Complete Guide_ How to Sell Wine Online
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Complete Guide: How to Sell Wine Online
“Either give me more wine or leave me alone - Rumi, circa 1200’s.”
This quote says it all. Who doesn’t love wine?
For more than a decade, the online wine industry has been thriving, with Europe
leading in consumption and manufacturing. In fact, research done by WorldAtlas
shows the top ten positions taken by European countries in the consumption and
manufacturing of Wine. According to research done by Statista, consumption of
wine increased approximately to 310.72 million, i.e., 9 liters cases in the United
States.
Hence, it increased the manufacturing and growth of wineries. Research from
Statista shows that premium wineries grew by 7.2 percent from 2002 to 2019.
Thanks to technology, today, wine shopping has become more accessible, like
literally at your doorstep with platforms such as Ubereats, Postmates, Instacarts,
and more! This paved the way for many to start selling wine online and reach out
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to more customers. If you are also wondering how to sell wine online, keep
reading, as this blog will include everything you need to know.
Here’s a glimpse of things we will cover in this post:
● Four Ways to Sell Wine
● Things to Consider While Starting Online Wine Business
● Common Forms Needed for Selling Wine Online
● Steps to Start Online Wine Business
● Custom Designs: Your USP
● Examples of Personalized Wine Websites
● Things to Consider While Taking Online Wine Business Global
● Marketing
Four Ways to Sell Wine:
Selling wine comes with restrictions and procedures to follow. There are major
four ways you can start selling wine:
Via Wine Companies:
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This is one of the oldest and simplest ways to sell wine. You can reach out to
wineries in your area and sign a deal with them, and they will help you further sell
wines.
One of the major reasons for doing this is that people prefer reaching out to old
and reputed wineries that know wines and sell them at a reasonable cost. In many
states/cities, it is important for wine manufacturers to sell it via companies and
not directly.
Direct to Consumer:
Selling wine online is a brand new way to connect with customers directly and
sell. You can start your own eCommerce business of selling wine online and
connect with customers directly. Having your eCommerce website will help you
increase branding, reach more customers, and serve better. Additionally, it even
raises the return on investment.
Sell to Hotels/Restaurants:
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Many hotels and restaurants serve their customers wines. Reaching out to those
hotels and restaurants and making a deal with them can help you a lot in the long
term.
Start with providing a few packs for free and take feedback from customers. This
will help you back up and provide correct reasons on why they should sell your
wine.
In Auction:
If you are a manufacturer who has been selling wines for years, then selling them
at an auction can help you a lot. You can auction your best and oldest wine in an
auction. It helps you sell wine at a better price and also connect with your
customers.
Get exclusive insights into selling wine online. You can reach out to our experts
who can help you at every stage.
Request Technical Consultation
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Things to Consider While Starting Online Wine
Business:
When starting any business, one needs to take care of multiple things. And with
wine, you need to be a little extra careful. Here are some things to consider while
selling wine online.
Target Audience:
This is the first step while starting an online wine business. You can either target
B2B or B2C audiences. Depending on your business model, you can decide
which one to plan to go ahead with.
If you plan to go B2B, you can start reaching out to hotels or restaurants, winery
shops, or some companies. But, if you plan to go B2C, you can set up
connections directly with customers via website, auction, wine enthusiasts,
blue-chip investors, and more.
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You can either go with both of them or choose any one first. In my opinion, you
can start selling to your customers online directly via websites and then slowly
make a shift in B2B business. Till then you will gain the needed experience too. I
can understand getting into the B2B market can help you increase your ROI due
to bulk orders. But, starting small is the first step.
Plan Budget:
Planning a budget while selling wine online is the first and the most crucial step.
You need to define which part of your business needs more attention and
investment. This will help you manage your funds, decrease unnecessary
expenses, and grow your business efficiently.
Another reason to plan your budget is to give your investors proper guidelines
and insights into your business. This will even help in attracting more investors
and strategically planning investments for next quarter/year. All these things will
help your business in the long run and provide more clarity.
