SAANJ Winery
SAANJ Winery came to Bloom with a mission, not just a product to sell. In an industry that had long overlooked them, SAANJ set out to bring BIPOC representation, vibrancy, and community to wine, uplifting the people the category had ignored and breaking its members-only reputation along the way. As a brand-new winery, they needed more than a storefront. They needed a Shopify site that worked as an extension of that mission from day one. That's what we built.
A VISUAL IDENTITY AS BOLD AS THE BRAND
Traditional winery sites default to the same heritage look: neutral palettes, old-world serifs, a lot of reverent white space. None of it fit a brand defined by modern urban energy, the founders' cultural influence, and a youthful, friendly tone. SAANJ brought us their brand guidelines, and we translated them into a web-ready, accessibility-minded design system: a high-contrast palette of deep teal, bright gold, and near-black, paired with bold, inviting typography. We added an icon family to make technical specs feel approachable instead of intimidating.
On the live site, that personality moves. Video support, animated elements on load, and scrolling promos keep things alive, and the lifestyle photography is styled to a vibe: game nights, dinner parties, cultural scenes. Every section says the same thing. This is not a traditional winery, and everyone is welcome.
SELLING THE VIBE, NOT JUST THE BOTTLE
Wine is notoriously hard to sell online: customers can't taste it, so they need another reason to buy. Most DTC wine sites lean on mysterious scores and dense tasting notes that quietly alienate newer drinkers, and for a brand-new label, that's a hard place to start from.
So SAANJ's product pages lead with context instead of jargon. Each wine is paired with a mood, a moment, a social scene. "Think game nights, big laughs, and chilling with your day ones" says more about a SAANJ bottle than any tasting note could. Immersive split-layout product features, styled photography that centers diverse cultures and occasions, and a customer review app do the rest, selling the experience around the wine, not just the liquid in the glass.
A STORE THAT REACHES BEYOND WINE
SAANJ saw apparel, gift boxes, and branded merch as real revenue streams, and just as importantly, as community touchpoints. The trouble is that those product types sit awkwardly on platforms built only for wine. Using Shopify's flexible catalog architecture alongside Bloom Commerce's compliance features, we built dedicated Merch and Gift Box sections next to the wine, unified by the same design language and served by a single cart and checkout. A customer can fill one cart with a bottle, a tee, and a gift box and check out once. The brand extends past the bottle without the storefront ever feeling stitched together.
BUILDING COMMUNITY, ONLINE
Community is easy to talk about and hard to build for an online-only brand, especially when so much of the connection happens at events and pop-ups. So we made the site personal. The founders are featured right on the homepage, because people connect with people. A newsletter signup keeps customers in the loop on events and new releases. And an Instagram integration pulls SAANJ's social presence onto the homepage, turning the storefront into a window on what's happening next. The site doesn't just sell wine. It keeps a community in the room.
SAANJ was built for the people who've never felt at home in a traditional winery, and the site had to feel the same way. Bold where the category is beige, warm where it's exclusive, and built to connect diverse drinkers to the brand, to its events, and to each other. The wine is the start. The community is the point.
