and purchasing fine wines quicker, cheaper, and hassle-free.

Cross-border marketplace PJF Wines clinched the Hong Kong Business Technology Excellence Awards 2022 in the E-Commerce – Food & Beverage category for combining a technology-driven backend system and cross-border, direct-shipping model to transform the way shoppers in Mainland China purchase fine wines. 

In the midst of COVID-19, in which the borders between Hong Kong and Mainland China were closed, PJF Wines offers an alternative channel for Chinese consumers to access fine wines from Hong Kong merchants and overseas sellers. 

PJF Wines is one of the few online marketplaces for fine wines that can integrate all the information, and automate the filing process for clearance, ultimately saving merchants and customers time and effort. The platform’s technology eases the customs clearance process, which is complicated and has strict requirements for the cross-border e-Commerce clearance model.

Also, the e-Commerce and shipping model that PJF Wines operates shortens delivery time and lowers import tax for end customers. Whilst other cross-border platforms require merchants to hold their products in bonded warehouses – resulting in significantly higher costs, PJF Wines allows products to be held in a merchant’s warehouse in Hong Kong, with orders consolidated before being shipped directly to customers. 

The platform also makes it convenient for merchants to do product listing, inventory management and order fulfilment as it is all integrated into the backend. Combined with the platform’s regular collaborations with well-established sommeliers and wine experts for content creation, PJF Wines provides both merchants and buyers with a seamless e-Commerce experience. 

Moreover, PJF Wines has already yielded significant business results, with over 20,000 offerings originating from 15 countries. It has attained huge popularity in China, recording thousands of daily visitors to the website with a conversion rate as high as 8%. The number of active users is over 4,000, contributing to a compound monthly growth rate of over 80%.

Meanwhile, PJF Wines is collaborating with an image recognition-based technology provider to help customers identify wines easily, as a response to customers’ feedback. A new function will be built so that when a user takes or uploads a photo of a wine label, the platform will quickly identify the wine and its details. Users can also be directed to the product page for purchase.

By tuning in to the feedback from fine wine merchants and consumers, PJF Wines continues to improve its shopping experience, giving Chinese consumers a trusted platform to purchase fine wines from overseas.

The HKB Technology Excellence Awards honours outstanding companies that have made exceptional contributions in the pursuit of technological innovation in Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong Business Technology Excellence Awards is presented by Hong Kong Business. To view the full list of winners, click here. If you want to join the 2023 awards programme and be acclaimed for your company's outstanding contributions in pursuit of technological innovation, please contact Julie Anne Nuñez at [email protected].