States/Countries Permits to Sell Wine Online:
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Every state or country has its own rules and regulations to be followed while
starting an online wine business. Being a business owner, it is important to learn
these rules and regulations.
Let’s see some of the states in the US and their rules to sell wine:
Each of these states has its own rules and regulations when it comes to
selling wine. As you can see, in some states, it is prohibited to sell wine
directly to customers whereas, some states allow DtC sales.
As a wine business owner, your first step is to understand these rules, get
the needed licenses and then start selling them.
Another question is whether to ship them internationally. Each country has
its rules and regulations to be followed. So, when you are planning to go
global, make sure to follow the rules.
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You can also reach out to our technical team to know more about how to start a
wine business.
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Request Technical Consultation
Common Forms Needed for Selling Wine Online:
As we discussed above, each of the states has its own rules and regulations to
be followed. This means having multiple licenses if planning to move ahead with
your online wine business. One of the standard permits is getting a winery,
brewery, or distillery license from your state.
Below are some of the standard licenses which you need to start your online wine
business:
Alcohol Dealer:
This is the first step license needed to start selling wine online. Without getting
this license, you cannot move ahead with your dream wine business. Reach out
to your state government bodies and apply for this license.
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Winery License:
Having a winery license is important to start manufacturing, retail, and wholesale
wine. You can apply for this license only after having federal laws and
regulations. Having these licenses will help you to start your business,
manufacture, and sell it.
State’s Retailers License:
You will need this license to sell your products. Without this, you won’t be able to
sell your products and start your own business. Hence, make sure to use them.
Shipper's License:
A shipper’s license helps your business to ship your wine and reach out to more
customers. It is important to have this license as you plan to start an online wine
business as this will help you deliver wine at your customers’ doorsteps.
Direct Shipping Agreement:
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Some places allow this license, whereas some don't. So make sure which state
will allow DtC license, get them, and sell your wine directly to your customers.
This will help your business to do business following the legal procedures.
Remember to study each state or country’s rules and regulations where you plan
to sell your wine. The better the clarity, the better it will be to carry out business
operations for selling wine online.
Steps to Start Online Wine Business:
Once you have got all the necessary licenses, next comes taking your business
online. Let’s see some of the things you need to start selling wine online:
Creating a Website:
While starting an online wine business, one of the major things you need to have
is to create an eStore. Having your own website will help you to increase your
brand awareness and reach more people. Another major reason behind having
your eStore is to get the needed information of your customer and give them a
personalized experience.
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Select Development Platform:
There are multiple platforms available to develop your website for selling
wine online. Each of these platforms comes with its advantages and
disadvantages. To decide which platform is better for your eStore, you can
reach out to IT companies, helping you find the best development platform.
Platforms like Shopify, wooCommerce, Magento, Php, etc., helps companies
to set up eStores. Each of them has its pros and cons and minor changes in
them. Things like Magento are self-hosted, whereas Shopify is hosted.
Another thing is Magento is a bit costly compared to Shopify solutions.
These minor changes play a vital role in making a decision.
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The table below shows a comparison between Shopify, wooCommerce, and
Magento.
Platforms
Shopify
WooCommer
ce
Magento
Cost Paid Free Free
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Products Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited
Hosting Included Not Included Not Included
First Year Cost $348 $200 $250
Coupons & Discounts Minimum None All
Payment
Gateway
70+ In-built
Needs
Limited Plan and Plugin
Options
Options
Plugins
Options
Theme & Design
Variety
Moderate Plentiful Plentiful
Customizations Moderate Plentiful Plentiful
Out of all these platforms, Shopify and Magento are leading when it comes to
creating eStores. Magento is widely known for its security, SEO friendly platform,
and easy to integrate third-party tools. Shopify is known for its multiple themes,
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unique and simple UI/UX, and easy setup process. Depending on your business
requirements, you can select the platform which you want.
