Wine Ecommerce Is Growing Rapidly
Thanks to apps like Uber Eats, Postmates, and Instacart, todays consumers can have nearly any food or drink delivered directly to their door.
But what consistently remains missing from the list of these available products is alcohol.
Now, considering the regulations they have to contend with, its understandable for the average wine retailer to be slower to adopt D2C sales.
However, this isnt to say that only a handful of wine sellers are embracing ecommerce. In fact, its quite the opposite.
Last year, the volume of DtC wine shipments totaled 5.78 million, representing a 15.3% YoY increase. And the value of these shipments came in at an all-time high of $2.69 billion in 2017.
Clearly, there are plenty of brands who recognize the potential of wine ecommerce and have begun taking advantage of this selling channel.
One of the major benefits of selling online is the ability to reach a much broader audience.
Not only that, wine ecommerce can also help companies increase the loyalty of their existing customers.
Traditional advertising for example, TV commercials, print ads, and on-site events substantially limit the number of wine drinkers you can market to. For the most part, the only people you can reach are local consumers.
But digital marketing allows wine sellers to connect with potential customers all over the world.
Just as personalized marketing can bring in new customers, it can also encourage past customers to buy from you again.
Selling Wines On Shopify
I am setting up a online store for italian products in the UK. I am finding myself in a grey area concerning winesI have read that on shipify alcohol related payments cant be processed. Sadly I cant gather more informations on the webanyone who can help?
thanks
Hi ,
Hyde here from Shopify. Great question!
You can sell anything on Shopify so long as it complies with our Acceptable Use Policy and so long as it is not listed as a restricted item.
However, you will also need to pick a payment gateway to process your orders and if you intend on using Shopify Payments then that comes with its own separate Terms of Service. In those terms of service is a list of prohibited businesses and, looking at the list, alcohol does not appear to be on it!
We also have a video guide for selling alcohol on Shopify Compass here that may help!
Let me know if you have any other questions.
All the best, Hyde.
Hi ,
Hyde here from Shopify. Great question!
You can sell anything on Shopify so long as it complies with our Acceptable Use Policy and so long as it is not listed as a restricted item.
However, you will also need to pick a payment gateway to process your orders and if you intend on using Shopify Payments then that comes with its own separate Terms of Service. In those terms of service is a list of prohibited businesses and, looking at the list, alcohol does not appear to be on it!
We also have a video guide for selling alcohol on Shopify Compass here that may help!
How To Sell Wine Online On Your Own Ecommerce Store
Ecommerce is an avenue with exponential growth potential, given the facility it creates for both business as well as consumers. The online wine market also has massive potential, given that its a huge market thats still relatively untapped. The objective of this market is to enable wine sellers whether or not they already have a physical wine store to interact with buyers who wish to purchase wine, and also to enable fine and rare wines to be traded and sold.
There are plenty of steps that go into creating a successful wine ecommerce business. For better comprehension, this seemingly daunting task has been broken down into three parts:
Lets explore each in greater detail.
1. Research and preparation
Before you go ahead and start putting your online store together, heres a checklist of some of the steps you should take.
- Conduct detailed market research
If you are a wine enthusiast whos just entering this business, you need to carry out thorough market research and draw up a list of popular wines in the market. This will involve studying the big and small market players for a better understanding of the wine market. Conduct a thorough competitor analysis of existing online platforms to get an idea of the processes followed by them and to zero in on elements that will help you differentiate your online wine store.
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Take Advantage Of Online Tools
According to Silicon Valley Bank report,
Few wineries have an online presence that engages the customer. Sites lack sophisticated, responsive, fully integrated designs and experiences that allow new and returning customers frictionless e-commerce.
Integrating online tools and plugins will not only jazz up your online store but also strengthen your direct-to-consumer sales channel.
Creating a virtual winetasting room to increase traffic to your website is proven useful for an online wine store. Company representatives at Winc reported the online wine club led to a 798% increase in new member sign-ups between March 15 and April 4, 2020, as compared to the previous three-week period.
Another idea would be to provide a wine rating platform to collect drinker reviews, give wine appraisals, or consult the clients on your wine selection via chat. Overall, use your imagination and establish a strong online presence to woo your client.
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Do You Want Your Personalized Recommendation
Your website, logo, and products are ready to go, with your licence taking pride of place at the center of your online store. But how can your customers go from to sipping? The answer: shipping!
In the US, you can ship all types of alcohol via UPS and FedEx. To begin your shipping journey with either of these two shipping carriers, you must complete the following steps:
What about USPS? Well, due to an old law from 1909, the USPS isnt legally allowed to deliver alcohol!
Top Tip!
If you choose to build your ecommerce store with Shopify, Wix, or Square Online, youll find plenty of shipping solutions to get your products on their way. Alongside the normal providers mentioned above, you can also offer curbside and in-store pickup. In fact, Square has recently partnered with DoorDash, allowing customers to place their order and have it delivered via a DoorDash delivery driver in minutes.
Top tip
Offer free shipping to help turn website visitors into regular customers as many as 79% of US consumers said that free shipping would make them more likely to shop online.
