BigCommerce Powers New IAG Loyalty Online Wine Store in Partnership with British Airways

October 12, 2022 at 08:00 AM EDT

IAG Loyalty Retail chose BigCommerce for Open SaaS approach, flexibility and fast launch delivery

BigCommerce (Nasdaq: BIGC), a leading Open SaaS ecommerce platform for fast-growing and established B2C and B2B brands, today announced the launch of The Wine Flyer, a venture from a newly formed subsidiary of IAG Loyalty (IAGL).

With this new online store, the millions of members of the British Airways Executive Club can earn Avios, IAGL’s global loyalty currency, by purchasing wine and redeem Avios for wine, on the BigCommerce platform. The site features more than 140 varieties of wine, many of which are premium brands that have long been available on British Airways flights.

“BigCommerce is a great partner for this project because of their unique Open SaaS approach combining the flexibility and agility to meet our fast delivery timeline,” said Jack Smith, CEO of IAG Loyalty’s subsidiary, IAG Loyalty Retail. “Looking ahead, their composable capabilities and strong partner ecosystem give us countless options to add features and functionality as we grow.”

The site, built by BigCommerce Elite Partner Like Digital & Partners in just five months, takes advantage of BigCommerce’s strong ecosystem of technology partners. It features Adyen’s powerful and secure payment processing software, Klevu’s product discovery technology to drive traffic, conversion and loyalty and Shogun’s content management capabilities.

By launching on BigCommerce, IAG Loyalty Retail is able to take their previously outsourced wine business in-house, directly curating the wines available for their loyal customers. Integrating to IAG Loyalty’s global platform shows the flexibility of BigCommerce and demonstrates to similar businesses how BigCommerce can help them “know their customer” and realise loyalty value.

“This is a great example of an innovative merchant taking full advantage of our Open SaaS approach and ability to seamlessly integrate with different tech partners to create a best-of-breed product discovery, site design and payments solution with scalability, security and upgrades inherent in the platform,” said Jim Herbert, senior vice president and general manager of EMEA at BigCommerce.

“This project was an excellent opportunity to use the full benefits of BigCommerce's Open SaaS capabilities to build a seamless, customer-centric experience,” said Richard Mogendorff, chief digital officer at Like Digital & Partners. “It was essential that a customer should be able to sign in with their British Airways Executive Club credentials and be awarded Avios seamlessly within their shopping journey. We worked closely with the IAG Loyalty team, using BigCommerce's API-first capabilities to prototype this functionality early in the project, enabling our creative teams to use this as a basis for the customer experience design.”

IAG Loyalty Retail’s The Wine Flyer joins a long list of food and beverage merchants on the BigCommerce platform, including Gourmet Fuel, Four Pillars Gin, Silent Pool Distillers, Woodland Hills Wine Company and Beer Cartel.

About BigCommerce

BigCommerce (Nasdaq: BIGC) is a leading open software-as-a-service (SaaS) ecommerce platform that empowers merchants of all sizes to build, innovate and grow their businesses online. BigCommerce provides merchants sophisticated enterprise-grade functionality, customization and performance with simplicity and ease-of-use. Tens of thousands of B2C and B2B companies across 150 countries and numerous industries use BigCommerce to create beautiful, engaging online stores, including Ben & Jerry’s, Molton Brown, S.C. Johnson, Skullcandy, Solo Stove and Vodafone. Headquartered in Austin, BigCommerce has offices in London, Kyiv, San Francisco, and Sydney. For more information, please visit www.bigcommerce.com or follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.

BigCommerce® is a registered trademark of BigCommerce Pty. Ltd. Third-party trademarks and service marks are the property of their respective owners.

About Avios

Avios is the global loyalty currency of the British Airways Executive Club, Qatar Airways Privilege Club, Iberia Plus, Aer Lingus AerClub and Vueling Club. There are more than 35 million members worldwide, collecting in excess of 3000 Avios every second.

About IAG Loyalty

IAG Loyalty has a singular focus on loyalty excellence: delivering lasting growth and strong customer relationships for their partners, and creating unparalleled and rewarding experiences for Avios collectors, including a broad range of flight and travel rewards.

Its parent company, International Airlines Group (IAG) is one of the world's largest airline groups with 533 aircraft flying to 279 destinations and carrying around 118 million passengers each year (pre-COVID). Its leading airlines in Spain, the UK and Ireland include Aer Lingus, British Airways, Iberia, Vueling and LEVEL.