Wine eCommerce is experiencing robust year-over-year (YoY) growth and isn’t expected to slow down any time soon. The United States’ market is over $3 billion with an expected online wine industry growth rate of 15-16%.
Wine is also a great direct to consumer market to be in, similarly to selling coffee online. Millions of people buy wine for parties, graduations, engagements, and gifts, not to mention regular dining. Wine pairs well with dozens of foods and presents good cross selling opportunities, especially if you’re also learning how to sell food online.
If you love wine and are considering starting an eCommerce business around it, we’ve got all the strategies you need. Keep reading to learn the ins and outs of selling wine online.
Sell Wine Online
There is a lot of structural and legal work involved in opening a business, and wine is no exception to this. However, getting everything ready to sell wine online isn’t as hard as you may think.
As long as you’re a licensed dealer of alcohol and are following all state regulations, the rest is largely fun and engaging. Here is the process to follow for getting your eCommerce wine venture launched.
Decide What Wine You Want to Sell
Just as if you were starting a wholesale business, you would want to figure out which wholesale items to sell, an online wine sales business starts with deciding what wine to sell. This is an important question because there are over 200 types of wine, thousands of wine names and wine varietals, and hundreds of more brands that sell wine!
There are five basic types of wine:
Not only is each type of wine used in different meals and food and wine pairings, there are thousands of individual wine variations that constitute any flavor. Wine flavors are crafted with a multitude of fruits, including the following:
You don’t need to sell or avoid a particular type of wine to be successful. Many brands sell multiple varieties of wine because they know their customers use them for different purposes.
The main idea is to select some flavors and start building a business around them. If you’re passionate about dry reds or sparkling whites and feel confident about getting your name out there, this is all you need to start.
Decide on a Supplier
If you won’t be selling your own wine, you’ll need to source products from a supplier. Many restaurants and retailers get their wine from a wine négotiant, which is French for wine trader (see what is a wine négotiant).
Wholesale suppliers are another quality source of affordable wine for business owners. If you’ve always wondered, “Where do bars buy liquor?” It’s often from wholesalers. Knowing how to find wholesalers is a necessary skill for this stage of your business. You can browse wholesale directories and read up on how to buy wholesale goods. Learn everything else you need to know about this industry in our wholesale management guide.
Think About Your Branding
Wine is an industry with a lot of opportunity, but because there are so many wine sellers already, you need to stand out. It’s no longer enough to have a great product when customers can easily browse hundreds of wine brands at the grocery store. You can use America’s wine lists to jumpstart your branding if you’re feeling stuck.
Your case of wine should have one or more distinct characteristics. Flavor is important, but so is your eCommerce packaging. Some customers will select a wine because the bottle or packaging looks exciting to them.
Many wine drinkers tend to be higher income, interested in excellence, and focused on quality. Use these characteristics and those found in the best wine lists to guide the type of wine you want to sell. You can also use the following to clarify how you want to be seen by customers:
Your brand doesn’t need to be fully materialized before you launch your website, but it should be represented clearly. Using a consistent color scheme, hosting an easy-to-use website, and providing answers to FAQs are important factors to include.
Complete Necessary Paperwork
There are multiple documents the government requires for businesses to operate legally. At a minimum, this includes a business license, a retail and shipping license, business insurance, food handling certification (if applicable), and any zoning permits or licenses.
It may seem like there’s a mountain of forms to complete when starting a business, and that’s right. While it’s exciting to think about the money you’re going to make, focus first on meeting legal requirements. The profit you generate from your eCommerce wine business can be wiped out if you haven’t set your business up responsibly.
Write a Business Plan
A business plan is a comprehensive document that details and guides all of your core business activities. It prepares you for the multitude of business decisions you’ll need to make and uncovers any weak spots that need to be addressed.
An eCommerce business plan is even more important to an online venture than an offline one. You’ll need to establish a clear and compelling roadmap for all of your business activities.
