Earlier today, our friends at Vin65, a subsidiary of Wine Direct and VinTank, two companies at the forefront of digital strategy and commerce in the wine industry, announced a partnership. The aim is to integrate their respective technologies to help wineries better understand the relationship between eCommerce transactions and social media activity. Monitoring the value of social media marketing and its relationship with what transactions come through the shopping cart is a

I was recently asked what practical advice I would give an audience of wine store owners who want to use social media campaigns to increase sales. My response was not to bother, which reflected the experience of the retailers in the room, none of whom had an eCommerce website. My answer shocked me a little as I’ve had great experiences using social media, but from a practical perspective I recognize that the measurable impact of social media for a retail store is pretty small

A recent column explored the potential impact of social media on retail by describing campaigns designed to take advantage of customers’ activity on Facebook. The goal was to leverage social interactions to amplify a positive shopping experience across their network. With social commerce, most retailers see their goal as building engagement and providing customer service rather than putting a storefront on Facebook. Meanwhile, marketers and planners have been analyzing the ma

It has been 18 months since Facebook first allowed us to “Like” websites or products on other sites and broadcast that vote to our friends on our news feed. In that short period of time Facebook has built a series of features to support retailers who aim to leverage the power of that social network. While social commerce has been with us online since Amazon first promoted consumer reviews almost 15 years ago, the scale and stickiness of Facebook has made harnessing the news

When you think of Italian wine, does wine tech and social media come to mind? If you said no, you're probably not the only one, but the Italian Trade Commission is working to change that. For 3 years running, the Italian Trade Commission has hosted the largest Italian wine conference outside of Italy in New York City's Waldorf Astoria hotel. The conference was held in January and featured numerous seminars and tastings. But the wine and tech crowd gravitated to the social med