Selling Wine Online: a profitable extension to your business

Posted on | March 1, 2007  
Writen by | Ian Griffith

Story by Ian Griffith on 3/1/2007
The business of selling wine online has evolved significantly since the first wine website was launched in January 1995. Not many people can claim to have been online when Virtual Vineyards first appeared on the web. The first-mover in this industry online was able to raise hundreds of millions to build a business that eventually became Wine.com, but through various takeovers and management changes that operation is still struggling to turn a significant profit.

The bubble burst a number of years ago, but selling wine online has since become a profitable venture for retail stores throughout the country. Of the hundreds of websites selling wine, most successful ones have been able to integrate their website with offline business to add value to core customers and to expand into new markets.

Over the past 12 years wine store owners have faced a range of decisions about how to expand their operations online. The following is an overview of the terrain:

• Most early websites started life as HTML brochures for their stores. While some customers can be trained to use a static website to review products, few trust a static site is being updated. It is much harder to generate business without closing the sale online.
• “Off-the-shelf” e-commerce software can be customized for selling wine. However this approach rarely achieves an elegant solution as selling wine is forced to fit a standardized retail model.
• Joining a wine portal site can seem like the easiest approach to getting online quickly. However this shortcut to a web presence doesn't remove the imperative that you learn how to generate business online. As part of a portal your identity is subordinated to another brand which makes differentiating yourself that much harder. Why settle for a template when the Internet is intended to be customized?
• The need for integration between an in-store POS system and the website becomes painfully apparent as your list approaches 1000 products. Prepare now for this expected step by tracking vintages and improving the accuracy of your computerized inventory.
• The product information you give customers to help with their purchase is a large part of the value you offer. How are your products organized? How are they described? How many products show a picture of a label or bottle? Time spent creating this information is well spent, but to maintain a well-stocked website with product images and descriptions is a full time job.
• Virtual Inventory is the latest evolutionary leap in selling wine online by enhancing your in-store inventory with products listed in the Beverage Journal for your market. By itself Virtual Inventory won't make your website successful, but used well this powerful tool can add a huge competitive advantage.

The best decisions often amount to understanding how best to apply your time and resources. How much time and effort should you spend keeping your product listings current? How much maintenance can a technical partner take off your plate? The goal should be to let you focus on what you do best: selling wine.

To learn more about how the Beverage Media can help you Sell Wine Online with a website for your store, contact Ian Griffith at 212 571-3232 x318….

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