Your business plan should include the following:
Put Together a Marketing Strategy
Your business won’t be successful for long without an eCommerce marketing strategy. Every business is unique, too, so you need to use an approach that’s different or better than your competition (ideally both).
The nice thing about marketing is it can be customized to suit your budget and timeline. If possible, you should employ a combination of both paid and free marketing methods. Examples of paid marketing include social media advertising, eCommerce PPC, retargeting, and eCommerce email marketing. Examples of free marketing include eCommerce SEO, referrals, and eCommerce content marketing.
Starting a new business often means you don’t have access to unlimited capital. You can work this in your favor if you know how to. A wise marketing practice is to set a monthly budget for the funding you do have. This will prevent you from going overboard on spend and also simplify analytics and reporting at the end of every month.
Create Your eCommerce Platform
Setting up an attractive and user-friendly eCommerce platform is a must for any business owner. Your website is responsible for almost everything in your business: receiving traffic, generating leads, order processing, offering content, displaying products, and accepting payments through an eCommerce payment gateway.
BlueCart’s eCommerce platform is a simple, SEO-friendly option for food and drink sellers. Customize your site with just a few clicks and use our built-in eCommerce marketing automation tools to generate sales. Schedule a demo today to see the convenience of our platform for yourself.
Start Building a Network
Building momentum with your business relies on having people know about it. In order for people to know about your products, they often need to see them in a context they’re familiar with.
Common contexts for buyers include their existing shopping outlets, their circle of friends, and people who influence them. By creating business relationships that can reach each of these areas, you’ll be in a position to create real traction for your business.
There are at least three types of networks you should build:
Over time, the networks you’ve built become passive sales engines for your business. People who love a product inherently tend to share it with others, which creates a ripple effect to new people. A lead today could be a customer in a couple weeks. All of this is possible by providing intuitive ways for people to interact with your products.
Focus on Sales
Once the foundation of your business is in place, it’s time to increase eCommerce sales! A strong sales plan relies on these principles:
The first of these four principles is the most important. If you take the time to understand what customers want most, your products will stand out to them. Customers also appreciate not being directly sold to. It’s important to think about what makes your product a natural pick and align your branding with these features.
As you work all of these principles into your sales approach, pay attention to what works well. You can shift more of your energy and time into what’s producing results and less into what is attracting tire-kickers.
What Do I Need to Sell Wine Online?
Becoming familiar with how to sell wine legally means learning about the licenses to acquire and paperwork to complete. Prepare some funding and personal time to complete all of the forms for your business.
Here are the forms and licenses required to start an online wine business:
If you have your own winery, consider selling your products wholesale. The wholesale industry requires familiarity with a number of processes as well. Gather the starting knowledge and strategies you need in our wholesale management guide.
Sell Vintage Wine Online
Vintage wine is a popular niche of the already booming wine industry. The definition of vintage wine is any wine of which grapes were grown, harvested, and fermented in a single year. Some vintage wines have grapes from different harvests, but most are from a single harvest.
Vintage wine generates hundreds of millions of dollars annually in the US with strong growth predicted. Because wine is generally considered better the older it is, this keeps the vintage wine market strong at all times.
Here are our recommended strategies for selling vintage wine online:
Best Place to Sell Wine Online
If you want to expand your wine sales across the largest possible area, it’s worth learning more about where to sell it. Thanks to the ever-growing market for online food and drink sales, there are numerous options available to you.
Here are some channels through which to sell wine online:
Email our team now to learn how you can sell your wine (and other products) to over 92,000 buyers on our platform.
No Wine Left Behind
Creating an online wine business is one of the most flexible and predictable eCommerce business models you can have. The industry’s strong demand generates plenty of opportunity while making it exciting to sell new products. Consider expanding your product range with additional goods over time, like selling cookies online or selling baked goods online.
Focus on your target market and the types of wine they want. This will help you remain competitive in a crowded market and spot new opportunities before they’re public.
