Why Wine is Such a Slow Adopter of E-Commerce
Written by Guest Author: Sophia Young
There is no slower adopter of digital marketing and e-commerce than the wine industry. Though wine is among the most ubiquitous of all alcoholic drinks, second only to beer, it lags in its e-commerce efforts as a sector. We’re not talking about the big companies here, but rather the small and medium-sized wineries and tasting rooms out there. There are many reasons why wineries fail at e-commerce, which is a sad reality for a market with almost inexhaustible demand in its target audience. Here’s why our industry and community are taking its sweet time with e-commerce and how it can do better with its marketing efforts.
Wine Brands Don’t Have Time
A primary issue for many wineries starts with their lack of time to perform proper marketing for their products. Small business owners usually operate at capacity, handling the constant, endless, daily details of running a wine operation with a small team. These small families and teams have very little time left to do anything else at the end of the day, much less with e-commerce.
Winery websites are both game-changers and pain points. They can be expensive to design and lengthy projects to finish, but if your e-commerce website is outdated or dysfunctional, a refresh will change your world. A small website with five pages is not always enough. Sometimes, you need to invest in e-commerce, not as a way to get a few sales now and then. Instead, you use it to reach out to more customers and shorten your sales cycles.
Rather than rely only on brick and mortar businesses selling your wine brand, sell it straight to your customers! An excellent way to start your journey is to start talking to professionals about building your e-commerce pages. You don’t even have to hire an in-house web developer to handle the task. If you have no time or are unwilling to perform the marketing yourself, you can hire a freelance digital marketer or web developer to start your e-commerce site.
2. They Can’t Stand Out From Other Wineries
Another reason wineries are slower to adopt and excel in e-commerce is their inability to stand out from competitors. Wine brands are pretty good at using marketing channels to teach people to appreciate wine, winemaking, and farming. However, what they lack is a way to convince and convert people to actually buy their wine. The follower versus customer ratio has become quite the dilemma in the digital age.
One common issue for wine brands is they find it hard to create separation. Why should the average customer care about your wine that’s more expensive by a few more dollars per bottle than a two-buck chuck? How is your Napa Cabernet Sauvignon any different than your competitor’s Napa Cabernet?
Everything boils down to proper marketing psychology when it comes to selling your wine online. Use bolder, more powerful colors with your labels so it can capture more eyes on social media. Push customers to buy more by leveraging how many have purchased your product already, also known as social proof.
If you already do heavy branding on your label, go for a more minimalist approach. If your website is too barebones, try to add more wine education or imagery into your content. People care about the nitty-gritty details, but we also gravitate towards well-rounded brands.
3. Their Wine Website Lacks Content
Going back to the website issue, a common problem with small wineries and why they take longer to develop their e-Commerce is the lack of content creation. Most wine brands talk about the DNA of their wineries - its history, the people in it, and everything in between. Even then, a lot of sites forget the content that matters the most: wine education.
There are three types of customers that visit wine e-commerce sites. These are:
Wine nerds who live, breathe, sleep, drink, and dream wine
Budding wine connoisseurs looking for a different wine
Wine newbies looking to learn more about wine
What links all three together is their need for additional education. This doesn’t mean you need to be scientific about your wines, though it’s not an issue if you have the knowledge base. There are several ways to improve your content and get your website going in the blog department. Many people don’t realize that blogs serve a purpose beyond just a creative outlet and storytelling. They massively support Search Engine Optimization. Meaning when you blog 600 words on the new release of your small-production Sonoma Russian River Valley Pinot Noir, your website will begin to appear when people search any of those descriptive phrases. And the more you blog and the more written content you add to your product pages, the farther up the Google ladder your winery’s website will live, and the more eyes and clicks on your brand.
When you’re writing website content, focus on information about the wine itself rather than the “magic” of it. Talk about the quality of the grapes, the terroir found on your property, the notes you’re evoking, the vintage facts, and the recipes you imagine pairing with your wine. Rather than focus on telling a cookie-cutter origin already on your label, write about your new wine releases, harvest updates, and the stories behind your labels.
4. They Don’t Know How To Use Marketing Touchpoints
In marketing, touchpoints are places where a customer can make contact with the product. Wineries tend to believe their most significant touchpoints are 3-tier markets and distributions, rather than online, directly to their consumers. The inability to understand and maximize these immediate touchpoints is a considerable struggle with wineries.
More than 50% of all purchases are done through mobile phones, while the other half comes from desktop computers. With that said, wineries shouldn’t rely on supermarket shelves or restaurants anymore. In the same vein, they should also stop using their website to sell wine every once in a while. Instead, wineries must consistently maximize touchpoints, meet customers halfway, and use their websites to accelerate revenue generation. Use social media to bring your brand to more people. Market your wine brand in places where your target audience would be, like Facebook, Google, Yelp, or Waze. You can also use smaller platforms to link back to your online wine shop. These include niche spaces like Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Medium.
Final Thoughts
The reason why wine brands tend to be slower adopters of e-Commerce comes from how most wineries structure their marketing efforts. If they have any strategy at all, the problem comes from how they view an online presence. Those who understand the power of their websites will do their best to develop their marketing channels. Even a cursory e-Commerce website can do well with nothing fancier than solid product descriptions, interesting and well-written blog content, and liberal use of social media. The problem stands that a website, when treated right, can maximize your target audience tenfold and help get the word out. Do you have any of the problems we listed above? If you do, consider the solutions we have for you. e-Commerce is a powerful tool that you should look into sooner rather than later. The future is now, so don’t waste the simply, low-hanging e-Commerce opportunities available to you.
