Smart business owners constantly look for new ways to improve, to thrive, to innovate. And while many small businesses know how to make in-store sales like a pro, it’s important to keep up with the latest trends. For many industries — including the wine industry — that means setting up shop online.
Here are five reasons that selling your wine online is the ultimate move in bettering your business.
Increase Your Wine Sales
E-commerce is growing fast — more than 80 percent of American consumers currently shop online, and that number is expected to increase significantly in the next few years. The wine industry is also experiencing major growth, with total wine sales up 16.8 percent from 2020 to 2021. Take advantage of these numbers and get your product in front of your customers’ faces (and screens) within seconds.
Keep in mind that 63 percent of consumers’ shopping journeys start online, whether they complete their purchase on a webstore or in-person — so if your inventory is readily available, you’re much more likely to make a sale. If a customer performs a quick Google search for the best champagne for mimosas, your store could pop up as a top result (especially if your site has a promotional integration like Pointy).
Convenience is key, so anything and everything you can do to make your buyers’ shopping journey easier is sure to benefit your business.
Expand Your Audience Reach
Building an online shop for your business also allows you to reach a larger audience than if you relied solely on your brick-and-mortar location. You can sell beyond city limits, at any time.
You might stock a chardonnay that stores in other areas don’t carry — you have the potential to become the go-to (online) spot for more buyers than you could only serve in-person. Or maybe a customer finishes up their bottle of merlot after hours — they can “add to cart” right then and there. And if you’ve executed a solid marketing strategy and established a relationship with them already, your business will come to mind first, and their word-of-mouth recommendations can reach potential customers all over the country.
Understand Important Analytics
With a webstore, it’s easy to track inventory and customer data — everything from what products are selling the most to what time your buyers are shopping.
Which wines sell by the case? Make sure to keep those stock levels up. Are customers buying more on Thursday nights or Sunday afternoons? Run targeted ads more prominently during those times. You can also use this knowledge to run appropriate promotions and make relevant product recommendations.
Knowing your customers’ shopping behavior helps you make informed decisions about everything from inventory to marketing — using an e-commerce platform provides these insights in real time, so you can leverage this information to enhance all areas of your business.
Enhance Your Marketing Efforts
Meeting and engaging your customers online is an excellent way to gather their contact information, meaning you can step up your marketing game in a major way. Prompt users to subscribe to email newsletters, or gather email addresses and phone numbers at checkout — use this information to create marketing campaigns tailored to your customers and to set up a customer loyalty program or wine club (you’ll increase customer retention, boosting profits).
Study individual customers’ sales history to personalize promotions — send your white wine-lovers a 10 percent discount off of a bottle of moscato, or use mix and match pricing to bundle three bottles of red.
Remember: pique your customers’ interest to attract them to — then keep them on — your website. Try different content marketing efforts, like a wine personality quiz (“which wine are you?”) to push otherwise slow-moving products.
Keep your customers happy, and they’ll come back for more.
Save Time and Money
Setting up shop online is convenient for customers, but it’s convenient for business owners, too. Automating operations through an e-commerce platform majorly cuts down on costs — you can scale your business greatly, without hiring additional staff or turning your small store into an entire franchise.
You can also set up automatic reorders based on inventory levels. A wine-specific point of sale (POS) system like Bottle POS, which has an integrated e-commerce website, is perfect for helping you manage this aspect of your business — it automatically creates an online store with everything from product description to category to image.
How Selling Wine Online Can Improve Your Business
Maintaining a physical location for your store is important — it’s great for building relationships with your customers through face-to-face interactions. And sometimes, your buyer might need to pick up a last-minute bottle of champagne. But expanding your business to sell wine online through an e-commerce platform is one of the best — and easiest — ways to better your business.
With BottleZoo by Bottle POS, you can get your webstore up and running with a seamless integration into your point of sale system. Schedule a demo with us today.
