This doesn't mean selling wine successfully online is beyond any merchant’s reach. A recent report by Effective Measure shows that there is indeed an online market for alcoholic beverages, with 4% of internet shoppers saying they have purchased this. If your wine orders are not flooding in as frequently as you would like, have a look at these tips, written in collaboration with PayU, for boosting your wine sales.
Expand your inventory
You can sell more wine by stretching outside your business’s comfort zone. Look for new opportunities in the local wine market. For example, WINE.CO.ZA’s Top wine trends to look out for in 2017 points out that there has been a boom in local fine wines. Consider adding a "Sell us your wine" section to your website that will enable you to purchase wine collections from private individuals. You will then be able to deduct a commission from the sale of each vintage bottle.
Pick the right wholesaler
In order to maximise your wine sales revenue, you also need to be able to buy wholesale and sell retail. This means choosing trusted sources for buying products at a lower price. The best starting point is to do research about wine wholesalers currently available in South Africa. Once you've grown a contact list of wholesalers, it is important to develop relationships with your distributors so that you can continue to buy your supplies in bulk and sell to your customers at a profit.
Consider partnering with an alcohol delivery service
Customers like the idea of ordering alcohol online for delivery; however, no one wants to wait a long time for their order to arrive. A growing trend we're seeing is liquor stores teaming up with courier services in their areas to deliver alcohol to customers’ doorsteps within an hour. This is a great option if you don't mind paying a small percentage of the order, perceiving the reward of more customers and sales, making it beneficial to your eCommerce store.
Personalise your shopping experience
Customers have different tastes when it comes to wine so it only makes sense to offer them a tailored online experience. When customers come into contact with your business, make every effort to ensure that it has a personal touch. Ask them about upcoming birthdays of family and friends and suggest customised gift packages. If you sell food items on your website and a customer already has an item in their shopping cart, you can make recommendations of wines that would best complement the meal. Customisation makes shopping quicker and more convenient and has the potential to increase your wine profitability.
Add your wines to online marketplaces
Google Products is a platform that has the potential to increase the online visibility of your products and, by extension, your brand. Have your marketing team upload images of your wine inventory along with stockkeeping units to Google Merchant Center and update regularly according to availability. When uploaded, your wines will appear as feeds at the top of the Google results when a customer searches for particular types.
If you're a wine producer or retailer, having an online presence is a great way to grow a customer base for your products and improve your marketing efforts. However, having your own eCommerce store also gives you the obligation to create a safe shopping environment for your customers. Integrating a PCI compliant payment solution on your site gives your customers the confidence to proceed with a sale and you'll be able to enhance your conversion rate.