A snapshot of online wine
Posted by Pascal Davis on March 31st, 2008As I keep a close eye on how wine enthusiasts connect, buy, sell, discuss and learn about wine online, I think it’s worth giving a brief classification of the main online actors of the wine world.
1.) Media
This encompasses the online versions of the traditional wine press but also the newer voices of wine journalism: wine bloggers. Blogs like Alder Yarrow’s Vinography have become a premier destination for those seeking an alternate editorial voice on wine.
2.) Retailers
By online wine retailers I mean companies that have a license to buy and sell wine. They find customers online and process transactions on their own online store. As even wine.com now has a brick-and-mortar facility, online retailers most often are click-and-mortar. The web is an extension of their real world store allowing them to capture new customers in new markets.
3.) Wineries
They sell most of their wines to distributors, who in turn supply retailers; while the rest of their production is sold in the tasting room. This has largely been the norm until the rapid growth of the direct channel. As the web first came along, most wineries built their online presence to be a marketing vehicle – the web being but one piece of a larger communications arsenal. Today many wineries see their website as the extension of their tasting room: where the brand is promoted and wine is sold. Ecommerce is now the main engine of direct sales growth for many wineries.
These three groups have operated in the off-line world to satisfy the desires of the wine-consuming community in much the same way for many years. The emergence of the web has created new ways for them to engage with consumers and the web is rapidly changing how wine is marketed and sold. The dramatic growth of online wine sales has, to a great extent, been fueled by the emergence of new group of players: those that help bridge the offerings of the three above groups to better serve online wine enthusiasts.
4.) Wine marketers
Roughly, these are organizations that directly help sell wine while not holding any inventory themselves. They may or may not help process transactions or take orders, but they help bring to wine lovers the information they seek and also help shape their purchasing behavior (think of how much a service like wine-searcher.com can mean to passionate wine buyers…) Wine marketers provide a service, that, if useful, builds them an audience. In turn, it is this audience that wine marketers leverage to generate revenue.
These wine marketers often re-use the content generated by the media (or allow their users to post their own content: reviews) and provide product information from retailers and producers alongside clear paths to purchase. As buying patterns increasingly incorporate online behavior, the demand for good wine marketing services will continue to grow. The cost of becoming a noted media player, wine producer or even simply a wine retailer is quite high. That may be why so many new online wine marketing companies are being launched. Though the Google or Facebook of wine as yet to emerge, many are vying to claim that mantle. In any case, innovation and competition in the world of wine marketing services can only be good for wineries and retailers and will only further accelerate the growth of online wine sales.
