Powering the Wine REvolution: Calling all New York Wineries for Web Development
Posted by admin on May 7th, 2007In the scope of value-added content in the blogosphere this post is more public service than value-add, but based on a traffic analysis of our blog we know and understand that an inordinate amount of traffic comes from New York—ostensibly, these folks are lurkers interested in our Direct-to-Trade program in addition to New York wineries interested in the Inertia software platform—Direct-to-Consumer and Direct-to-Trade sales; wineries who have yet to take the full plunge in the online waters.
Lenn Thompson from Lenndevours (www.lenndevours.com), a wine blog focused on the wines of New York and one of the top wine blogs period, is featuring an Inertia banner ad for the months of April and May designed to attract the attention of these very same lurkers. Interestingly, Lenn, separate from our small advertising promo on his site, has called out New York state wineries to adopt a more progressive path to use of the Internet.
In the vein of enablement, I’m going to do a re-cap of the New York State winery grant program for the lurkers in New York—a wine region ahead of the curve, but with much online work yet to complete.
On the heels of last years very successful New York State winery web development grant program, the Department of Agriculture and Markets has announced a second round of matching grants to $1000.
In an ongoing and very savvy move on the part of the state, they have again stepped up with funds to empower and enable New York State wineries with resources to help them expand their online presence.
But, New York wineries must hurry—the deadline for grant request submission is May 30, 2007—a scant 17 days away.
Quoting Patrick Hooker, New York State Agriculture Commissioner, an excerpt from the press release dated April 4, 2007:
“With the passage of New York State’s interstate wine shipment law two years ago and the increasing recognition of New York wines at national and international competitions, the opportunity for our wineries to reach new customers has never been better,” the Commissioner said. “Improving their website capabilities is an important marketing initiative that will allow our wineries to take advantage of new sales opportunities. This grant program is just on example of how we are committed to promoting efforts that support and benefit this valuable sector of New York’s agricultural industry.”
Through the Winery Website Improvement Grant Program, licensed wineries and vineyards in New York State may apply for matching grants of up to $1,000 to help them develop or improve their websites. Examples of eligible projects include those that add age verification software, foreign language translation, direct shipment capabilities, shopping cart functions, credit card purchase capabilities, adding or improving photographs or maps, and increasing accessibility for persons with disabilities.
Inertia Beverage Group is here to help. Dedicated to assisting wineries in two separate sales channels—direct-to-consumer and direct-to-trade sales, we strive to combine cutting edge technology with software ease of use, unparalleled ongoing support.
A winery can “port” their existing web site to our platform receiving full integration and ongoing hosting and begin using our advanced customer and web site management features that include:
1) Full content management control of your web site
2) Full shopping cart management and e-commerce
3) Allocation module
4) Wine club management tools
5) Customer relationship management tools and email campaign capabilities
6) Direct-to-Trade sales capabilities
In addition to a New York winery having the capability to manage their web site, consumer direct commerce and their wine club in one centralized, easy to use solution, they can also capitalize on the Inertia Direct-to-Trade capabilities which no one else in the market offers.
This dynamic program allows a winery to sell to restaurant and retail accounts in any of a growing list of 10 + states.
The above features of partnering with Inertia are compelling, but as winery advocates and champions we also price our service offerings with a winery budget in mind. A scant few hundred dollars more than your New York State matched offering will provide a New York State winery web site “ported” over to our system, and fully enabled to use all of the features our software platform provides.
To fill out the grant RFP, fill out the application, or see the NY State Round II Application Checklist, please go to:http://www.agmkt.state.ny.us/RFPS.html.
If you have additional questions on applicability of the Inertia system (NOTE: all of our services should be approved), please contact:
Meg McCabe
NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets
10B Airline Drive
Albany, New York 12235
Fax: (518) 457-2716
E-mail: meg.mccabe@agmkt.state.ny.us
The call to action is to act now. 2007 will be viewed as a watershed year for Internet-enabled wine commerce. Are wineries stepping up and enabling themselves to capitalize on opportunities to continue to expand their business? We hope so and we’re here to partner with winners that want to continue to develop their growth dynamically.