Top tip
Top Collection Of Best Wine Shopify Themes
Wine is one of the oldest industries that are present in every household. People of all ages seek to enjoy a glass of wine while they are relaxing. Nowadays, many e-commerce wine stores have appeared thanks to the rapid development of internet technologies. These wine stores have changed the way of wine shopping. Consumers can buy any wine from the comfort of their houses. All purchases are made online. It makes wine one of the most popular products on the web. Moreover, this industry generates good income for all the investors and business people. This motivates them to create an effective e-commerce website. Our experts recommend using Shopify wine store themes. Working with Shopify is a smart move because it is one of the best CMS for creating e-commerce websites. The users can download a ready-to-go wine Shopify theme on our platform. This is the best place for searching for top-quality themes, plugins, graphics, and other premium web content.
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How To Incentivize Customers To Buy Wine Online
Engaging in wine ecommerce can offer a lot of benefits for sellers. But in order to reap those benefits, you need to convince customers to buy from you.
Here are a few ideas:
- Allow customers to return online orders to your brick-and-mortar wine store.
- Provide free or flat-rate shipping whichever makes the most sense for your wine business.
- Send loyal customers exclusive coupons and invites for early access to special online sales.
- Email customers personalized recommendations for related products based on their past purchases.
- Connect with customers on your social media accounts and ask for their feedback about products, sales, and your brand in general.
- Encourage customers to place an online order for wine theyd previously bought at the store or tried in your tasting room by offering them a discount.
- Create educational content about wine for example, a how-to guide that helps novice wine drinkers choose between red wine and white wine or a blog a wine enthusiast can use to find similar wines they might like.
A quick note: the two things that tie all of these strategies together are data and research.
Collecting data about your audience and researching their specific wants and needs will help you make confident decisions about how to best attract and retain customers.
How To Sell Alcohol Online
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So, you want to start selling alcohol online? Thats the spirit! Its a wise business move after all, with US online alcohol sales reaching $2.6bn in 2019, and the US consuming more wine than any other country in the world since 2014.
However, you should know that starting an alcohol ecommerce business or as we like to call it, an al-commerce business involves some important legal steps that you cant afford to skip.
But dont panic. As always, weve got you covered. Heres a quick preview of whats to come
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Bringing Your Liquor Or Wine Store Into The World Of Digital
Taking your liquor or wine store online is not something that is going to be a done on Monday or Tuesday when its quiet, type job. Compared to a typical eCommerce store that has anywhere from 10 to a few hundred products and still takes weeks to months to complete, most liquor and wine stores have, at minimum, 500 SKUs but can get into the thousands quickly with the plethora of alcoholic beverage choices available.With this in mind, here are the key steps youll need to complete to get your store online.
- Choose a design or theme in the case of Shopify or other eCommerce tools.
- Build the online store yourself, or pay a web developer to integrate or build your theme or design.
- Set up and connect your products to their categories, as well as meta information that enables users the ability to search and filter your inventory.
- Set up your local delivery and/or shipping zones.
- Find and apply for an alcohol friendly payment provider and set up within your site.
- Set up a sync from your point of sale for up to date pricing and availability, or alternatively be prepared to do this manually.
- Thoroughly test your new sites usability on desktop and mobile.
- Add Google analytics and other marketing tools to the site.
- Launch it to your customers. And then monitor closely to ensure everything was done correctly/nothing is prohibiting people from ordering.
Create An Online Store
When it comes to setting up an online store, you have two options:
While custom builds provide more flexibility, they are much more expensive and time-consuming than using an eCommerce platform. Furthermore, many eCommerce platforms allow you to customize your online store to the point that its improbable that you wont be able to accomplish the results you desire.
Shopify and 3dcart are two of the most popular eCommerce platforms on the market these days, each with many valuable features. Shopify stands apart with advantages like boundless scalability, a vast theme library, and excellent customer service. Meanwhile, 3dcart offers a robust inventory management system and a variety of SEO-friendly features.
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Types Of Shopify Digital Products
Shopify is undoubtedly one of the best eCommerce platforms out there, given the simplicity of its use and value for money. With it, even if you are a beginner, you can easily set up your online store or eCommerce website, grow your business, and start selling a wide range of products worldwide.
The best thing about Shopify is that it works for any business and industry you are in, allowing you to sell many types of products from physical to digital goods, and other services, including the following:
How To Get A Licence To Sell Wine Online
Although every state in India has its own set of requirements, here is a quick summary of the general steps you need to take to get a wine shop licence.
A wine shop licence is issued for one year, after which it must be renewed via a renewal application. Also, it should be noted that the steps mentioned above apply regardless of whether you wish to sell wine online or offline.
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What Are The Benefits Of Selling Wine Online
There are many advantages of selling wine online, such as:
- Its open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
- It has advanced personalization both of your site and your online store
- It has a professional image
- Theres a greater availability of handicraft products that are difficult to find elsewhere
- You can process direct sales to your customers
Is It Legal To Sell Wine Online
Yes, as long as you abide by the laws in the state from which youre shipping as well as the state to which youre shipping.
Every state has its own laws about selling wine online, including which certifications and licenses it requires as well as the maximum volume that can be shipped.
Note: just because you can sell locally does not mean you can sell online.
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Verify Proof Of Revenue
The easiest way to provide proof of revenue is to record your screen with Quicktime and upload the vid to youtube. Be sure to include the URL of the page when youre recording. Flick through month by month from your dashboard.
- Upload video to Flippa
- Schedule a start time or leave blank
- Click Save and previeworLaunch Listing
How To Sell Alcohol Online In 7 Steps:
Congratulations! Youre now ready to build your al-commerce empire. That deserves a toast. Anyway, we know that learning how to sell alcohol online can cause headaches if you dont know where to begin but with our seven steps, weve got just the tonic. Cheers!
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