Retailing Wine Online

In the serendipitous way the Internet sometimes works, here's a great post from the REthink wine blog on retailing wine online, a followup of sorts to my post yesterday on the challenges facing anyone trying to sell wine online.

Their basic point: wineries don't do such a good job with online retailing (in the sense of enticing a visitor to buy), and they're in danger of losing profitable direct sales to wine retailers with a strong online presence and an understanding of how to retail a product.  The result?

...potentially 10% of the ENTIRE wine business and as much as 50% of the super premium wine business will go to online versions of today’s bricks and mortar leading retailers

Of course, REthink hopes to sell wineries a solution that helps them to retail their wines, but it doesn't mean that they're wrong about the need to entice people to buy.  The trick is to create a software-based system that works as well as someone in your tasting room when it comes to offering a visitor the last little nudge that results in a sale.