Important Features for eStore:
When building a website, you need to have features that make your users' life
easier. Here are some of the essential features you need to have in your store.
Good UI/UX:
Your eStore is the first touchpoint for your customers. It is important to have
an appealing UI/UX and easy navigation system. Having these two things on
the top will help you retain customers, have them stay on the website for a
longer time, and attract more traffic.
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Payment Mode:
Supporting various online payment modes is essential. Today most customers
prefer having cashless transactions with companies. This is when you need your
website to support it. Ensure that you provide all leading payment gateways to
your customers like Stripe, PayPal, debit, credit, and more.
Multi-language support:
If you plan to be global with your business, this feature will help you a lot. Not
every country’s first language is English. Hence you need to provide your eStore
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in multiple languages. This will help you get more customers globally, stand out
from the crowd, and increase your ROI.
Connect with our experts and know how to make your website easier to use and
include these features and more in it.
Request Technical Consultation
Custom Designs: Your USP
There are businesses for years in this industry that sell various things day and
night, and selling wine online is no different. In this competitive market, it is often
difficult to stand out from the crowd.
This is when personalization comes to your help. You can provide personalized
wine bottles to your customers. Because, well, that is personal to people and
adds more value.
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So if you are wondering how to sell wine online using personalization? What
tools would you need? And all…
Hold your horses, and let me walk you through all the aspects of personalization.
Product personalization helps businesses increase their branding, marketing,
better customer service, raise sales, increase ROI, and many more. It lets
companies create emotional connections with customers and sell products.
We all know the amount of competition increased in the market, so standing out
of the crowd has become necessary. This is when you can create personalization
as a USP of your business. Today customers prefer personalized products.
Because it allows them to connect with those products emotionally.
Of course, there are plenty of tools available in the market that help you create
custom products. And I’m sure this may lead you more confused.
To solve this problem, I would recommend using the Product Designer Tool from
Brush your Ideas for your online wine business.
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Thinking why and how is it different from other products?
With this tool’s help, your customers can create their designs and place an order
right from there. This decreases unnecessary back and forth of communication,
last-minute design changes, and more. The freedom to create designs on their
own helps customers come back to you time and again.
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For example, you are selling wine bottles to hotels and restaurants, and one of
your clients wants custom labeling of labels and packaging. Most of the time,
these orders are bulk, and they require two different designs for a certain batch of
bottles.
This is when product designer tools come to their rescue. They can simply visit
the tool and create various designs according to their need for labels as well as
the packaging on their own. They can preview the designs and make further
changes if needed. Once the designs are finalized, they can place an order right
from your website.
This entire process becomes very easy for you as well as customers. Decreasing
all unnecessary back and forth and getting products according to their needs.
Apart from this, it even helps your business serve better, stand ahead of the
competition, and focus more on selling wine online.
Some major benefits of Product Designer Tool:
●
●
Supports multi-language websites
Integrates easily with websites built on Magento, Php, Shopify, and API
integration
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● Feature-rich library with font styles, clip arts, images, object handling, and
more
● Can easily customize thousands of products
● Preview products in 2D as well as 3D format
Request a personalized demo of our product designer tool, integrate it with your
website, and make your upscale customers’ service experience.
Request Personalized Demo
Examples of Personalized Wine Websites
Let’s look at some of the popular online wine sellers and know what made them
industry leaders:
Fresh Direct:
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Apart from serving grocery Fresh Direct leads in serving wine and liquor.
They provide their services till the East Coast. If you want products delivered
early in the morning, you need to order them the previous day by 6:00 PM
and for late-night, order them by 11:00 PM. Their shipping charges are $5.99,
and the minimum order should be less than $30.
Drizly:
Drizly stands out of the competition because of their fast delivery, i.e., within
an hour. Most of their collection includes red wine and comes at affordable
prices, i.e., less than $20 and shipping charges to $5.
