Sixty new lines and a folder of PDFs
The new list from your main importer adds sixty wines. Each comes with a tech sheet: a PDF with grape varieties, region and appellation, alcohol, residual sugar, closure, vegan status, the winemaker's notes and a bottle shot. To get them online, someone opens each PDF and types the details into your web shop, then finds the bottle shot, renames it, resizes it and uploads it.
It takes weeks to get through, so the wines sit in the shop but not online. And because every person types a little differently, the website's filters (grape, region, vegan) stop working properly: some wines say 'Grenache', some 'Garnacha', some 'Grenache Noir'.
Tech sheets are made for reading, not for systems
Every importer and grower formats their tech sheets differently, and often inconsistently between their own wines. A person reading them copes easily. A web shop needs each fact in a specific field, spelled consistently. The gap between the two is filled by manual typing, which is slow and introduces inconsistencies that make your own site harder to use.
- Grape names are spelled in different languages and styles.
- Region and appellation are mixed up or combined in one line.
- Vegan and allergen details are sometimes missing and sometimes buried in text.
- Strength and bottle size are given in different formats.
- Images come in all sizes and names.
What slow listing costs
Wines that are in stock but not online cannot sell online. Filters that do not work make customers leave. Missing or wrong allergen and vegan details cause complaints from exactly the customers who care most. And a skilled member of staff spends days typing instead of writing the description that actually sells the wine.
The listing tool we build
- Tech sheets are dropped into a folder or forwarded to a mailbox.
- An extraction step, using a language model such as OpenAI's or Anthropic Claude, reads each sheet and fills a draft product: producer, wine name, vintage, grapes, region, appellation, strength, size, closure, vegan and allergen fields.
- Each value is checked against your own lists: grape names mapped to your standard spelling, regions to your region list, strength within sensible bounds. Anything that does not match is highlighted.
- Facts the tech sheet does not state are left blank and flagged, never guessed. Allergen and vegan fields in particular are only filled from the sheet itself.
- Bottle shots are renamed, resized and attached to the draft.
- Staff review the draft, write or edit the description in your house voice, set the price and publish to your web shop through its API.
| Field | Where it comes from | Checked against |
|---|---|---|
| Grapes | Tech sheet | Your grape list and spellings |
| Region and appellation | Tech sheet | Your region list |
| Strength and size | Tech sheet | Sensible ranges |
| Vegan and allergens | Tech sheet only | Left blank and flagged if missing |
| Description | Your staff | Your house style |
| Price | Your pricing rules | Cost and margin |
The extraction is a first draft. Nothing is published without a person approving it, and allergen information is always checked against the supplier's own document.
Sixty wines online in a normal working week
When the importer's new list arrives, the tech sheets go into the folder. By the afternoon there are sixty drafts, each with the facts filled in and a handful of highlighted fields to check. Staff spend their time on the part that matters: tasting, writing a line that makes someone want the wine, deciding what to feature. The website's filters work, because every wine uses the same spellings.
It also works in reverse: when a supplier sends an updated tech sheet for a new vintage, the changes are shown against the current listing so you can see exactly what is different.
Signs your listings are a bottleneck
- New wines are in the shop weeks before they are online.
- Staff type details from supplier PDFs by hand.
- Your website filters return odd results because of inconsistent spellings.
- Vegan and allergen fields are often blank or unreliable.
- Bottle shots are renamed and resized one at a time.