From Winery to Poolside, DtC circa 2019 (OK, maybe 2020)
Understanding wine sales’ trends and consumer landscape might be a tricky task sometimes, but recent reports by Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Wine Direct shed some light on this issue, using data from over a thousand wineries.
According to Wine Direct’s latest report, online sales represent the biggest opportunity for wineries selling direct to the consumer today. Online sales have a high average order value ($282), high average bottles per order (7), high growth potential (10% of total sales currently) and lowest barrier to entry (your website can sell wine 24/7 with no action needed from your team). But that’s only part of the story.
Mobile commerce is coming to wine at last. In 2019, mobile traffic to winery websites is poised to exceed 50% for the first time. And in 2018, mobile orders on winery websites were up more than 30%. Hence, if your website isn’t mobile friendly, you are missing out on sales — a point well known within the e-commerce industry.
According to SVB 2019 report, both Gen Xers & Millennials are the online sales’ growth engine. Gen X will surpass the boomers as the dominant purchase cohort in 2022, and the Millennial cohort will surpass the Gen Xers by around 2027 to become the largest fine wine–consuming generation.
“The growth of mobile underscores the importance of having a mobile-friendly website that allows consumers to easily browse wines[…] and, most importantly, complete their purchase .”
But what does it mean for winery owners and DtC players, such as Vinsent? Gen Xers are far more comfortable than Boomers consuming digital information, while Millennials have grown up in a completely digital age — and with so much information and access to products at our fingertips, there is an expectation of engagement and connection with the products consumed, i.e. wines.
Today wine has the chance to capture the hearts, minds, and pocketbooks of Gen X and Millennials — but we as an industry have to tell our story in the right format and engage/engage/engage. If location is important in the physical world, engagement is central in the digital.
Through the screens of all sizes, we can now send to our target audience priceless content, such as our winery & wine story. “From Vine to Table” needs to be our tagline — today transparency is vital, and showing how, when and where the product is made will draw consumers closer in, and improve our customers’ loyalty.
Don’t get us wrong. Physical points of sale, whether that be at the winery or the store, will evolve and mitigate the offline-to-online gap. Both offline and online channels have a role to play in the future, but we need to leverage the power of digital to encourage exploration, education and ongoing engagement by budding wine lovers all over the world.
Yes, the bottle of wine needs to get from here to there, and logistics are key, but AliExpress, Amazon, and others have shown us that at scale anything is possible. Even getting a nice chilled rose delivered poolside by a drone, bringing it directly from the winery to you.
P.S. Check Purcari Chateau new initiative to deliver their wines with drones