Macy’s Cellar:
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When talking about the wine business then Marcy’s Cellar is preferred by
everyone. They provide exclusive offers, i.e., providing wines in cases from 6
to 12 bottles. If you are a regular member, they offer yearly shipping charges
and get your wine bottles delivered to 5 different addresses.
Bright Cellars:
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Started by two MIT graduates, specially curating each of their wine
collections and sending four bottles for $80. They pick them from different
parts of the world like Italy, Spain, Portugal, South America, and more.
First Leaf:
When you sign up on their website, you will get six bottles of wine for up to
$40. Later they charge $90. If you plan to buy some other bottles out of this
box, then you can, too. They have a custom algorithm that helps you select
which wine you will prefer out of their award-winning stock.
Winc:
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This California based company has wine coming from different vineyards
across the world as well as their own. They sell a bottle for up to $13. Apart
from this, you can even cut your monthly shipment if needed.
Things to Consider While Taking Online Wine
Business Global:
When we plan to take any business online, several moving parts need to be taken
care of. It's the same with selling wine online to your global customers. Not only
do you need more funds but also an understanding of international licenses.
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Let’s see some of the major things you need to know when going global with your
online wine business.
Shipping Tasks:
This is the first thing you need to consider if planning to expand your business.
How are you going to ship your products?
For this, you need to tie up with various shipping companies at the local level as
well as in the global market. Do your research and reach out to reliable
international shipping companies. They will help you to deliver your products
timely and in a careful way. Not to mention Wine bottles are glass; therefore, they
need to be handled with care. Thus make sure to reach out to experienced
delivery shipping companies.
Packaging:
Packaging products effectively is very important. You need to make sure that you
are using proper packaging for your wine products. The packaging which you use
needs to handle glass bottles and make sure that bottles do not break. Apart from
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this, you also need to make sure that proper extra packaging is done for
international shipping. Lastly, make sure that these packages do not break while
going through customs and other logistics.
Finish Custom Documentation:
Every country has its customs and legal procedures to be followed. Hence,
reading and understanding the regulations of different countries become
essential. You need to make sure that you follow these customs and complete all
documentation procedures.
Thus, make sure to follow all these laws and regulations while planning to take
your online wine business global.
Marketing:
Marketing plays a pivotal role in making any business successful. While you
start selling wine online, you need to think about the ways you market your
product. Some of the most common ways to market your eCommerce
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business are SEO/PPC, influencer marketing, social media marketing, selling
products via third-party platforms.
SEO/ PPC practices will help you to rank your website on Google search
results. This will help you to get more traffic on your website and, in turn,
more sales. Digital marketing your products help you stay ahead of the
competition and make sure your business reaches the masses.
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Today every other application you see is working to make their social media
account stronger. And as long as social media exists, influencer marketing is
going to stay. It is a new way in which the companies are bringing their products
to the limelight. Try to reach out to influencers in your country and make your
product outshine.
Social media is where the buzz is, and that is an ideal platform to market your
products. Companies have started investing more in social media marketing and
outcome, as shown it's worth it. You can create a business account and market
your products to targeted audiences. In turn, you can even know insightful details
in your followers like their age, gender, the country they belong to, etc. All this
data will help you to strategize your marketing plan and sell more. To make your
wine business outshine, you can start with having a presence on Google using
digital marketing. The next step will be to have a social media presence, as you
will get a larger audience from there. Initially, start with these two steps and see
your business expanding.
Conclusion:
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Selling wine online has its difficulties from needing large amounts of investments
and learning different legal norms. It includes everything. If you are thinking, how
to sell wine online, try to follow these steps and set up your online business.
Setting up an online store has lots of advantages and helps you to reach the
global market. Tap the potential of the wine market with your eStore and
personalization.
Start with our product designer and see the magic unfolding. Having been
serving in the industry for decades, BrushYourIdeas has set up successful
eStores and helped with customizations. This is one of the major reasons why
industry leaders depend on us to power up their eStore.
Request Personalized Demo
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trademarks of their respective holders. Use of them does not imply any affiliation
with or endorsement by them.
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