This afternoon's announcement (see Wine Business story) by Amazon that it is killing its wine program came as a bit of a surprise given the hard work put into the initiative over the past several years. But, as anyone operating a wine retailing business knows, the regulatory landscape is an absolute minefield that in this case has felled the leader in ecommerce. Frankly, I personally welcomed Amazon's planned entry into the business as it would have ultimately led to more wine drinkers, many of which would develop into future purchasers of the fine wine Vinfolio sells. Moreover, it would have brought a deep-pocketed player to the table with strong motivations to lobby for rewriting the out-dated wine shipping laws that make operating a wine retailing business in the U.S. like dealing with 50 foreign countries at once.
Wineries have an alternative: Vinfolio's Marketplace
The Vinfolio Marketplace has quickly become the world's largest online fine wine marketplace. There are about 44,000 unique wines currently listed for sale out of over 270,000 wines owned by users of Vinfolio's VinCellar free online cellar management application, and by the users of our partner for the Marketplace, CellarTracker. While the initial focus of the Marketplace was aggregating supply owned by individual wine collectors, it is equally applicable to the trade.
Wineries may be interesting in reading a prior post of mine called Vinfolio Marketplace "Highly recommended for Wineries and Importers from June. VinTank, the digital think tank of the wine industry, profiles why the Marketplace matters to wineries. The key benefits are:
- Complete anonymity - This is different from Amazon but it provides more flexibility for a winery to sell items at other than list price if it so desires.
- Increased revenues - The winery controls the price of sale at all times and may vary it up or down from transaction to transaction.
- Flexible inventory management - Sell allocated or library wines at secondary market premiums and/or reduce oversupply at discounts.
- Access to new customers - U.S. and international buyers, especially in Asia, through our Hong Kong operation.
- Cost effective - Fees of 15% of sales or $6/bottle minimum (whichever is greater).
It's 100% legal
This question is often raised, and is likely to come up again given Amazon's regulatory difficulties. See our Marketplace FAQ - 3rd question under General: "Is the Marketplace legal?
Intrigued? Email us
If you're in the trade, email trade@vinfolio.com and we'll forward a complete information package for your evaluation
