Should unlicensed marketers profit from the sale of wine? Advertising online is an important part of any serious online retailer’s marketing mix. The options for a store start with the major search engines, but search marketing can be an expensive choice as the competition for keywords is intense. Increasingly niche websites are opening up where entrepreneurs have developed an audience and will happily help a store sell them wine. So far so good, and clearly marketers can hel

The State Liquor Authority of NY is preparing a new set of guidelines that could have national implications for how wine is sold online. While the jurisdiction of the SLA is limited to licensed wholesalers, retailers and restaurants, the issue at hand is how unlicensed marketing agents can promote wine. As a price-posting state NY has strict laws about 3-tier compliance, and given the size of the NY wine market most marketers will build their business models with these rules